A cognitive-behavioral intervention delivered in dog phobia: a single-subject experiment

Abstract

This paper presents a case study carried out as part of a therapeutic intervention for specific phobia. From the multitude of possible phobic stimuli, the article presents the phobia of dogs, because there are many people who are afraid of these animals, especially of possible encounters with stray dogs, in everyday life. There have also been cases of serious incidents, which actually strengthened the fear of these people, that they could be injured as a result of such unintentional contacts. On the other hand, there is also the category of animal lovers, for whom the possibility that a dog could hurt a human cannot even arise, a dog would only approach a person looking for food and comfort. The objective of this article was to present a practical way of therapeutic intervention of cognitive-behavioral origin, in dog phobia. From a methodological point of view, the use of the single-subject experiment was the most appropriate choice. In this experiment, all therapeutic procedures were performed, in ascending order, according to the design of changing the criterion. The results were encouraging, the level of symptomatology and maladaptive avoidance behaviors, generated by the fear of dogs, were substantially reduced and the level of well-being and quality of life of the person undergoing therapeutic intervention increased.