Makale Özeti:A Multimodal Behavioral Approach to Performance Anxiety

There are many different approaches in Behavior Therapy and Multimodal Behavior Therapy is one of them which is originated by Arnold Lazarus.
Although many behavioral therapies are trimodal (ABC- Affect, Behavior, Cognition), multimodal therapy has 7 modalities which are Behavior, Affect, Sensations, Imagery, Cognition, Interpersonal relationships, and Drugs/biology (BASIC I.D.). Mutimodal therapy studies on these modalities which are distinct from each other but interacting at the same time.
In this article, Lazarus and his colleague gives many example cases about different performance anxiety types and treatment in these cases according to the multimodal therapy approach. Some simple and obvious tactics to overcome performance anxiety are cited also in this article.
The most common form of performance anxiety is speaking in the public. People suffering from this problem usually think that they will forget what they will say, they may do mistakes, and etc. Breathing exercises and relaxation techniques will be helpful in these conditions according to the authors.
Another common problem about performance anxiety is sexual performance anxiety. For these kind of problems, it will be helpful that the therapist should explain everything clearly and the client should dispel the myths too. It will also be helpful to suggest the client to read books about these kind of topics.
The last and the most mentioned about case in this article was DeAngelo’s who was a violinist in a very big orchestra and suffering from performance anxiety. Multimodal therapy techniques were applied to him. Systematic desensitization applied from the least feared thing to the most feared one. He was also shown how to use deep muscle relaxation and diaphragmatic breathing. After reaching the most feared one, the next step was to ask DeAngelo to play violin for the therapists in the clinic. Some homework assignments were given to him such as doing rehearsal with the orchestra once in a day.
After the third quarter of the therapy, he was mostly got rid of his fears. It was also understood that he also have problems with his practice of masturbation. The thing that the authors said about this problem, psychoanalytic approach could be better for this situation. However they used systematic desensitization by making a hierarchy for this problem too. The therapy of him lasted three and a half month and he was totally cured as he said.

Arnold A. Lazarus & Arnold Abramovitz, a Multimodal Behavioral Approach To Performance Anxiety, JCLP/In Session, Vol. 60(8), 831–840 (2004)

Makaleyi özetleyen: Zeynep Arabacı