Desensibilización sistemática, inoculación de estrés y terapia específica en el tratamiento de la ansiedad a las matemáticas

Abstract

The authors begin offering a general view of the research work on the phobia of Mathematics and test anxiety, and explaining that the general goal of their study is to develop methods of behaviour modification that will help psychology students, with a previous history of test avoidance, to confront mathematic psychology tests. Specifically, the aim is to compare the efficacy of traditional Systematic Desensitization with a complex cognitive package developed by the authors following the model of Stress Inoculation, being the value of these two specific interventions compared to a group �not orientated to the problem� therapy. After describing the method and the results, the authors outline in the discussion the efficacy of all three interventions and the fact that productivity, and not just mathematics anxiety, was affected too. Finally they state that their results support the present importance of Franks� work (1973,1982), to whom an important part of psychotherapeutical effects is due to common factors in all therapies, something that is often underexplained.