In vivo exposure

In vivo exposure is a behavioral therapy technique in which a person confronts feared situations or objects directly in real life, rather than through imagination or simulation.

Exposure therapy: A psychological treatment that helps people approach feared stimuli rather than avoid them. In vivo exposure is one way to deliver this broader treatment.
Exposure and response prevention: A treatment that combines exposure to obsessional triggers with resisting compulsive responses. It applies in vivo exposure to triggers that prompt compulsions.
Exposure hierarchy: An ordered list of feared situations ranked by the distress they are expected to cause. It helps structure real-life practice from less distressing to more challenging situations.
Emotional processing theory: A theory proposing that exposure modifies fear by activating and correcting pathological fear structures. It emphasizes emotional engagement and corrective information as mechanisms of exposure.
Habituation: A decline in response that occurs when a stimulus is encountered repeatedly without a significant consequence. Repeated real-world exposure can reduce fear responses through habituation.
Social anxiety disorder: A mental disorder marked by persistent fear of social situations involving possible scrutiny or negative evaluation. Real-world social tasks can directly address feared evaluation and avoidance.
Subjective units of distress scale: A self-report scale, commonly ranging from 0 to 100, for rating momentary distress. Ratings can track distress during in vivo exercises.
Inhibitory learning model: An account of exposure in which new learning competes with, rather than erases, old fear learning. It predicts that exposure gains may depend on context and require retrieval strategies.
Inhibitory learning: Learning that a feared outcome does not reliably follow a previously feared cue or situation. Exposure can build new safety learning without erasing the original fear association.
Agoraphobia: A disorder involving fear of situations where escape or help may seem difficult if panic-like symptoms occur. Treatment can involve approaching avoided places such as public transport or crowded spaces.

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