a series of graduated (least to most) anxiety- arousing stimuli or situations, centering on a specific source of anxiety for an individual – for example, social situations. It is used in the treatment of phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorders by way of systematic desensitization: Patients are exposed to the earlier items first in the hierarchy, and then progress toward the most threatening situation,
ANXIETY HIERARCHY: “An anxiety hierarchy is constructed for a given individual for a given anxiety disorder with the intention of exposing him or her to the earlier items first, then the later items.”