What is the difference between Habituate and desensitize?

Answer 1

My impression is that habituation allows one to ignore irrelevant stimuli (most often constant, trivial things in daily life), while desensitization removes or diminishes emotional response to a stimulus that would evoke significant affect. This may not be entirely accurate, so don't take my word for it.

I got this impression mainly from three sources:

from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2277060/:

"Conventionally, habituation is characterized as (among other functional criteria) a down-regulating adaptation with short-term memory (Groves & Thompson, 1970; Poon & Young, 2006). Importantly, the latter remains latent post-stimulation and is activated (recalled) only when stimulated again - a process which has been termed 'input gating' (Young et al. 2003; Poon & Young, 2006). Desensitization is distinguished from habituation by the explicit expression of post-stimulation memory rebound and recovery, as desensitization (i.e. secondary habituation) is not subject to input gating."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habituation:

"Habituation need not be conscious-for example, a short time after a human dresses in clothing, the stimulus clothing creates disappears from our nervous systems and we become unaware of it. In this way, habituation is used to ignore any continual stimulus, presumably because changes in stimulus level are normally far more important than absolute levels of stimulation."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_%28psychology%29:

"[Desensitization] also occurs when an emotional response is repeatedly evoked in situations in which the action tendency that is associated with the emotion proves irrelevant or unnecessary."

Answer 2

Habituation refers to a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated exposure, while desensitization involves reducing sensitivity or responsiveness to a stimulus through controlled exposure or conditioning. Habituation typically occurs naturally over time, while desensitization is a deliberate process aimed at reducing an unwanted response, such as fear or anxiety.