acrophobia which is the fear of heights (Juan, 2005)
INTRODUCTION
Most humans and animals fear falling from high areas in varying degrees. This paper will focus on acrophobia which is the fear of heights (Juan, 2005). Different people will experience degree of natural fear when exposed to high places like during mountain climbing and would panic and strive to find a way of coming down safely. Diversity lenses used in this research include gender, age and sexuality.
It is argued that the ratio of men to women that have this disorder is one is to two, while approximately two percent of world population experience acrophobia. This fear can be experienced in everyday life activities while boarding a bus driven on a higher ground, standing on a chair or a ladder and walking on stairs where individual tend to react by looking for ways of coming down to a place that is leveled and safe (Menzies, 1995).
DEFINATION OF TERMS
- Psychology refers to science that surveys behaviour, mind while considering both conscious and unconscious experiences of an individual.
- Psychologist refers to professional person who studies the behaviour of people and their mental processes. They posses both clinical skills and professional trainings which he or she uses to educate individuals to help them cope with psychological health problems and other issues affecting life like depression, anxiety, stressful situations and other chronic conditions.
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- Race refers to division of individuals based on their social relations, physical characteristics, and genetics.
- Gender is usually determined by being either Male of Female which differentiates individuals in terms of either being masculine or feminine
- Research methods- these are techniques or methods that are used for conducting a research like telephone survey, questionnaire, interviews, observation, analyzing historical records and documents analysis.
BACKGROUNG OF THE STUDY
Health of an individual is an important factor in life and all the time both animals and humans like being in a stable health condition for growth and development of the body and also so that people can properly their jobs without fear (Furman, 2005).
One of the psychological challenges of health is the fear of heights which most times comes naturally. Many people suffer from fear of heights including most famous people like Stanley Kubrick, Whoopy Goldberg, Isaac Asimov and John Madden. This disorder causes dry mouth, feeling sick, dizziness, excess sweating, body shaking and an individual being unable think or speak clearly. This made the researcher to research on the origin of acrophobia, the individuals that are more affected and whether it can be cured.
OBJECTIVES
- To investigate the origin of acrophobia and its relevance to aspects of psychology through lenses of diversity like sexuality, gender and age.
- Applying of theoretical perspective in explaining the fear of heights.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Ancient studies on this topic have argued that this psychological disorder is inborn while other theories like non-association theory claim that there has been several evolution that have been related to this psychological disorder. According to a psychiatric at Bootham Park Hospital, Paul Blenkiron, the disorder mainly develops at age 15-25 with a higher rate associated with the old people. Most of children experience fear at a tender age but as they grow, children grow out of acrophobia (Whitney, 2005).
Some psychologists claim that acrophobia can get into an individual through linking high levels with something that happened to an individual’s life like a scaring movies or trauma
Kevin Gourney,a professor at the institute of psychiatric states that acrophobia tend to be high in adults than in children because adults have people who are depending on them thus may be more troubled with acrophobia disorder and also that as an individual grow old, the balancing organ of the body deteriorates making them prone to acrophobia.
Previous research has been done to find treatment of acrophobia. By the end of 1993 controlled experiment of 7 persons was done whereby they were exposed weekly in seven VR sessions with a promising results being obtained.
ANALYSYS AND DISCUSSION
different argument is given by claiming that as an individual grow old, human body produces less adrenaline which is the flight hormone and therefore more phobias that the body experiences is reduced. This argument is supported in 2014 by YouGov that found out that between age 18-24 years, 49 percent of the age group experiences the fear of heights, 61 percent of age bracket 40-59 fear heights and 64 percent for those having age above 60 years.
There are scientists who claim that acrophobia can result when individual has a dysfunction in his organs that maintains balance maybe because of insufficient development in functioning of vestibular part of the brain.
THEORITICAL ASPECT OF THE STUDY
Non-association theory tends to explain and support that fear of heights is natural in both mammals and human and therefore animals and people are born having this disorder. The theory means that the cause of acrophobia must not be there.
IMPLICATIONS
The research help to find out that VR is good in treatment of fear of heights. There is hope for those suffering acrophobia in that it can be cured through use of drugs that can suppress the condition though should only be taken when prescribed by the doctor because it may have severe effects on individual’s health, having a positive thinking in life and hypnosis which help in temporarily controlling an individual’s mind.
The individual having the disorder can also be undertaken through gradual desensitivitation in which an individual is taken to an area where he or she will experience acrophobia like stairs or dive board. An individual start walking from an area where he experience less fear towards a higher area where he will feel moiré fear and an individual should stop immediately the patient starts feeling fear. When this is done several times an individual will recover.
An example is given of Wolfgang Goethe who is said to have cured himself from fear of heights through acting willingly by climbing top of high church remaining there for long hours. This study give more information to psychologists, therapists and other health professionals that acrophobia can be cured by different ways depending on the level through systematic desensitization, use of prescribed drugs and cognitive therapy (Furman, 2005).
CONCLUSION
Fear of heights affects individuals in different forms and this research has helped in finding out that older people are more affected than children because of deterioration of balance organ that controls the body and maybe due to many people who depend on them. More finding reveals that most people having acrophobia were born with it (Juan, 2005).
REFERENCE
- Juan, M. C; (2005) “An aurguement of Reality system for the treatment of acrophobia” Presence 15 (4) 315-318
- Furman, Joseph M ( May 2005). “Acrophobia and pathological height vertigo: indicators for vestibular physical theory?” Physical Therapy Retrieved 2007-09-10
- Whitney, SL; Jacob, Rolf G; Sparto BG (May 2005) “Acrophobia and pathological height vertigo: indications for vestibular Physical Therapy 85(5) 443-458
- Eleanor J. Gibson; Richard D. Walk “The Visual Cliff” 2013-05-13
- Menzies, RG; Clarke, JC (1995) “ The etiology of acrophobia and its relationship to severity and individual response patterns”. Behaviour Research and Therapy 33(31) 499-501.