Phobia
Phobia Acrophobia is well known as a fear of heights, and many experts keep focusing on studying and finding the causes, symptoms, and treatments for the best and most effective solution of this phobia. Acrophobia is derived from Greek; acro means “high” and phobia means “fears”. Acrophobia is characterized “by marked anxiety upon exposure of heights, by avoidance of heights, and by interference in functioning as a result of this fear” (Ibrahim, "Virtual Reality Approach in Acrophobia Treatment"). Sweating, shaking, crying, or yelling out, and high heart rate are common symptoms which are found in many phobias; also, these are found in acrophobia (Fritscher, “Acrophobia”). Moreover, acrophobia’s symptoms are associated with some phobias such as illyngophobia (a fear of developing vertigo), aerophobia (a fear of flying), and bathmophobia (a fear of slopes and stairs). However, obviously, there are some differences symptoms from other phobias, unconscious actions, such as finding something to cling to, crawling on all fours, sitting on the knees, and falling down on the floor (Fristscher, “Acrophobia”). According to the National Institute of Mental Health survey, acrophobia is one of the top ten common specific phobias, so this phobia can be common found in people of all ages; however, there are still arguments of what an exact cause of acrophobia is. Of course, traditionally, acrophobia is caused by a frightening experience of heights, but new research shows that it is the response of an infant when a parent has a fearful reaction to heights, so this contributed to the child’s acrophobia. In addition, Acrophobia is not only found in human and it is also found in all visual animals (Fristscher, “Acrophobia”). Fristsher summarized the new research to support this idea. Fristsher writes, “in 1960, famed research psychologists Gibson and Walk did a "Visual Cliff" experiment which showed crawling infants, along with babies of numerous species, who refused to cross
Cited: Fritscher, Lisa. "Acrophobia." About.com Phobias. N.p., 11 July 2011. Web. 10 July 2012 Ibrahim, Nazrita, Mustafa Agil Muhamad Balbed, Azmi Mohd Yusof, Faridah Hani Mohammed Salleh, Jaspaljeet Singh, and Mohamad Shahrul Shahidan. "Virtual Reality Approach in Acrophobia Treatment." Applied Computer & Applied Computational Science (2008): 194-97. Print.