Fear of Heights

Many individuals suffer from a phobia or a natural fear of something or a current situation that they may have been in or are in currently. One of the most common phobias is having a fear of heights, also called Acrophobia. Acrophobia is often mislabeled as vertigo. Researchers have said that “those with an extreme fear of heights, that the stronger their fear is, the bigger the error could be (Callaway, 2009). The fear of heights in different learning perspectives

Someone that is truly associated with acrophobia can go into panic mode when having to face that fear, normally right away their first thought is to grab ahold of something to help them feel more secure, but then there are others that will start shaking, sweating, holler, panic, or even break down and cry. When the individual that has this phobia starts to show all those signs that is their unconditioned responses starting to show. (Fritscher. 2011) The system that helps alert us is the unconditioned stimulus. (Ruden, 2012)

At times their unconditioned stimulus will kick in to say and make them panic to the extreme levels of them crawling around on all fours or even as so much lay in a fetal position (Fritscher, 2011). Although every person handles their phobia in a different manner, most still find it difficult to trust in their own sense of balance and when this occurs, they can’t think properly because they are trying to deal with the fear of heights. (Fritscher, 2011). An example could be that someone went on vacation, they went to New York with their family.

Anyone that goes to New York more than likely knows about the many skyscrapers, one being The Empire State building. That building in particular has 102 floors and has about 1, 860 steps from top to bottom and stands tall at 1, 454 feet (www. esbnyc. com). Now, most that have acrophobia, their unconditioned responses kick in, they start thinking the worse possible thoughts. If they are using the elevator to reach the different levels building, then you will start to see the signs of an unconditioned response kick in.

They will shake, sweat, hard to calm down and will have the fear of not being able to hold onto things. If they are using the steps to reach the different levels, that individual could very well start thinking if the possibility of a fire occurring. Not knowing what level the fire could possibly be on, they start to panic and stop thinking clearly and if they are giving directions over a loud speaker, their fear is going to already be showing and they may not be listening very well to hear the instructions that are given.

When we start thinking along the lines of conditioned responses, we could use visiting a skyscraper as an example as well. We can use an individual’s response when they do start to panic, sweat, crawl on all fours or even be in the fetal position. We can associate the conditioned stimulus to their fear of heights and know when they show those symptoms that is their conditioned response to facing their fear (McLeod, 2008).

Certain situations may become helpful and if the individual trust you enough to help them, allowing them to face their fears can be beneficial, but if the individual starts to panic moving he or she to a safe location will allow them to relax and regain their thoughts (Ruden, 2012) When individuals have the fear of heights, it is critical for them to seek some sort of therapy to help treat the anxiety that comes along with phoebe (Ruden, 2012) When trying to find treatment for acrophobia, he or she will find that it is normal to go through a behavioral program.

The program with help to slowly expose an individual to different situations such as taking them to heights, allowing the person to express their fears and concerns all the while of teaching that individual relaxation tips that will help them remain in a calm state and be able to help themselves to overcome the fear that they have (Bailey, 2008).