Deconstructing acrophobia: physiological and psychological precursors to developing a fear of heights

Abstract

The findings reveal that fear of heights is an expression of a largely sensory phenomena, which can produce strong feelings of discomfort and fear in the otherwise calm individuals. We propose a theory that embraces all these factors and provides new insight into the aetiology and treatment of this prevalent and debilitating fear.

Visuo-vestibular contributions to anxiety and fear

“…In a population of 100 university students (45 female), they reported that measures of acrophobia were highly associated with a tendency to interpret ambiguous bodily feelings as threatening. These characteristic was also found by Coelho and Wallis (2010) which used the same bodily feelings questionnaire, the body sensations questionnaire (BSQ) from Chambless et al (1984), and found it to be associated with fear of heights (along with the other features discussed bove). Davey and colleagues argue that the observed comorbidity between acrophobia and agoraphobia can be linked to similar biases in the interpretation of bodily feelings.…”

“…This approach likewise falls into a circular argument: "the fear is common because it is prepared, and is thought to be prepared because it is common." The main problem with either approach is that it is largely hung up on the question of what is learnt and what inherited, leaving the precise causes of phobia unknown (Coelho and Wallis, 2010). A common fear is seen as being prepared, and is thought to be prepared because it is common.…”

Fear of Heights and Visual Height Intolerance in Children 8–10 Years Old

“…As in other psychiatric disorders the antagonism nature vs. environment led to a multifactorial model for the manifestation of specific phobias [29]. Cognitive aspects and biases, which consider specific phobias as learned and habituated reactions, are integrated into the non-associative learning theory, i.e., evolution-primed responses to threatening stimuli in predisposed individuals [13,[30][31][32][33][34]. This means an inborn disposition is expressed after certain trigger experiences.…”

Risk Perception and Emotional Coping: A Pathway for Behavioural Addiction?

“…Individual differences of sensitivity to heights might be best explained by some variability in the information-processing pathways between the sensory subsystems on the one hand, and the cognitive-executive functions on the other hand [8]. The influence of visual and postural perception along with the individual's ability to discriminate and interpret bodily sensations have been well documented as contributing factors for shaping the individual's responses to height stimuli [9,10]. There is some variability in the experiencing of the psychovegetative arousal due to the perception of height, as well as in the cognitive and emotional appraisal of this arousal.…”