Fear of Heights

Fear of Heights and Height Tolerance

Michael Barberi

PSY 103

June 28, 2015

Michael Phillips

Fear of Heights and Height Tolerance

Almost everyone knows someone who is more receptive to changes in height, whether they just dislike them, freak out and avoid them at all costs, or even enjoy the rush they give them and search for them. “Fear of heights, or acrophobia, is one of the most frequent subtypes of specific phobia frequently associated to depression and other anxiety disorders” (Boffino, Cardoso de Sa, & Gorenstein, 2008, para.). On the other hand, “Height- tolerant individuals perceive the physical danger of heights but compensate either by habituation or a comfort level with their sense of physical danger” (Salassa & Zapala, 2009, para. ).

How is a fear or tolerance of heights learned? Boffino states, “Differently from other phobias, there is evidence that fear of heights is not acquired by conditioning or other learning processes but arises through a non-associative pathway.” So this means there is no classical conditioning, operant conditioning, or cognitive-social learning involved in a fear of heights. Not to say that in some cases these forms of learning can’t result in a fear of heights. A child who was very clumsy growing up could have fallen off the bed, or couch or counter when they climbed up, thus resulting in an operant conditioning experience. The behavior being that the child climbed up on something. The consequence that they fell and hurt themselves, and the reinforcement that every time they climbed they were hurt, and if they didn’t climb they were fine.

I would see more of a height-seeking individual using classical or operant conditioning, or cognitive-social learning to become what i9s called an “adrenaline junkie.” In a group of friends’ maybe there is that one boy who is not so much afraid of heights but has never really explored off the ground. But all his friends climb trees and are always climbing something...