Acrophobia

The article I chose to summarize was Deconstructing Acrophobia: Physiological and Psychological Precursors to Developing a Fear of Heights Carlos M. Coelho, Ph.D and Guy Wallis, Ph.D. I wanted to research about fear of heights, or acrophobia, because of the documentary I watched, Man on Wire. The documentary was about a man who willing walked a tight rope between the Twin Towers in New York. He was completely unafraid of the height he would be walking at, so it made me more curious about people who have a fear of heights.

I have a fear of heights myself, so I was interested in learning about others who share my fear. The article by Coelho and Wallis was the first one I clicked on and it immediately caught my attention. The article studied the factors that could lead a person to developing a fear of heights. I continued reading because I wanted to see if I agreed with what they were saying. And, I did. Two of the factors they were studying was vision and balance. When I'm at a height that makes me anxious my vision gets blurry and I feel unsteady. I can't see the ground beneath me so I have no clue how high up I am plus I think of scenarios of me falling to my death. So, yeah. My imagination is a very vivid place. Anyway, back on topic. I agreed with everything the scientists said and they provided factual evidence so I couldn't argue with them. Including data tables makes it pretty hard to say they made everything up. Plus they used big words so I knew I could trust them.