Acrophobia
Beyond acrophobia, Menzies and Clarke are conducting research into thenature of phobias in general. Prevailing theories state that phobics areaware of the inappropriateness of their fears. People suffering fromdifferent phobias supposedly have the capacity to accurately gauge levelsof danger. More importantly, they know that their fears are unrealisticand exaggerated. Despite this awareness, however, phobics are unable tocontrol their fears in relation to the lack of danger in their situation.This theory regarding phobias has been upheld by the American PsychiatricAssociation (APA) and is one of the few pronouncements regarding phobias However, this belief has also been challenged by theorists like Beckand Emery (1985). Beck and Emery hypothesize that while phobics have anaccurate assessment of danger in the beginning, this assessment getsdistorted as the subjects encounter the object of their fear. People whowere afraid of heights gave fairly low danger ratings while on the ground.However, their perceptions of danger went up as they went higher up thebuilding. The Beck and Emery study thus throws doubt on the APApronouncements regarding how phobics co
A follow-up study could thus be conducted on younger subjects,such as teenagers. Towards this, Menzies and Clarke conducted their own study toinvestigate the different perceptions of danger shown by phobics and non-phobics regarding heights. The researchers alsomade sure that the experiment site was sheltered from wind and rains. Using questionnaires,surveys and interviews, researchers like Last and Blanchard (1982) andMcNally and Steketee (1985) showed that phobics had distorted perceptionsof danger, even when they were away from their fear stimulus. These findings challenge both the APA and the Beckand Emery studies, showing that the phobics' perceptions of dangerregarding their fear stimulus are distorted from the beginning. Furthermore, Menzies and Clarke took care to conduct two min-experiments instead of just one. After the ground questioning, the subjects were then asked to climbthe ladder as high as they dared. This is vital, if phobics are expected to both control theirsymptoms and function as contributing members of society. Their fears increasedexponentially when the fear stimulus was brought in. Thevolunteers for the control group were also culled from an original 83sampling of visitors and non-academic staff at the University of New SouthWales. While the Menzies and Clarke study does not contribute anything new tothe debate, it does strengthen the theory that phobics' perceptions ofdanger are distorted from the very beginning. Results Menzies and Clarke did find that while on the ground, phobics hadsignificantly higher estimates of falling, injury and the reasonableness oftheir fears, compared with the control group. However, perceptions of"reasonableness" of fears can be correlated to age. The use of independent assessorswho are blind to each subject's group membership further helps to eliminateother factors that could give rise to different results between the twosamples. The independent assessors then noted down all the responses.
Common topics in this essay:
Menzies Clarke,
Beck Emery,
South Wales,
Williams Watson,
McNally Steketee,
menzies clarke,
Association APA,
fear stimulus,
perceptions danger,
anticipated anxiety,
phobia sufferers,
climb ladder,
beck emery,
phobic sample,
independent assessors,
menzies clarke study,
,
williams watson,
University South,
aware inappropriateness fears,
phobics' perceptions danger,
phobic control sample,
university south wales,
|
Acceptance Essays
