CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY We all have something that we fear.

We all have something that we cannot face without the significant shiver down our spines, the dilating of our pupils and the scream thats threatening to burst from our throats. Fear. When we hear it, the things that we always hope in avoiding flashes in our minds. Phobia. When we hear it, we think of our fears. But is it that similar? Those two words stand close together but a very thick and distinguished line separates them. Fear is when we avoid something, when we feel scared. Its almost the same with phobia, but whats different about them is that, fear is still rational. You have a basis, a reason to feel frightened. While with phobia, it isnt quite the same. You get scared by something you should not be afraid of; you get scared with something that is normal for other people. Phobia is an irrational fear. In this investigatory project, we would tackle about a specific phobia: Acrophobia, or commonly known as fear of heights. When we ask people what they fear, they answer heights. They say they have acrophobia. And with this, we encounter different cases. Do you just fear it, or do you think it is worse, deeper than that? Do you have Acrophobia? B. STATEMENT OF THE STUDY: The study aims to determine the characteristics of Acrophobia and its impact on the individual experiencing it. Specifically, the study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What is Acrophobia?

2. What are the signs and symptoms of Acrophobia? 3. What are the causes of Acrophobia? 4. What are the effects of Acrophobia to activities of daily living of an individual experiencing it? 5. What are the possible remedies to resolve Acrophobia? C. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: The main significance of conducting this study is primarily to identify the characteristics, causes, effects of Acrophobia. In so doing, the result of this study hopes to benefit the readers, respondents and the researchers of this study in terms of: 1. Understanding in depth what Acrophobia is. 2. Identifying means and causes as to why an individual suffers from it. 3. Maintaining a well-balanced mental health, to be able to live your life as normally as possible even if you face that fear or the phobia itself. 4. To increase the individuals self-esteem and to obtain emotional intelligence as well as the presence of mind. D. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY This research would focus on the specific phobia, Acrophobia, which is, as clearly stated, is the fear of heights. We would include individuals who may and think that they have this type of phobia, the symptoms, why they have that, the mental state of the person and somehow, although we would not focus on it, how to overcome it. We will determine for the individual if its just fear or if it came to the next level, phobia. It may

graze over some other phobias but rest assured that we would not elaborate that much on it.