Highly sensitive persons

Assessment | Biopsychology | Comparative | Cognitive | Developmental | Language | Individual differences | Personality | Philosophy | Social |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |

Personality: Self concept · Personality testing · Theories · Mind-body problem

---

Please expand this article. This template may be found on the article's talk page, where there may be further information. Alternatively, more information might be found at Requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the article has been expanded.

A Highly sensitive person processes sensory data exceptionally deeply and thoroughly due to a biological difference in his or her nervous system. This term was first coined by Dr. Elaine N. Aron, who subsequently wrote several books about the subject.

The research on sensory-processing sensitivity builds on Eysenck's views on introversion and arousal and Gray's work on the inhibition system. This research shows that about 15-20% of humans and higher animals have a nervous system that is more sensitive to subtleties. This means that regular sensory information is processed and analyzed to a greater extent, which contributes to creativity, intuition, sensing implications and attention to detail, but which may also cause quicker overstimulation and overarousal.

This temperament may also be connected with continuously high cortisol levels, which may cause hypervigilance and susceptibility to trauma. Also, being highly sensitive may amplify or create psychological issues if overarousal is not managed well. Giftedness may also be linked with high sensory-processing sensitivity.

References

• Aron, Elaine. 1996. The Highly Sensitive Person. ISBN 0-553-06218-2.
• Aron, Elaine. 1997. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Aug. 1997 Vol. 73, No. 2, pp. 345-368.

Related Resources

• Aron, Elaine. 1999. The Highly Sensitive Person's Workbook. ISBN 0-7679-0337-4.
• Aron, Elaine. 2000. The Highly Sensitive Person in Love. ISBN 0-7679-0336-6.
• Aron, Elaine. 2002. The Highly Sensitive Child. ISBN 0-7679-0872-4.
• Mesich, Kyra. 2000. The Sensitive Person's Survial Guide. ISBN 0-595-09800-2.
• Jaeger, Barrie. 2004. Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person. ISBN 0-07-140810-X.
• Zeff, Ted. 2004. The Highly Sensitive Person's Survival Guide. ISBN 1-57224-396-1.

External links

• The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine N. Aron. Site includes self-test and conference details.
• Barrie Jaeger's HSP Work Site by Dr. Barrie Jaeger who wrote Making Work Work for the Highly Sensitive Person.
• The Highly Sensitive Person's Survival Guide by Dr. Ted Zeff. Site also includes resources for healing insomnia.
• The Plight of the Empath or Highly Sensitive Person article on about.com by Kathy Moore, MBA, CH, hypnotist and motivational consultant.
• Highly Sensitive People has links and message board by Dr. Thomas Eldridge.
• Coaching for Highly Sensitive Souls and HSPs by Jenna Avery, Certified Life Coach. Site includes articles, resources, teleclasses, and free in-person and teleconference events.
• Highly Sensitive People — a registered trademark of James Hallowes.