Highly sensitive people (PAS), a new personality trait?

Highly sensitive individuals (HSP), what are their main characteristics?

Historically, psychology has based its personality studies on the factors assessed in the Big Five trait model and other models derived from it. The "Big Five" model model advocates the existence of five major personality traits that every person possesses and manifests in a certain percentage. and manifests in a certain percentage.

The openness to experienceopenness to experience, responsibility responsibilityresponsibility extraversioncordiality cordiality o friendliness and stability are the five traits assessed in this model and in a large number of clinical assessment and screening instruments. screening and screening instruments that have been developed subsequently.

Sensitivity and the repercussions of not including it in the personality models.

But what if we could add another new feature to be taken into account? We are talking about sensitivity.

Elaine Aron was a pioneer in researching this personality trait. She herself, based on her own experiences as a person who manifested the trait and after contacting other people who believed themselves to be highly sensitive, began to investigate the common characteristics among them and the implications that the manifestation of this sensitivity had on their lives. With the results of this research, in which he found that about 20% of the population could be included in this category, he coined the term "highly sensitive people" or "HSP".

Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People

Highly sensitive people begin to show signs of such sensitivity from birth, Babies with this trait find it more difficult to sleep, are affected by being surrounded by a lot of stimulation (noises, light, people, etc.), tend to have more fears and as the child grows up, a great creativity and intuition can be appreciated in them. They are also very empathetic with the suffering of others, polite, kind and considerate.

They are also very empathetic to the suffering of others, polite, kind and considerate, differential physiological characteristics have also been observed between PAS and non-PAS infants, such as the fact that PAS infants are very empathetic to the suffering of others.such as the fact that highly sensitive children have a higher Heart rate and, under stress, their pupils dilate earlier and their vocal cords tense more quickly, emitting higher-pitched sounds. In addition to all this, at the cerebral level they have a greater activation of the right hemisphere (emotional) and present higher levels of cortisol and norepinephrine (Aron, 1996). Subsequent studies, using neuroimaging techniques, have also revealed a greater activation of the amygdala and frontal lobe.

Empathy, intuition, intrapersonal intelligence...

In adulthood these traits that have been observed during childhood acquire their maximum expression. PAS people are highly intuitive and emotional, with a great empathy towards their own and other people's emotions.

They are creative people who are attracted to the arts and knowledge, both on an intellectual level, they have an almost unlimited capacity to learn, even without being aware of it, as well as on a personal level, since they are usually people with a great knowledge of their own and others' emotions. are usually people with a great self-knowledge and a very rich inner world, which, sometimesThis sometimes makes them seem introverted, although this does not have to be the case.

Is it a good idea to include sensitivity in personality models?

Why is it important to recognize sensitivity as yet another trait to be considered in personality models? The answer is simple. PAS people who talk about their sensitivity refer mainly to the incomprehension, both personal and of their close context and refer to having felt in a minority position, of constant struggle against a world that surpasses them, until the moment in which they discover that they possess this trait and can make a personal reflection from the knowledge of it, identifying and reconciling themselves with their sensitivity.

On the other hand, at the clinical and evaluation level, the group of people who possess the trait of sensitivity has been poorly evaluated and diagnosed. They have received inadequate treatment and have been "labeled" with diagnostic labels that did not correspond to them. During childhood, highly sensitive children are often misdiagnosed with autism spectrum disorders or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

During adolescence, a time of very intense personal changes for any person, but even more so for a hypersensitive person who already finds it difficult to reconcile the internal and external world, problems of depression, isolation or drug use can appear, which can lead to depressive, anxiety or addiction disorders in adulthood. And all this, due to the lack of knowledge of the personality trait that defines them, sensitivity and its lack of inclusion in the explanatory models of personality.

Bibliographical references:

• Aron, E. (2006). The gift of sensitivity. 6th Ed. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Obelisco.