Highly sensitive people: a new personality trait

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

The openness to experience, the responsibility, the extraversion, the cordiality or amiability and the stability are the five traits that are evaluated in this model and in a large number of clinical and clinical evaluation instruments. screening that have been developed subsequently.

The sensitivity and repercussions of not including it within the personality models

But What if another new feature could be added to take into account? We are talking about the sensitivity.

Elaine aron was a pioneer in investigating this personality trait. Herself, based on hers own experiences of hers as a person who manifested the trait and after getting in contact with other people who believed to be highly sensitive, she began to investigate about the common characteristics between them and the implications that the manifestation of this sensitivity had in their lives. With the results of this research, in which she found that around 20% of the population could be included in this category, she coined the term "highly sensitive people" or "PAS".

Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People

Highly sensitive people begin to show signs of such sensitivity from the moment of birth, Babies with this trait find it more difficult to sleep, they are affected by being surrounded by a lot of stimulation (noises, light, people, etc.), they tend to have more fears and as the child grows older it is usually appreciated in them a great creativity and intuition. Likewise, they are minors who are very empathic with the suffering of others, polite, kind and considerate.

They have also been observed Differential Physiological Characteristics Between PAS and NO-PAS Infants, such as the fact that highly sensitive children have a higher heart rate and, subjected to stress, your pupils dilate earlier and your vocal cords tighten more quickly making sounds more treble. In addition to all this, at the brain level they have greater activation of the right hemisphere (emotional) and present higher levels of cortisol and norepinephrine (Aron, 1996). Studies after this, in which neuroimaging techniques have been used, have also revealed greater activation of the amygdala and the 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 great empathy towards their own and others' 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 on a personal level, well They are usually people with great self-knowledge and a very rich internal world, which, at times, make them seem introverted, although it doesn't have to be that way.

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

Why the importance of recognizing sensitivity as another trait to consider in personality models? The answer is simple. PAS people who speak of their sensitivity make allusion to incomprehension, both personal and of their close context and They report having felt in a minority position, of constant struggle against a world that surpasses them, until the moment in which discover that they have this trait and can make a personal reflection from the knowledge of it, identifying and reconciling with your sensitivity.

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

During adolescence, a stage of very intense personal changes for anyone, 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 may appear, which can lead to depressive, anxiety or addiction disorders in adulthood. And all this, due to the ignorance of the personality trait that defines them, their sensitivity and their lack of inclusion in the explanatory models of personality.

Bibliographic references:

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