Highly Sensitive Person (SPS)

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Societal construct of abnormality has become a strongly prevalent issue of debate as mental health disorders and psychologically influenced behaviours are more frequently diagnosed in patients and the premise of cognitive well-being recurrently publicised. Individuals who experience high levels of sensitivity and emotionality are also seen to face a misunderstood form of psychosomatic discrimination in the state of their minority. Sensory-Processing Sensitivity (SPS) is the scientific term for the trait elaborately researched by Elaine Aron (1991) to introduce the concept of the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), typically found in 15%-20% of the population. Alongside humans, it has also been discovered that SPS exists in over 100 other species, reflecting an evolutionary survival strategy of observing before acting due to neurological differences in brain activation. Jagiellowicz (2010) examined the extent to which individual differences in SPS are associated with neural response in visual areas in response to subtle changes in visual scenes. SPS was associated with significantly greater activation in brain areas involves in …show more content…
Brindle et al. (2015) questioned if the relationship between sensory-processing sensitivity and negative affect was mediated by emotional regulation. Results of their study showed that limited access to emotional regulation strategies, a greater awareness of emotion and a lack of acceptance towards feeling distressed acted as a partial mediator for SPS. It is suggested that repeatedly experiencing aversive sensory-states among those with increased sensory-processing sensitivity impacts on their general awareness and acceptance of internal states and the confidence that one can regulate them. This in turn leads to the experience of negative affective states. Therefore, it could be proposed that managing emotions tends to be a weakness of those who are highly