Talk:Sensory processing sensitivity

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This article was nominated for deletion on 2 January 2016. The result of the discussion was keep.

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The content of The Highly Sensitive Person was merged into Sensory processing sensitivity. The former page's history now serves to provide attribution for that content in the latter page, and it must not be deleted as long as the latter page exists. For the discussion at that location, see its talk page.

It would be much easier to convey how this construct relates to the rest of the psychometric literature if research findings were phrased in terms of the measures used to classify a "highly sensitive person" (rather than in terms of a loosely-defined set of traits asserted to characterize a "highly sensitive person"). It looks like Aron and Aron developed the Highly Sensitive Person Scale for this sort of purpose, and some connections have been established in later literature. From Smolewska, McCabe, & Woody, 2006:

"...in contrast to Aron and Aron's finding that the scale is unidimensional, the current results support a three-component structure consisting of Aesthetic Sensitivity (AES), Low Sensory Threshold (LST), and Ease of Excitation (EOE). BIS activity was especially associated with the component of EOE. In addition, the components had different patterns of association with the "Big Five". More specifically, AES showed the strongest relation with Openness to Experience, while LST and EOE were found to be most closely associated with Neuroticism."

But it's more important to demonstrate some discriminant validity of HSP measures compared with other personality scales if one is to make the case that this construct doesn't just exist to sell books. 68.35.68.100 23:02, 9 November 2006 (UTC)Reply

I agree. I'd like to see more discriminant validity and anything that would make me think this isn't stuff mostly made up by these authors. Sensitivity like they describe happens to people in the autistic spectrum. Is there any research out there to suggest that this 'high sensitivity' is a valid construct? In its present form, it seems to be more easily described by other things, perhaps mild autism or just human variation, as opposed to a state or condition that needs an independent nomenclature. --DanielCD 02:01, 1 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

I added a link to the Highly Sensitive Person Scale and included a remark on its existence in the lead section. The difference between Autism and Sensitivity is comparable to the difference between day and night; sensitivity to others is profound in HSPs and shallow at best in ASD. "Sensitivity like they describe happens to people in the autistic spectrum" is a false assertion.

I'd like to point out, in addition, that the quote you (68.35.68.100) provided is conveniently truncated to serve your skepticism. I am not sure that this is rigorous and honest. The preceding sentences are: "Aron and Aron (1997) developed the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) to measure individual differences in sensory-processing sensitivity (SPS). The purpose of the present study was to examine further the psychometric properties of the HSPS, and its association with the behavioural inhibition system (BIS) and behavioural activation system (BAS) (Carver & White, 1994), and the "Big Five" (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Results demonstrate that the HSPS is a valid and reliable measure of the construct of SPS." Hmm. Aren't we talking here about a "valid construct", as you say? If the test has a cut-off line (HSPs vs the others), as was demonstrated by Aron using the HSPS, how can you say that it is a matter of "human variation"? There is very little ground for you to accuse Aron of being motivated by self-interest. Please refrain from this kind of aggressive skepticism. Pierre-Alain Gouanvic 07:51, 28 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

"Sensitivity to others is profound in HSPs and shallow at best in ASD" is also a very false assertion, for the record. Sensitivity to others varies greatly among the autistic population. The sensitivity described here is often seen in ASD, as is its polar opposite. Both night and day, as you say. 168.92.232.86 (talk) 07:57, 3 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Have any studies been done with respect to savantism and highly sensitive people? It would be interesting to see how those areas correlate here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.139.254.117 (talk) 19:17, 7 October 2016 (UTC)Reply

I think there have been studies noting some correlation between high SPS and creativity, but I doubt we'll ever read anything affirmatively linking SPS to Savant syndrome. SPS identifies a personality trait and doesn't involve a developmental disability, and SPS might even be described as indicating the opposite of a developmental disability. SPS has continually been wrongly confused with many things. —RCraig09 (talk) 19:55, 7 October 2016 (UTC)Reply

Not an expert or anything, but don't necessarily see savantism as a developmental disability. Nor do I see SPS as an ability. I see them more as biological dispositions of the brain architecture, and I can easily see how excess "ability" can lead to functional impairment. This may be entirely unsupported by the facts, however. Which is why I'm interested in the facts. 75.139.254.117 (talk) 06:44, 18 November 2016 (UTC)Reply

Under the existing title "Attributes, Characteristics, and Prevalence," there was a brief mention about how SPS has been distinguished from disorders, and how research has included and/or distinguished SPS from other labels. Perhaps this page would benefit from a new section/heading that specifically provides info on studies regarding SPS versus disorders (differences and false similarities that would cause confusion). In Aron's book Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person... Aron states that the interpretation of the definition of "disorder" and the seemingly similar traits of SPS clients to those of many DSM disorders may have caused misdiagnosis in the past, and goes on to analyze why (or identifies the source) of this confusion^[1].

From reading peer-review articles, it seems that much research has been centered around SPS in relation to personalities and other characteristics. Because relationships between SPS to other traits/characteristics are so important to the context of SPS in psychology, this Wikipedia article could benefit from additional studies that prove these associations, while keeping a balance between the positive and negative. Since there are both advantages and disadvantages for SPS, as already mentioned and cited in this Wikipedia article, it would benefit to show this with a correct positive/negative balance of specific data that allow readers to see for themselves that this is true. One example of an association can be found in the peer-review article "The Highly Sensitive Person: Stress and Physical Symptom Reports," in which SPS has been correlated to physical health symptoms, though this study did not show a causation. The article also noted that the relationship between SPS and physical symptoms was not dependent on self-rated stress levels^[2]. I find it important to add these correlations onto the Wikipedia page (while emphasizing that correlations don't imply causations) because of all seemingly multiplicity of studies that have gone into trying to link or distinguish SPS from other traits, characteristics, disorders, or other areas of life. In other words, adding studies/results that show the relationship between SPS and specific (dis)advantages would more strongly reinforce the idea that the scientific world recognizes both advantages and disadvantages to this trait.

To expand on the description of SPS, we could emphasize and elaborate that SPS is a trait subdivided into 3 parts: 1)Aesthetic Sensitivity, 2) Low Sensory Threshold 3) Ease of Excitation, using the peer-review article "A psychometric evaluation of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale...." This article describes the study that led to these subfactors within the HSP scale^[3].

Other areas we could improve on include reorganizing information under new headings. For example, the mention of brain function and genetics studies under the heading "Prevalence" could be moved to a different section titled "HSP in Various Research Areas." The body of information under "Prevalence" could instead expand on its current topic sentence that SPS is found in an abundance of non-human species. This way, the information listed under headings would be more relevant to the title of the heading.

In addition, Aron's book "Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person..." offers details about how Aron conducted her original research, including the demographics of her sample and how she polled volunteers for her research^[4]. This could be used to add more specifics under the heading "Origin and Development of the Terms" MissAndrea (talk) 08:20, 13 January 2017 (UTC)Reply

MissAndrea, thank you for your many thoughtful comments. I agree with most of what you say, but this article has had a long history. Some Wikipedia editors raised issues in 2016 that caused this article to be shorter, such as by consolidating content or moving content from the body to footnotes. Also, some primary sources were removed, in favor of (preferable) secondary sources. The article was shortened, to avoid giving readers the impression that the concept has more mainstream scientific approval than some editors perceive that it does (though the Arons' 1997 scientific paper has been cited by over >300 scientific papers). Also, because of their sales of books and courses, the works of Drs. Aron are not considered by some to be adequately objective for Wikipedia purposes, and their statements must be put in context and not simply cited as authoritative. For these reasons (not all of which I agree with), many of your helpful suggestions would probably not fit community consensus here. However, when I have time I will consider your thoughtful suggestions and new citations. Thanks, and good luck on your project. —RCraig09 (talk) 17:13, 13 January 2017 (UTC)Reply

After a 26 July 2019 tool-based edit, many links in footnotes were eliminated or changed. I'm not saying the changes are wrong (too massively labor-intensive to verify), but FYI the earlier citations are preserved in this version. —RCraig09 (talk) 21:47, 26 July 2019 (UTC)Reply

Dear Wikipedia Team, I suggest addition of below section to <Introduction>. Please let me know if this makes sense. Thanks.

Albert Einstein, Nicole Kidman, Jim Hallowes, Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and Martin Luther King Jr are some famous personalities that are highly sensitive (HSP). "Highly Sensitive and Creative". Retrieved 2020-09-15.

I appreciate the intent. However, after discussions in (mainly) 2016, the content of this article has been rather strictly limited to what's asserted in technical or medical papers. Whether historical figures and celebrities meet the HSP definition is conjectural or anecdotal, even if it's from Dr. Aron's website, so it's probably not appropriate here. —RCraig09 (talk) 18:23, 15 September 2020 (UTC)Reply