New HSP Insights - Dr Elaine Aron

6 Sept

Written By Joanne Ostler

To watch/listen to the Interview: https://youtu.be/XfZC7lQf4Ws

Two of the most commonly asked questions about HSP are:

Is the Highly Sensitive Persons Trait (HSP) a real thing?

Is it useful to know?

(Over the past 25 years, the research looks like the answers are: Yes and Yes.)

Brief summary: Dr Elaine Aron has been researching the HSP trait for the past 25 years (along with others, for example, Sensitivity Research’s Professor Michael Pluess and team). The research clearly shows it is real and useful. The HSP trait is observed in roughly 15-20% of populations and found across 100 or so species other than humans. It’ is consistent across continents and cultures. However, it is still not well-known or accepted, partly because it is relatively recent research (25 years is not that long). New concepts and research take time to be included in education and training and to filter out into the world. (If the therapist didn’t learn about it at “school”, they’re less likely to include in their work). There’s an even distribution between males and females (50/50). HSP is not the same as introversion or shyness and it is not a disorder. It is simply a different temperament trait to that of the majority of the population.

I've just stumbled on this wonderful and recent video interview with Elaine Aron (2022), speaking to the Swedish High Sensitivity Association (speaking in English, thankfully!)

I was taken with some of the comments below the video with listeners remarking on how much Dr Aron’s work has changed their lives. You can read them for yourself, but for example:

“You have improved my quality of life to an unquantifiable extent.”
“Your work has truly changed my life.”

I share here just a few of the points I found most interesting.

In the DOES model, Depth of Processing is the first and the essential trait. It’s the depth of processing (reflecting) that gets us over-stimulated because we are processing everything so deeply. This is really the only “problem” area. The other three markers are all pluses - Emotionally responsive, (you think deeply because you care a lot); Sensitive to subtle stimuli. (Note from Jo - I notice this one in my coaching work).
There’s another letter, that we didn’t clearly understand at the time of identifying “DOES”, but is “really key to the trait”. it is “differential susceptibility”. “Because we pick up on our environment so thoroughly, we pick up on both the good and the bad… If anything we pick up on more of the good or the positive things that happen to us than the negative. Our brains are are more responsive to more responsive than other people to the positive.” (This offers optimism for potential effectiveness of therapy or coaching).
HSP is being a "temperament trait" not a "personality trait". It is innate, largely biological (nature), not nurture.
- (Personality, on the other hand, through the lens of the enneagram, is the construct we developed as children as a way of surviving in the world.)
Dr Aron is “pretty opposed” to HSP being seen as a “diagnosis” because we’re not “struggling with a disorder”.
30% of HSPs are extraverts.
Dr Elaine Aron really liked the term “Highly Reflective Person” because it captured the depth of processing, but she realised she needed a term that applied to all animals that were sensitive as well.
It’s hard to get away from the word “highly” because that’s what the trait is. (Aha!)
“High functioning highly sensitive people just blend in. That’s part of the trait - to just blend in.”
Dr Aron says: “It is a struggle in most western cultures for sensitive men to even know they're highly sensitive or to feel good about their trait because the norm for a man has been something something else but you'll be glad to know fortunately we declared last year 2020 is the year of the highly sensitive man. I said, maybe it's going to have to be a decade of the highly sensitive man because there's a lot of work to do in this area!” (Dr Aron uses the acronym, STYLE for HSP men)
Sensitivity is not about being fragile.
The opposite of sensitivity is impulsiveness. (HSPs are reflective, observers, and blend in - biologically wired to survive that way).
“Part of the wisdom I'd like all of us to carry is that there is a tendency in human beings… it's a natural instinct to have in [and out] groups… a tendency to [think in] opposites and then have preferences. Black or white…. in those opposites like black white or… dog or cat. We hear it, and we immediately know that one of them is a little bit more our favorite for some reason. It’s a survival thing to know who we should protect and who we maybe should watch out for. But we really don't need that in this world we need us to transcend that instinct so all living things are are in the in group.”
(This is why I love the “Adult Development” or “Vertical Development” framework. It gives us a map for growth - and transcending opposites. Polarity maps are one of my favourite tools in helping us navigate tensions between two forces in a complex world, where both poles are positive. E.g. work and rest as part of a healthy life/society.)
Dr Aron made a lovely point towards the end. Something I invite you to hold space for: “I really want to emphasise the importance of your individuality. We're each of us different. If we had all the pictures up we'd all see very different people. We know we're all so different and we so so quickly gloss over that fact, so everything I've said today will have its exceptions and you may be the exception so please keep that in mind.”
Dr Aron was asked: “How can you as an HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) handle this societal norm (of being less sensitive)?” She replied: “Well it's back to trying to teach people that everybody's not the same in a gentle way. Expanding their consciousness of what people are like.”