Highly sensitive persons

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), a personality trait, a high measure of which defines a highly sensitive person (HSP), has been described as having hypersensitivity to external stimuli, a greater depth of cognitive processing, and high emotional reactivity. The terms SPS and HSP were coined in the mid-1990s by psychologists Elaine Aron and husband Arthur Aron, with SPS being measured by Aron's Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) questionnaire. Other researchers have applied various other terms to denote this responsiveness to stimuli that is evidenced in humans and other species.

According to the Arons and colleagues, people with high SPS comprise about 15–20% of the population and are thought to process sensory data more deeply due to the nature of their central nervous system. Although many researchers consistently related high SPS to negative outcomes, Aron and colleagues state that high SPS is a personality trait and not a disorder; other researchers have associated it with increased responsiveness to both positive and negative influences.

Elaine Aron's 1996 book The Highly Sensitive Person defined a population of people having "increased sensitivity to stimulation" and who "are more aware of subtleties and process information in a deeper, more reflective way." In 1997 Elaine and Arthur Aron formally identifiedsensory processing sensitivity (SPS), the scientific term for highly sensitive or hypersensitivity, as the defining trait of highly sensitive persons (HSPs). By way of definition, Aron & Aron (1997) wrote that sensory processing here refers not to the sense organs as such, but to what occurs as sensory information is transmitted to or processed in the brain. The trait has been described as "neither flaw nor gift, ... an amplifier of an environment's effects."

Aron's professional journal articles and self-help publications have focused on distinguishing high SPS from socially behavior and disorders with which high SPS can be confused; overcoming the social unacceptability that can cause low self-esteem; and emphasizing the advantages of high SPS to balance the disadvantages emphasized by others.

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