Highly Sensitive Person Notes
Author’s Note
p. AN 1included a feature in Psychology Today: A. Bartz. “ Touchy! A [Gentle] Guide to theHighly Sensitive Person.,” Psychology Today 44 (2011): 72-79.

p. AN 1

shorter discussion in Time: B, Walsh, “The Power of Introverts,” Time 179 (2012): 43.

p. AN 2

I published a good summary of the theory and research in 2012: Aron, E., Aron, A., &Jagiellowicz, J. (2012). Sensory processing sensitivity: A review in the light of theevolution of biological responsivity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 16, 262282.

p. AN 3The very first published studies: Aron, E. & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing
sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality, Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 73, 345-368.

p. AN 3our second series of studies, published in 2005: Aron, E., Aron, A., & Davies, K.
(2005). Adult shyness: The interaction of temperamental sensitivity and a negative
childhood environment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 181-197.

p. AN 3A later study by Miriam Liss and others: Liss, M., Timmel, L., Baxley, K., &Killingsworth, P. (2005). Sensory processing sensitivity and its relation to parental
bonding, anxiety, and depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 14291439.

p. AN 3quite a few clinical studies: For a list of many of these articles see p. 13 of Aron, Aron,and J, 2012.

p. AN 4

done in Denmark by Cecilie Licht and others: Licht, C., Mortensen, E. L., & Knudsen, G.
M. (2011). Association between sensory processing sensitivity and the serotonintransporter polymorphism 5-HTTLPR short/short genotype. Biological Psychiatry, 69,
supplement for Society of Biological Psychiatry Convention and Annual Meeting,abstract 510.

p. AN 4

Now new research: For a review of the many positive effects of this allele, see M. Pluess
and J. Belsky, “Vantage Sensitivity: Individual Differences in Response to PositiveExperiences,” Psychological Bulletin, in press.

p. AN 4rhesus monkeys with the same genetic variation: Jedema, H. P., Gianaros, P. J., Greer, P.
J., Kerr, D. D., Liu, S., Higley, J. D., et al. (2009). Cognitive impact of genetic variationof the serotonin transporter in primates is associated with differences in brain
morphology rather than serotonin neurotransmission. Molecular Psychiatry, 15, 512522.

p. AN 4a study by Suomi: Suomi, S. J. (1997). Early determinants of behaviour: Evidence fromprimate studies. British Medical Bulletin, 53, 170-184.

p. AN 4a growing body of research by others: Belsky, J. & Pluess, M. (2009). Beyond diathesis
stress: Differential susceptibility to environmental influences. Psychological Bulletin,
135(6), 885–908;

p. AN 5now we know it’s over 100: Wolf, M., Van Doorn, S., & Weissing, F. J. (2008).
Evolutionary emergence of responsive and unresponsive personalities. PNAS, 105(41),15825.

p. AN 5in fact, 30% of HSPs are actually extraverts: Aron, E. & Aron, A. (1997). Sensoryprocessing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality, Journal ofPersonality and Social Psychology, 73, 345-368.

p. AN 5

Max Wolf and his colleagues: Wolf, M., Van Doorn, S., & Weissing, F. J. (2008).
Evolutionary emergence of responsive and unresponsive personalities. PNAS, 105(41),15825-15830.

p. AN 6

Chen and his associates: Chen, C., Chen, C., Moyzis, R., Stern, H., He, Q., Li, H., . . . &Dong, Q. (2011). Contributions of dopamine-related genes and environmental factors toHighly Sensitive Personality: A multi-step neuronal system-level approach. PLoS ONE.
6:e21636.

p. AN 7Franziska Borries did a particular statistical analysis: Borries, F. (2012). DO 'THE
HIGHLY SENSITIVE' EXIST? - A TAXOMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF THE
PERSONALITY CONSTRUCT SENSORY-PROCESSING SENSITIVITY. Universityof Bielefeld, Germany.

p. AN 7Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person in 2011: Aron. E. (2010) Psychotherapy
and highly sensitive person: Improving outcomes for that minority of people who are themajority of clients. NY: Routledge.

p. AN 8

Research by Jadzia Jagiellowicz: Jagiellowicz, J., Xu, X., Aron, A., Aron, E., Cao, G., Feng,T., & Weng, X. (2011). Sensory processing sensitivity and neural responses to changes invisual scenes. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6, 38-47.

p. AN 8

In another study, by ourselves and others: Aron, A., Ketay, S., Hedden, T., Aron, E.,
Markus, H. R., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2010). Temperament trait of sensory processingsensitivity moderates cultural differences in neural response, Special Issue on CulturalNeuroscience. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 5, 219-226.

p. AN 8research by Bianca Acevedo: Acevedo, B., Aron, A., Aron, E. (2010). Association ofsensory processing sensitivity when perceiving positive and negative emotional states.
Presented at APA, San Diego.

p. AN 8

Some have called it the seat of consciousness: Craig, A. D. (2009). How do you feel—now? The anterior insula and human awareness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10, 5970.

p. AN 9A recent study by Friederike Gerstenberg in Germany: F. Gerstenberg, “Sensoryprocessing sensitivity predicts performance on a visual search task followed by anincrease in perceived stress,” Personality and Individual Differences, 53 (2012) 496-500.

p. AN 9

Data from surveys and experiments: Already cited: Aron and Aron (1997) and Aron et al2005

p. AN 9a series of studies done by Jadzia Jagiellowiczs: J. Jagiellowicz, The Relationshipbetween the Temperament Trait of Sensory Processing Sensitivity and Emotional
Reactivity. a dissertation at SUNY-Stony Brook completed August 2012.

p. AN 9

M. Pluess and J. Belsky, “Vantage Sensitivity: Individual Differences in Response toPositive Experiences,” Psychological Bulletin, in press.

p. AN 10

In another study, by Bianca Acevedo: Acevedo, B., Aron, A., Aron, E. (2010).
Association of sensory processing sensitivity when perceiving positive and negative
emotional states. Presented at APA, San Diego.

p. AN 10The brain’s mirror neurons For a more complete understanding of mirror neurons, see M.
Iacoboni, Mirroring People: The New Science of how we Connect with Others (NewYork: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008).

p. AN 10

Roy Baumeister and his colleagues: Baumeister, F. R., Vohs, D. K., DeWall, N. C., &Zhang, L. (2007). How emotion shapes behavior: Feedback, anticipation, and reflection,rather than direct causation. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11(2), 167-203.

p. AN 11

People have other traits: For a fuller discussion of these traits, especially high sensation
seeking and HSPs, see E. Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person in Love (New York:Broadway Books, 2000).

p. AN 12

A study done by Bhavini Shrivastava: Shrivastava B. (2011). Predictors of work
performance for employees with sensory processing sensitivity (MSC Organisational
Psychology. City University, London).