On the feeling of being different-an interview study with people who define themselves as highly sensitive.

Roth, Marcus; Gubler, Danièle A; Janelt, Tobias; Kolioutsis, Banous; Troche, Stefan J (2023). On the feeling of being different-an interview study with people who define themselves as highly sensitive. PLoS ONE, 18(3), e0283311. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0283311

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The construct of "sensory processing sensitivity" has become an extremely popular concept outside the scientific literature under the term "high sensitivity" (HS), reflected in a variety of self-help guides and media reports. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate this phenomenon by examining in-depth individuals who consider the label HS essential to their self-definition. In semi-structured interviews, 38 individuals described their understanding of HS and its perceived manifestations and impact on their lives (among other topics). Subsequently, the data were content-analytically evaluated, i.e., categorized and quantified. One key finding was that HS individuals feel relief following self-attribution or self-diagnosis. Moreover, this self-attribution replaced the feeling of being somehow different from the others, which almost all interviewees mentioned, with positive attributes. The main negative features of HS mentioned were feeling overwhelmed by sensory and emotional stimuli. The results are discussed with regard to the significance of the label HS for this group on the one hand, and with regard to alternative approaches for future research on the other hand.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Personality Psychology, Differential Psychology and Diagnostics

UniBE Contributor:

Gubler, Danièle Anne, Troche, Stefan

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education

ISSN:

1932-6203

Publisher:

Public Library of Science

Language:

English

Submitter:

Pubmed Import

Date Deposited:

20 Mar 2023 15:03

Last Modified:

15 Mar 2024 13:18

Publisher DOI:

10.1371/journal.pone.0283311

PubMed ID:

36930633

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/180297

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/180297

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