Sensitivity in psychology is what, definition, examples

The characteristic feature of a person, which manifests itself in excessive sensitivity to the phenomena of the surrounding world, is called sensitivity in psychology. People susceptible to this phenomenon usually have an increased sense of anxiety, protect themselves with barriers to social communication, and are afraid of new situations, unfamiliar sensations, and even minor trials. This feature may manifest itself differently in different people, depending on its type and nature.

The concept of sensitivity in psychology

In psychology, sensitivity is a wide range of mental processes associated with a person’s increased perception of events. Translated from Latin, “sensitivity” means a feeling or sensation, which in psychology has both negative and positive characteristics of attitude towards various situations.

The most striking examples of sensitivity:

• fear of the new;
• low pain barrier;
• self-criticism and increased self-reflection;
• shyness, fear of criticism and closedness;
• low self-esteem, feelings of unworthiness and excessive demands on oneself;
• impressionability and strong feelings about even minor events (positive and negative);
• ability to establish relationships with others;
• building in the past due to bad experiences.

Such a sensitive person can be either timid and insecure or a confident leader. It all depends on what kind of sensitivity we are talking about and how a person is aware of his strengths and weaknesses.

For example, the most striking advantages of controlled sensitivity are the following character traits:

• high moral standards and social responsibility of a person;
• kindness and kindness;
• empathy, that is, readiness to empathize;
• the ability to detect subtle aspects in interpersonal communication and non-verbal expression;
• ability to build teamwork and quickly resolve conflicts.

Thus, sensitivity can have positive sides - if you know how to show them. That is why there are trainings and exercises to increase sensitivity and empathy. But you also need to take into account that with age, sensitivity can either decrease or increase, so everything largely depends on a person’s self-awareness and self-control.

Pros and cons of sensitivity

As we have already found out above, increased sensitivity cannot be considered only a negative or only a positive character trait, since it has both disadvantages and advantages.

The main advantages of sensitivity :

• this quality contributes to professional improvement in areas of activity related to helping other people;
• heightened sensitivity helps to establish relationships with loved ones and increase mutual level of trust;
• sensitivity often becomes the cause of perfectionism, which helps to hone skills in one’s profession;
• Social sensitivity helps to get closer to new acquaintances and build good relationships in the team.

The main disadvantages of sensitivity :

• excessive sensitivity can lead to problems with socialization;
• sometimes this property prevents a person from achieving goals (for example, if a person is afraid of interpersonal interaction with people whose assistance he now requires);
• sensitivity can not only promote rapprochement, but also interfere with it;
• sensitive individuals often become withdrawn, and their social activity tends to zero.

Reasons for appearance

Sensitivity is a common description in psychology of human qualities, the causes of which can be several.

The most common of them come from the family and the characteristics of upbringing:

• emotional dryness of parents, need for affection and care;
• violence in family;
• categoricalness and strict rules of education;
• excessive discipline.

Genetic predispositions also play an equally important role, such as:

• neuroses, depression;
• heredity;
• brain injury during the perinatal period or at birth;
• mental illness;
• anxiety disorders.

Also, the reason for increased sensitivity may be the social circle, especially during the critical period of growing up, when authority and imitation of it are an important part of behavior:

• inability to satisfy the desire to be approved (by parents, teacher);
• conflicts among children and rejection by the team.

All this develops an inferiority complex and a hypersensitive perception of reality, that is, sensitivity.

Causes of sensitivity

Like most other personality traits, sensitivity most often appears in early childhood. Usually the reasons are family problems, such as:

• Overly strict upbringing. The child understands that he will be severely punished for any mistake, and strives to avoid this by all available means. And since he does not always understand why he was punished, he gets the impression that he can be punished at any time and for anything. As a result, he becomes withdrawn and avoids communication because he is afraid of reproach. In the future, every mistake seems to him a terrible failure, since it awakens in him a childish fear of punishment.
• Lack of love and attention. If a child has the impression that he is not loved and valued, he gets used to the feeling of emotional rejection. In the future, such a person may become a social phobe, because he lives with a constant fear that he is not appreciated and will soon be abandoned, which means that even pleasant communication causes him a state of internal discomfort.
• Childhood in an incomplete family. This is a rather painful situation for a child, since he has to deal with condescending attitude from his peers. He himself is embarrassed by this feature, so any questions about his family cause him great discomfort. Having matured, such a person becomes secretive, does not like to talk about himself and is sensitive to personal questions.

Of course, this list is far from complete, and almost any serious problems in the family that cause a child emotional suffering can, in the long term, lead to the development of sensitivity in him. For example, along with a lack of attention, the cause of this condition can be overprotection or idealization of the child’s qualities, implying inflated expectations (in particular, demands for school success).

Sensitivity as a personality quality and a property of temperament. Signs and examples

In psychology, sensitivity is an important characteristic of a person’s perception of the world, as well as a set of stable human properties that influence the formation of temperament, speed of reactions and resistance to stress.

Therefore, the influence of mild stimuli and a person’s violent reaction to them are examples of high sensitivity. On the other hand, sensitivity is a vivid expression of a melancholic personality, vulnerable and worried for a long time, even over trifles and fictions. The most striking example of a sensitive person is Pierrot from the cartoon about Malvina: he suffers all the time and worries excessively.

Sensitivity in psychology

On the opposite hand, a person who has low sensitivity, that is, good resistance to stress and adequate reactions to events, has a good level of resistance - increased emotional stability. Such character traits are more characteristic of phlegmatic and sanguine people, that is, calm and balanced people. On the other hand, phlegmatic and sanguine people may seem stubborn, and it would be good for them to develop sensitivity.

Sensitivity is a description in personality psychology of two completely different categories of information perception, such as emotional sensitivity and sensory perception. These are concepts that largely influence the character and professional qualities of each person.

Sensitivity of the emotional sphere

One of the most striking signs of a person’s excessive sensitivity is increased sensitivity, emotional experiences, which can often be caused by minor events, fears or anxiety.

Sensitivity of the emotional sphere in the psychology of sensitivity is a type of stable excessive manifestation of reactions to various situations, which can have different forms, such as:

• mood swings;
• low self-esteem;
• amorousness;
• anxiety, phobias;
• long-term experience of one’s own failures;
• self-examination and excessive self-criticism;
• empathy and compassion for the problems of others.

Sensitive people are not only prone to melancholic periods and depressive states, they are also people with a high empathic component, sometimes very excessive. Psychologists believe that any unbalanced strong feelings, characteristic of sensitive people, do not pass without a trace and over time manifest themselves in the development of phobias, frustrations, nervousness, depression and emotional burnout.

Sensitivity of the touch sphere

If the sensitivity of the emotional sphere in sensitivity denotes the intensity of a person’s reaction to events, then the sensitivity of the sensory sphere is used to describe 5 ways of perceiving information and their intensity, namely: touch, smell, vision, hearing and taste.

Even without an active cognitive reaction, that is, a person’s exaggeration of events, the sensitivity of these 5 sensitive sensors can be considered as a separate type of sensitivity and described by the concept of “sensitivity threshold”.

For example, hypersensitivity, or low sensitivity, to sound is commonly seen in musicians and blind people, there is also increased sensitivity to smell due to allergies or pregnancy, sensitivity to light can be a feature of the eyeball, and artists have well-developed sensitivity to shade. colors and shape features.

Thus, sensory sensitivity is a great advantage for the development of professional skills or adaptation to external circumstances in comparison with emotional sensitivity, and it can also be developed.

Development of sensitivity

We can identify the main qualities characteristic of sensitive individuals:

• Shyness;
• Timidity;
• Excessive impressionability;
• Feelings of inferiority;
• Tendency to linger over past or future events.

As you might guess, such qualities are most often determined by the specific characteristics of a person’s upbringing and life experience. At the same time, there are cases when the development of sensitivity is provoked by various organic reasons (for example, heredity, brain damage, etc.)

However, sensitivity, as a rule, begins in childhood. Emotional rejection of the child in family relationships in this case is the most common reason. If parents do not give him the necessary attention, affection and care, in addition to various complexes, the child begins to develop sensitivity. This is how isolation, unsociability and anxiety arise.

The same can be said about the situation when parents show excessive severity towards their children. The response is a constant desire for solitude and isolation in one’s own world. The child, on a subconscious level, tries to avoid all contact with people, so as not to be subjected to another punishment or reproach.

For many people, sensitivity softens over the years, as age and experience teach them to be more practical in real life. They begin to see things more simply and gain the ability to better control their own emotions.

Types of sensitivity

Depending on the direction in psychology, sensitivity is perceived differently: as the ability to perceive information (emotional and sensory sensitivity), and as a feature of temperament, where social sensitivity is distinguished, consisting of 4 types :

Thus, although balanced emotional sensitivity helps to cope with one’s own experiences, it is these 4 types of social sensitivity that are the key to success in professional growth. An important property of social sensitivity is overcoming the feeling of fear of society, communicating with other people, overcoming the inferiority complex characteristic of many people.

In psychology, it is believed that it is with the awareness of one’s inferiority that social sensitivity begins to develop - this is the willingness to overcome the fear of publicity, the desire to resolve conflict situations or find a way to improve relationships with new acquaintances.

Examples of sensitivity

Increased sensitivity can manifest itself in different ways, but most often it takes the following forms:

• low self-esteem, a tendency to attach increased importance to one’s mistakes;
• changeability of mood, tendency to instantly change the emotional state to the completely opposite;
• increased anxiety, which can lead to the development of phobias;
• tendency to reflect and ruminate;
• touchiness;
• timidity, shyness, stage fright and other social fears;
• acute reaction to other people's emotions;
• tendency to overestimate the importance of minor troubles.

Often there is also such a manifestation of sensitivity as a tendency to quickly and strongly become attached, to consider a close friend to a barely familiar person. If it turns out that he was not so good or did not reciprocate friendly feelings, this causes additional pain to the sensitive person.

An overly sensitive person usually reacts sensitively to other people's emotions. But unlike empathy, sensitivity does not help you subtly feel sincere experiences, but makes you react even to fake ones. Therefore, sensitive people are forced to constantly take on the heavy burden of other people’s emotions, and those around them often take advantage of this.

Classification of related personality types

In addition to emotional and social sensitivity, psychologists identify related types of behavior that relate to personal characteristics of temperament.

Sensitivity of temperament substantiates the personal qualities of a person, outside the spectrum of his emotional response to events and behavior in the social environment. Sensitiveness of temperament describes certain character traits, which in psychology are better known as melancholic, as well as depressive states of varying complexity. On the other hand, such hypersensitivity is not particularly characteristic of other types of temperament, that is, choleric, phlegmatic and sanguine.

The most common qualities of temperament that are described in the characteristics of sensitivity are the following human traits:

• strong impressionability;
• vulnerability;
• anxiety;
• suspiciousness;
• touchiness;
• self-criticism;
• inferiority complex.

What is sensitivity?

Sensitivity is a character trait that expresses a person’s ability to feel and distinguish between external stimuli, and also characterizes the strength of his reaction to them and the level of anxiety in anticipation of important events. It can be a constant feature of a person or appear only periodically - at moments when for one reason or another he becomes more emotionally vulnerable than usual.

The term "sensitivity" is derived from the Latin word sensus, which translates as "feeling" or "sensation". Therefore, it can be literally translated as “sensitivity” or “susceptibility.”

Although hypersensitivity itself does not cause harm, it can be quite detrimental to life. It interferes with social adaptation, affecting how a person perceives the world around him and himself. In particular, he reacts painfully to his own mistakes, attaches greater importance to his shortcomings and at the same time tends to underestimate his own strengths.

Sensitivity depends primarily on temperament, since it is temperament that determines how sharply a person reacts to external events. Choleric and melancholic people are especially sensitive, which is why they have increased sensitivity. But sanguine and phlegmatic people usually perceive everything much calmer. However, this rule is not ironclad, and a person with any type of temperament may have either increased or decreased sensitivity.

What are sensitive periods?

Sensitivity as a concept in psychology is also characterized by age characteristics. The idea of ​​sensitivity in developmental psychology describes peak and important moments in the development of mental functions of the individual in a given period. Sensitive periods are most pronounced in childhood and adolescence.

Child psychologists argue that the child’s psyche is more sensitive to the perception of the outside world, has less resistance and, because of this, is not only more impressionable, but also more capable of learning basic skills for living in society. The child’s development itself is progressive and uneven, so sensitive periods do not always occur, but they critically influence the formation of one or another human function and skill.

For example, the sensitive period for speech formation is the age from 0 to 6 years, when the child is actively learning speech skills. During this time, he unconsciously adopts the speech habits of his environment - vocabulary, grammar and dialectisms, and begins to master written speech.

From 6 to 10 years of age, sensitivity manifests itself in the learning process and in the development of discipline. This period is critical for the formation of the type of thinking and the development of basic cognitive functions - writing, reading, abstract concepts, mathematics and reflection.

At the age of 10, adolescence begins, the sensitivity of which is aimed at developing self-knowledge and self-esteem, separating oneself from collective perception. Critical skills during this period are the development of communication, the formation of one’s own worldview and value system.

Concept

Sensitivity is a characterological feature of a person, expressed in increased sensitivity, which is colored by anxiety before new events. Individual manifestations are as follows:

• low self-esteem;
• increased sensitivity;
• timidity;
• shyness;
• harsh self-criticism;
• inferiority complex;
• tendency to experience prolonged experiences.

The level of sensitivity in interpersonal communication is maximally influenced by a person’s innate characteristics:

• features of the education received;
• heredity;
• organic brain lesions.

With age, in the process of self-education, a person is able to reduce the level of his sensitivity, overcoming the feeling of anxiety before new events.

In psychology, sensitivity is considered as a manifestation of excessive sensitivity or insensitivity, characterized by a complete lack of emotional reaction to the actions and behavior of others. Insensitivity manifests itself:

• complete indifference;
• lack of physical sensations;
• tactlessness and inattention to other people.

Age sensitivity

The importance of developing a particular personal skill during a sensitive period is justified by the most acceptable biological and social need. In case of unsatisfactory development of skills during the sensitive period (communication, discipline, speech or writing), developing them at a later age will be possible, but more difficult.

Also, the unsatisfactory development of mental skills during a particular sensitive period can contribute to the development of mental problems: if a child does not speak on time, he may have problems communicating with other children, which will develop into a feeling of inferiority.

Age sensitivity and its timely use are considered by psychologists to be the key to the harmonious development of a child, his behavior, psyche, skills and talents. Age sensitivity in the learning process was developed in more detail by the Italian teacher and pedagogue Maria Montessori, who identified 7 critical periods of children’s age development:

• speech development (up to 6 years);
• development of perception of order (up to 3 years);
• sensory perception (up to 5 years);
• development of motor skills and plasticity (from 1 to 4 years);
• recognition and study of small objects (from 1 to 7 years);
• phonemic sensitivity (4 to 5 years);
• sensitive period for the development of writing skills (from 6 to 8 years).

Thus, age sensitivity is an important factor that should be taken into account during childhood growth and socialization.

Signs of sensitivity

Signs of a sensitive person are:

• timidity;
• vulnerability;
• shyness;
• suspiciousness;
• touchiness;
• emotional excitability;
• low self-esteem;
• tendency to see events in a negative color;
• conscientiousness;
• tendency to self-criticism and self-examination;
• lack of confidence in one's own strengths and abilities;
• the presence of various phobias;
• self-criticism;
• fear of judgment from significant people;
• the person experiences difficulties in situations of choice;
• fears of taking responsibility;
• tendency to experience grievances and failures for a long time and painfully;
• tendency to get stuck on painful emotions;
• low stress resistance;
• vanity;
• causeless mood swings;
• anxiety that arises on the eve of a significant event, which is difficult for a person to suppress;
• inferiority complex;
• poor development of communication skills;
• isolation;
• amorousness;
• it seems to the person that those around him are hostile;
• a person’s complaints that friends and relatives do not understand him and do not take his ideas seriously.

Hypersensitivity as a character trait should not be confused with overexcitation. A sensitive person always reacts sharply to phenomena and events, and overexcitation as a short-term state can be observed in every person at one time or another in life.

Personal relationships of the sensitive

Sensitivity is also an important factor in compatibility in a couple: people with different levels of perception and emotional experience can rarely get along and respect each other’s boundaries.

It often happens that a person with increased emotional sensitivity will withdraw even more into himself and his anxiety will increase due to the fear of breaking up the relationship. On the other hand, if a person has low social sensitivity, he will be afraid to violate the boundaries of his partner and thereby embarrass both of them with understatements.

Thus, taking into account sensitivity at the everyday and emotional level of a couple is an important aspect of building a harmonious relationship.

Development of sensitivity

Developmental sensitivity has its origins in human childhood. The reasons may be various situations in the family:

1. 1. When parents show excessive severity towards a child, the answer may be constant avoidance of contacts, solitude, isolation and closedness in their world. The child does this subconsciously, trying to avoid punishment and reproach.
2. 2. Lack of affection, attention, emotional rejection of the child in the family provokes the development of sensitivity, manifested by:

• isolation;
• unsociability;
• anxiety.

3. Sensitivity due to the absence of a father is common:

• birth out of wedlock;
• death of a parent;
• a father who has little interest in the child.

This is associated with the emergence of a conflict between “to be” and “to be able”, dictated by a strict I-ideal. The situation is aggravated by the participation of the mother, expressed by:

• increased attention;
• affection;
• protecting the child from adversity;
• idealization of his qualities.

On the one hand, a sensitive personality is vulnerable and impressionable, and on the other, vain. A strong function of the Superego is formed, which is expressed by dependence on the assessment of people around, often expressed through a sensitive fear of condemnation.

Career and professional activities

The sensitivity factor can also be used for proper career development. On the one hand, understanding your own emotional sensitivity allows you to improve stress resistance and not succumb to excessive self-criticism and the influence of negative thinking.

On the other hand, the development of social sensitivity is a key skill in modern professional activity, ensuring successful communication with others, the ability to build relationships and find a common language with colleagues.

You're always on your guard

The first thought that comes to your mind when you come to a party or meeting is: “What might people around me not like about me?”

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Do you need constant encouragement and support from your loved ones to prove that they truly care about you?

Do you worry when your friend talks to someone else? Are you worried that he is actually closer to other people than he is to you?

Are you embarrassed that you're the last one to know when your friend is getting married?

Do you get jealous when a close friend or loved one finds someone other than you interesting?

If so, these are all signs of rejection sensitivity.

Sensitivity: treat or develop?

Sensitivity in psychology is an ambiguous concept; it can be either a useful quality of a person’s character or a negative property of the psyche. On the one hand, sensitivity helps to develop important skills and personality traits, and on the other hand, it can contribute to mental disorders (neuroses, depression and panic attacks).

Despite its ambiguity, sensitivity is part of a full human life. Therefore, if you have a positive attitude towards it, and be able to balance the level of sensitivity, this will become an important aspect of life experience. That is why today there are many different courses and trainings that help develop perception skills, improve the skills of empathy, communication, observation and form adequate self-criticism - important aspects of professional activity.

Therefore, if you treat your own sensitivity responsibly and analyze in time which tendencies are more inherent to a person, positive or destructive, this will become an important factor in improving life.

Kinds

From a psychological point of view, sensitivity as a personality trait is interpreted through the ability to perceive the character traits and feelings of different people and predict their behavior. Interpersonal sensitivity is divided into the following types:

1. 1. Observational, based on the ability to immediately notice all manifestations of the qualities of other people: appearance, speech, behavior.
2. 2. Theoretical - the use of different theories that explain and predict the thoughts, sensations and behavior of another person.
3. 3. Nomothetic - identifying the main features of a representative of a social group, predicting the behavior of people belonging to this group.

The concept of intercultural sensitivity includes the ability to make perceptual assessments, structure the characteristics of representatives of different national groups, and effectively predict people's behavior.

1. 4. Ideographic, characterized by the skill of understanding the uniqueness and individual characteristics of a particular person.

Sensitivity training

Thus, simple cognitive behavioral therapy exercises can help keep sensitivity within a reasonable range. Moreover, these exercises help maintain awareness in difficult situations and in case of any psycho-emotional deviations, and not slide into emotional burnout or depression.

The most popular exercises for group sensitivity training are the following:

Thus, sensitivity training can help improve attention, memory and perception in every person. On the other hand, there are also trainings that help reduce excessive emotional sensitivity, which also interferes with productive work and building relationships.

Types of sensitivity

The traditional approach to the classification of sensitivity is the theory of G. Smith, who identified the following types of this individual characteristic:

• observational sensitivity, which ensures a person’s ability to remember details of a person’s appearance, as well as his phrases after a short interaction with him;
• social sensitivity is associated with the fact that a person notices people’s reactions to his words or actions, but interprets them incorrectly; this has a significant impact on a person’s behavior, as it gives rise to intrapersonal complexes, numerous fears associated with the fact that he will not be able to justify expectations of others);
• emotional sensitivity, as a result of which the individual demonstrates vivid reactions to certain events (as a rule, he lives by the events of the past, is not able to accept them and treat them calmly);
• theoretical sensitivity, expressed in the fact that a person understands social psychology, but does not always use it in real life;
• organic sensitivity, manifested in the form of heightened functioning of the individual’s perceptual channels;
• sensitive temperament, which explains the natural impressionability of a melancholic person and the hot temper of a choleric person;
• nomothetic sensitivity helps a person predict the reactions of a particular person, focusing on typical patterns of behavior of representatives of a particular social or professional group;
• ideographic sensitivity, thanks to which a person is able to perceive and adequately evaluate the diversity of behavioral stereotypes of others.

Drug therapy

Sensitivity is a natural property of every person, of varying degrees of intensity. Psychology also provides different ways to work on individual sensitivity - from reducing it to increasing it. However, there is also an extreme form of therapy – medication.

This is specialized care that is used only in cases of severe emotional and psychological disturbance of the nervous system. Typically, treatment is aimed at restoring hormonal levels and is carried out under the supervision of a specialist.

Age sensitivity

Age-related sensitivity reflects a person’s sensitivity to the influence of the external environment at a certain stage of development.

An important discovery of L. S. Vygotsky in child psychology is considered to be the determination of age periods that are most favorable for the development of certain functions. Periodization has the following form:

• newborn;
• infancy: 2 months - 1 year;
• early childhood: 1–3 years;
• preschool age: 3–7 years;
• school: 8–12 years;
• puberty: 14–17 years.

This knowledge is used in pedagogy to determine the age favorable for a child’s learning, development and enrichment of his physical, intellectual, emotional, social and cultural capabilities.

In the life of every child there are periods in which nature itself provides favorable conditions for the development of mental properties that ensure receptivity to the acquisition of certain knowledge. These periods are considered sensitive.

Sensitive periods

The sensitive period is a part of a child’s life, characterized by optimal conditions for the development of his psychological qualities for a certain type of activity.

These stages have a time limit. Having missed one of the periods of mental development, you will have to spend a lot of effort and time in the future to fill the gap. Some of the mental functions may not appear later. Examples include cases where children who spent their childhood among animals were returned to society. No rehabilitation programs could teach them either full speech or adaptation to new conditions. These children continued to copy the lives and habits of animals.

The sensitive period is a time of optimal opportunities for the most harmonious formation of mental properties, reflecting the ability to change in accordance with external circumstances.

In the first years of life, a variety of activities, environments, and emotions are extremely important for the development of a person. Lack of knowledge, skills, emotions, mental and physical development in childhood is an irreparable gap in his future life.

Sensitivity is a feature of a person’s character; in psychology, this term refers to certain behavior and personality characteristics: a person is often timid in an unfamiliar situation, feels embarrassed, feels anxious, and is afraid of a new situation of communicating with other people. In general, this phenomenon characterizes the excessive sensitivity of the individual to various events and phenomena surrounding him.

Such increased sensitivity to circumstances may correspond to a certain age or persist as a characterological feature throughout life. It can smooth out over the course of life, and sometimes its manifestation increases. This is due to the events that a person experiences.

There are a number of reasons for the appearance of sensitivity:

• heredity;
• organic brain damage;
• features of upbringing;
• age periods.

By heredity we need to understand the temperament that is passed on to the child from the parents. The strength and speed of the nervous system (this is temperament) affects a person’s susceptibility to various life situations.

People with a melancholic type of temperament are most prone to display sensitivity. They are highly impressionable, suspicious and anxious. It is difficult for them to experience grievances and failures; they tend to blame themselves, first of all, for all troubles. Phlegmatic and sanguine people, on the contrary, react less to life's ups and downs.

There is a concept of “family anxiety,” when increased sensitivity is characteristic not only of one person, but of the entire family. Here concerns and fears relate to health, conflicts, and long-term absence of family members.

People with organic brain damage are also characterized by increased sensitivity in various situations. Sensitivity is one of the symptoms of their underlying disease. It manifests itself along with irritability, fatigue, dizziness, nausea and other symptoms.

Peculiarities of upbringing should be understood as emotional rejection of the child by parents, excessive severity, various types of moral violence in the family and other incorrect methods of education.

The child’s psyche is too susceptible to such situations. They can be a psychological trauma for him, which, taking root in the subconscious, leads to the development of increased sensitivity to certain life problems. When too many demands are placed on a child, he experiences fear of not meeting them. Such experiences can become fixed in the character of a little person, manifesting themselves through increased sensitivity.

Many scientists (Vygotsky, Ananyev, Zaporozhets and others) spoke about sensitive age periods when a person is susceptible to environmental influences. Here this phenomenon is characterized from a positive side, since it means a period of increased perception of the child and adult towards the development of certain qualities and skills.

For example, at 2-3 years old, a child actively forms new words, he learns to speak and form sentences. If such periods in a child’s life are used correctly, he will be able to fully understand the reality around him with the help of a significant adult.

Sensitivity - increased sensitivity, vulnerability, uncertainty

(sensitivity) or special sensitivity of a person.

when the act of accepting the transfer of an apartment is signed upon its sale

Call us and we will not only correctly carry out a complete diagnosis, but will also be able to quickly help you!

Treatment usually proceeds quickly and brings a positive effect.

Delusion of a sensitive attitude - Delusion associated with the real or imaginary physical or moral inferiority of the patient, physical or mental disabilities, indecent acts committed in the past. Often the patient is convinced that some action, often not good, is known to others and is the basis for hints and discussions.

You're overreacting

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You pay attention to facial expressions, body language, changes in tone of voice and other small details in people's behavior. All of this sharpens your reaction when things go against your desired scenario.

Imagine you are meeting someone for the first time and you agree to meet at a restaurant. He (she) is already waiting for you when you enter the hall, and the hostess leads you to a table.

Now imagine the following scenarios:

• Your counterpart looks at you as you walk to the table, smiles, stands up and extends his hand.
• Your companion barely looks at you, his face expresses nothing, and when you approach, he, without saying a word, gestures for you to sit down.
• Your new acquaintance is busy with his phone, and when you said hello and introduced yourself, he only glances at you briefly and mutters to himself: “Uh-huh,” without even smiling.

The first scenario poses no problem, but how would you handle the remaining two cases?

A person with adequate personal boundaries will identify a new acquaintance's behavior as rudeness, decide that his manners are his problem and no one else's, but will try to focus on communication and see if anything can come of this meeting, despite the unsuccessful start.

And what about you?

• Will you decide that you were snubbed because you failed to impress your date?
• Will you try to justify the other person's behavior and say something funny to defuse the situation?
• Will you try to please him in any way?
• Will you sit at a table, getting angrier every minute?
• Take this as further confirmation that all men (women) are unreliable partners?
• Would you rather just get up and leave?

The unconscious tendency to take other people's behavior too personally and to take things personally prevents you from achieving your own goals.

How hard it is to confess your love

You are prone to “mental chewing gum”

How did it happen that at the party everyone was happily chatting with each other, and you stood alone in the corner?

If Anya didn't invite you to her birthday, it definitely means she's not as good a friend as you previously thought.

You were also the only person at the book club meeting who liked the novel, which made you feel like an idiot.

You are unable to let go of the situation, and your thoughts continue to spin on this annoying carousel. This is another sign that you are “too sensitive.”

Fortunately, these unconscious patterns can be changed once you find their source in childhood experiences.

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