Gallery Presentation International Positive Psychology Association 7th IPPA World Congress 2021

A qualitative exploration of individual differences in wellbeing for highly sensitive individuals (#132)

Becky Black 1 , Peggy Kern 1
  1. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

 

Background

Cultures explicitly and implicitly create and reinforce social norms and expectations, which impact upon how individuals make sense of and experience their place within that culture. Lay conceptions and social norms around wellbeing in Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies tend to emphasize social outgoingness and high-arousal positive emotions, with introversion and negative emotion often looked down upon or even pathologized. Yet this extravert-centric conception of wellbeing misaligns with the personality of many individuals who live within WEIRD societies, such as those who score high on the personality trait of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS). This study explored the phenomenon of wellbeing for high SPS individuals who misfit their WEIRD culture yet report high levels of wellbeing.

 

Research Questions

This study was guided by three research questions:

What factors impact wellbeing for high-SPS individuals?

What is helpful and harmful to their wellbeing?

What do high-SPS individuals do to experience wellbeing?

 

Sample Characteristics and Sample Size

Drawing on a subset of respondents from the Wellbeing and Highly Sensitive Person study (N = 430) who were classified as high-SPS with high wellbeing, interviews were conducted with 12 individuals (1 male, 11 females). Interviewees’ were of Asian (n = 4) or White Australian (n = 8) descent, ages 19 to 69.

 

Design

This study involved qualitative interviews designed to explore the phenomenon of high-SPS wellbeing, providing an idiographic exploration of how high-SPS individuals conceive of and experience wellbeing.

 

Results

Findings suggest that highly sensitive individuals perceive wellbeing arising from harmony across multiple dimensions. Interviewees emphasised the value of low-intensity positive emotion, positive social relationships balanced by times of solitude, connecting with nature, practicing self-compassion, and self-acceptance for their wellbeing.

 

Scientific Contribution

This study provides the first phenomenological investigation of flourishing in a high-SPS population group.


 

  1. Black, B. A., & Kern, M. L. (2020). A qualitative exploration of individual differences in wellbeing for highly sensitive individuals. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 6(June), Article number 103. doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0482-8
  2. Black, B. A., & Kern, M. L. (2020). Individual pathways to flourishing: The influence of sensory processing sensitivity on wellbeing. In J. A. Schermer & A. D. Fabio (Eds.), Abstracts from the International Society for the Study of Individual Differences Conference 2019 (Vol. 157).
  • Keywords: Coping and Emotion Regulation, Culture, Environment and Nature, Mindfulness, Relationships