Individual differences in environmental sensitivity part 1

Question 1

environmental sensitivity enables the individual to?

Answer 1

perceive, process, evaluate and respond to social and physical elements of the environment

Question 2

differences in environmental sensitivity have been studied by observing responses in new or threatening situations

Answer 2

two types of behavioral responses can be observed

some individuals are bold, aggressive and impulsive

other individuals are cautious and fearful

Question 3

Indivudial differences in envorimental sensitivity across species

Answer 3

These individual differences have been described across spiecies, Fish, rats, Monkeys, primates, birds etc

Question 4

How have individual differences in envoirmental sensitivity been described in humans

Answer 4

Tempremnetal differences

Question 5

Kagan 1994

Answer 5

Inhibited vs uninhibited children

Question 6

Inhibited children

Answer 6

React to unfamilar people and stuations with
Distress
Avoidance
Restraint

Takes longer time to relax in new situations

Has more fears and phobias

Is timid and cautious

Question 7

Uninhibited children

Answer 7

Reacts to unfamilar people and stuations
Spontaneity
Joy

Takes shorter times to relax in new situations

Fewer fears and phobias

not restrainedi n new situations

Question 8

for a long time, research on environmental sensitivity has focused on sensitivity to environmental adversity

Answer 8

diathesis-stress framework

Question 9

diathesis-stress framework

Answer 9

Model assumes that vulnerable individuals are disproportionately, if not exclusively, likely to succumb to the negative effects of contextual stressors, whereas resilient individuals keep functioning adaptively in the face of adversity

→ research biased toward environmental risk and psychopathology

Question 10

diathesis-stress models do not predict individual differences in

Answer 10

response to positive environmental influences

Question 11

Diathesis-stress model idea challenged

Answer 11

those vulnerable to adversity might also be more sensitive to positive experiences and environments

those resilient in the face of adversity might also be less sensitive to positive experiences and environments
vironments

Question 12

Differential Susceptibility model (Belsky & Pluess, 2009)

Answer 12

biological/genetic differences in sensitivity →higher or lower plasticity and adaptation to the environment

Flowers

predicts individual differences in response to both negative and positive environmental influences

Is a integration of the vatage sensitivite and diathesis stress models

Question 13

vantage sensitivity

Answer 13

refers to the general proclivity of an individual to benefit from positive, well-being- and competence-promoting features of the environment

vantage resistance refers to the failure to benefit from positive influences

Question 14

Biological Sensitivity to Context (Boyce & Ellis, 2005)

Answer 14

A heightened sensitivity:

Individual differences in physiological reactivity (e.g., heart rate, cortisol)

Environment that shapes someone’s sensitivity

Question 15

Sensory processing sensitivity (Aron & Aron, 1997)

Answer 15

Highly Sensitive Personality: phenotypic manifestation of Environmental sensitivity

Personality or temperament trait

HSP more sensitive to all internal and external stimul

Most: self-report questionnaires: HSP scale (12 or 27 items)

Question 16

Behavioral task: Visual detection task (Gerstenberg., 2012) (n = 89)

Answer 16

Stimuli: black Ls and Ts (target) on a white background

“Respond as quickly and accurate as possible”

+ measure of self-reported stress

HSP: higher accuracy, lower reaction times, and more reported stress

Question 17

Visual change blindness task (Jagiellowicz et al., 2011) (n = 16)

Answer 17

Subtle changes in visual scenes (black and white photographs) while in MRI
→ greater activation in brain regions involved in higher-order visual processing
→ higher accuracy and longer reaction times

Question 18

resting-state EEG study (Dimulescu et al., 2020) (n = 60)

Answer 18

Higher relative power in delta band and a lower relative power in the alpha band for HSP

→ more flexibility in switching between endogenous and exogenous environment?

Absolute power: Higher activity in all bands in HSP compared to LSP
→ continuously scanning of the environment?

Question 19

Theoretical review article: (Greven et al., 2019; Homberg and Jagiellowicz, 2021)

Answer 19

Automatic exogenous attention for environmental stimuli and increased activation to unexpected stimuli

Flexible attentional set-shifting between endogenous and exogenous environment

Less neural gating due to less top-down control?

Question 20

Summary of all SPS studies

Answer 20

individual differences in environmental sensitivity moderate the associations between environmental factors and developmental outcomes

Question 21

Baisc design of enviormental sensitivity sutdy has three variables

Answer 21

Enviormental factor
Developmental factor
Individual characteristics

Question 22

Core mechanism of individual differences in environmental sensitivity

Answer 22

idea that the mechanism of environmental sensitivity is situated at the neurobiological level

biological sensitivity is shaped by genetic factors

Question 23

Early environments

Answer 23

For a long time the enviormental orginis have been sought in early childhood trauma

Question 24

gene x environment interactions

Answer 24

environmental sensitivity is assumed to be a function of genetic factors and characteristics of the (early) environment as well as of their interaction

Question 25

epigenetic mechanisms

Answer 25

epigenetic mechanisms potentially mediate the association between characteristics of the early environment and later susceptibility

recent evidence suggests that not only early childhood experiences predict DNA methylation, but also experiences in later developmental stages

Question 26

Markers of individual differences in environmental sensitivity: Different levels

Answer 26

Phenothypic level
Endophenotype
Genetic level

Question 27

Phenotypic manifestation

Answer 27

children with a difficult temperament are more vulnerable to negative parenting but also profit more from positive parenting

differences found for internalizing as well as externalizing problems and for social as well as cognitive competence

sensory processing sensitivity is put forward as probably the best phenotypic marker of environmental sensitivity

Question 28

sensory processing sensitivity construct

Answer 28

an individual difference characteristic in which those who are high

are particularly sensitive to subtle stimuli

are easily overstimulated

are prone to ‘pause to check’ in a novel situation

prefer to reflect and revise their cognitive maps after an experience.”

Question 29

Aron and Aron assume that SPS

Answer 29

is an aspect of personality

is relatively stable

is categorical

characterizes about 20% of the population

has a genetic basis

Question 30

to assess SPS, the High Sensitive Person scale has been developed

Answer 30

6 quantitative studies to establish the psychometric quality of the questionnaire

27 items

all items load on a single dimension

sufficient internal consistency

total score is associated with other personality measures as expected

Question 31

SPS: Recent studies report a bifactor structure with one general and three specific dimensions

Answer 31

Ease of excitation
Low sensory threshold
Aesthetic sensitivity
HSP

Question 32

HSC21: Improving the measurement of environmental sensitivity

Answer 32

26 newly developed items
Multidimension Item Response Theory (MIRT)

Exploratory Structual Equation Modeling

21 best performing items retained

More informative
Better discrimination between individuals

Broader aspects
Validated child and parent report version

Is being translated into multiple languages

Question 33

evidence for a slightly different factor structure, namely in the case of the new HSC questionnaire

Answer 33

Ease of excitation +Low sensory threshold
Aesthetic sensitivity
HSP

Question 34

The existence of different sensitivity groups: 3 Groups

Answer 34

Low: Dandelion
Medium: Tulip
High: orchid

Question 35

SPS strenghtens associations between

Answer 35

childhood maltreatment and child abuse potential

childhood experiences and adult life satisfaction

adverse childhood environment and adult shyness

lack of parental care in childhood and adult depressive symptoms

changes over time in (positive or negative) parenting and externalizing behavior problems in preschool children

some of these studies show a pattern of findings consistent with differential susceptibility, whereas the results of other studies are more in line with diathesis-stress

Question 36

SPS predicts

Answer 36

the extent to which depressive symptoms decrease after a preventive intervention

decreases in victimization (boys+girls) and internalizing symptoms (only boys) after the intervention occur only/most strongly in high SPS individuals

Question 37

meta-analysis of 8 papers in which the association of SPS with the five-factor model of personality is examined

Answer 37

strong and consistent association with neuroticism

weaker association with openness

no association with extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness

limited number of studies

some samples are small and not representative (students)

different assessment tools for five-factor model

no single study focuses at the facet level of personality

Question 38

Relevant facests SPS

Answer 38

at domain level: neuroticism and openness and, to a lesser extent, extraversion

at facet level: most but not all facets of neuroticism and openness, some facets of extraversion

Question 39

Selected facets

Answer 39

Neuroticism:
Anxiety
Angry hostility
Self-Conciousness
Vunerability

Extaversion:
Gregariousness: enjoying crowds and big social gatherings
Excitement-seeking

Openness:
Aesthetics
Feelings

Question 40

possible outcome of such work

Answer 40

= NEO-PI-3 ‘sensitivity index’