Collection Title: “High Sensitivity Through the Lens of Context - Challenges and Potential”

Guest Editor: Dr. Alon Goldberg, Tel-Hai College, Department of Education, Upper Galilee 12210 Israel. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3267-1947

Contact: alongol@telhai.ac.il

And

Dr. Mona Vintila, West University of Timişoara, mona.vintila@e-uvt.ro

Overview and Rationale

Highly sensitive personality (HSP) is a temperamental trait characterized by deep cognitive processing of sensory and emotional information, heightened emotional reactivity, and increased sensitivity to environmental subtleties. While high sensitivity has long been framed predominantly through a vulnerability lens, recent research suggests it may also confer adaptive advantages in certain contexts.

This collection would seek to broaden the scientific exploration of HSP by encouraging research that addresses both its challenges and adaptive potential across diverse contexts and by inviting empirical, theoretical, and conceptual contributions that reflect the full range of HSP-related outcomes. This includes studies that examine environmental mismatches resulting in distress or dysfunction, as well as investigations into creative adaptation, resilience, growth, and flourishing in supportive settings.

Aim of the Collections

The aim of the Collections would be to expand the focus on high sensitivity in psychology by exploring the dynamic interplay between the trait and environmental, social, cultural, and psychological contexts. We would particularly welcome contributions that adopt a contextualized lens, whether the outcomes are positive, negative, or complex. Our objective would be not to exclude studies that emphasize vulnerability but to broaden the scientific discourse to include variability in experiences and outcomes.

Scope and Topics

We would encourage a wide range of submissions from different psychological subfields, including but not limited to:

Developmental psychology

Individual differences and personality research

Clinical and counseling psychology

Educational psychology (e.g., how highly sensitive students respond to classroom demands, teacher-student dynamics or sensory stimulation in learning environments)

Occupational and organizational psychology (e.g., how highly sensitive individuals experience workplace demands, leadership styles, sensory overstimulation, or derive meaning and satisfaction in various occupational contexts)

Cognitive psychology - deep processing, attentional sensitivity, and adaptive decision-making in contextually supportive conditions

Socioemotional psychology - emotion regulation, positive emotionality, and prosocial behavior of those with HSP

Health psychology (e.g., association between HSP and health issues and onset of disease)

Neuroscience and genetics

Evolutionary psychology (e.g., theoretical frameworks examining HSP as an adaptive survival strategy)

Cultural psychology - cultural perceptions and expressions of high sensitivity, sensitivity in diverse sociocultural contexts and settings

Key Themes May Include:

The interaction of HSP with supportive vs. non-supportive environments

Adaptive and maladaptive responses to context among highly sensitive individuals

The role of creativity, imagination, or environmental shaping as coping mechanisms

Longitudinal trajectories and developmental factors influencing HSP

Context-sensitive interventions and clinical applications

Sociocultural or policy implications for educational, occupational, or therapeutic environments

Clarification on Inclusion Criteria

This collection would welcome studies that report on both strengths and vulnerabilities associated with high sensitivity. Manuscripts that address adverse outcomes, particularly when contexts are not aligned with the needs of highly sensitive individuals, would be, not only welcome, but considered essential to the goal of understanding variability. We also would like to invite theoretical or empirical work on mechanisms, including stress reactivity, differential susceptibility, biological sensitivity to context, and gene-environment interactions.

Article Types and Methodologies

We would be open to a variety of article types, including empirical research (quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods), meta-analyses, systematic reviews, theoretical papers, and innovative methodological approaches. We also would encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations and perspectives that integrate multiple levels of analysis (e.g., biological, psychological, contextual). Submission deadline for full manuscripts Sep. 1, 2026

Overview

Alexithymia is a personality trait characterised by a multi-component constellation of interrelated cognitive-affective features, mainly involving difficulty identifying one’s feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and an externally oriented thinking style. In the more than fifty years since the origination of the alexithymia construct, it continues to attract more researchers and clinicians in psychiatry, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and other arenas of experimental and emotion sciences.

Across arenas, various theoretical models or frameworks and extensive empirical findings have been advanced that have shaped multiple different conceptualisations of alexithymia. These conceptualisations share some perspectives, but also have important differences that are not yet fully recognised or evaluated in research or practice. This includes fundamental ongoing theoretical debates about the structure of the alexithymia construct itself, and the etiology and precise characterizations of its components in understanding the expression of alexithymia and its influences and consequences. Yet, there is little existing literature that directly compares and evaluates different alexithymia conceptualisations together against empirical findings.

Alexithymia can be considered a transdiagnostic risk factor for a wide range of psychopathologies (e.g., anxiety and depressive disorders) and somatic illnesses; therefore, alexithymia assessments are clinically important. Given relevant differences in the theoretical frameworks, it is not clear how various models with their respective measures perform under the same conditions, such as in predicting emotional, cognitive, and somatic outcomes.

The Goal and Scope

The primary goal of this Collection is to focus on conceptualisations of the alexithymia construct, their similarities and differences, and comparative performance in a wide range of conditions, including non-clinical and clinical settings. We kindly invite potential authors who can elucidate these issues by providing theoretical examination or empirical evidence.

The Topics

The topics covered in this Collection may include but are not limited to:

(1) Conceptualisation and elucidation of the alexithymia construct (e.g., empirical examinations and reviews of the components and foundations of the construct) as well as new, empirically grounded theoretical frameworks;

(2) Comparative performance analyses of competing frameworks in non-clinical and clinical samples and/or in emotive and non-emotive contexts;

(3) Highlights on the importance of multi-measure, multi-method approach in alexithymia research and assessment;

(4) Measurement considerations of major alexithymia tools, including critical analysis of existing literature, when theory or conceptualization of the alexithymia construct is a central focus.

Article Types

Reviews and original research papers, as well as comprehensive comments and perspectives in response to reviews and original research papers are welcome. Manuscripts will undergo standard peer review processes according to the journal’s requirements; therefore, they should be carefully prepared and scientifically rigorous.

Before submitting the paper, please send its title and abstract to the guest editors to check whether the paper is in line with the scope. Further information and inquiries can be directed to any of the guest editors.