In 2015, clinical psychologist Elke van Hoof did research on high sensitivity and looked at a possible link with giftedness. She discovered that 87% of gifted people are also highly sensitive.
Increased sensory sensitivity and emotional processing.
Genius brains can experience "superstimulability." Some genius brains are highly sensitive to other people's emotions. This can help relate to other people. But at times it can be overwhelming and tiring.
In addition, they have a highly complex inner world that not many people get. Because of this, they may struggle with loneliness, relationship frustrations, and feeling misunderstood. The following 5 points are some of the life challenges faced by highly rational and highly intelligent people.
A highly sensitive person is someone who is greatly affected by social stimuli, such as other people's voices and facial expressions. Psychologist Elaine Aron developed the concept of highly sensitive persons (HSPs) to describe those who display notable sensitivity to various forms of stimuli.
Highly sensitive people may be more affected by certain situations such as tension, violence, and conflict, which may lead them to avoid things that make them feel uncomfortable. You might be highly touched by beauty or emotionality. Highly sensitive people tend to feel deeply moved by the beauty they see around them.
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships. The good news is that highly sensitive people aren't more or less emotionally intelligent than others.
Signs of intelligence include better rhythm, liking dark humour, being prone to worry, sleeping late, high self-control and new ideas. Signs of intelligence are many and varied and go way beyond a standard IQ test.
Some psychologists believe that the ability to listen to another person, to empathize with, and to understand their point of view is one of the highest forms of intelligent behavior.
Now work conducted in our laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggests that baseline pupil size is closely related to individual differences in intelligence. The larger the pupils, the higher the intelligence, as measured by tests of reasoning, attention and memory.
Intelligent people, though, tend to be characterized by insecurity. They have a high level of personal response, reflection, and discretion. None of these things makes an impact. Plus, we live in a world where people still see insecurity as a negative characteristic.
Intelligent people often override common sense with their considerable brain power — but this isn't always a good thing. Smart people think in situations where they should feel, like in relationships. They may avoid the correct response because it doesn't seem rational when we all know that life isn't always rational.
Many intelligent people prioritize their goals in life, so it may take them some time to reach that stage in life where they feel ready for a relationship. At times, their ambitious goals may be the thing that keeps them out of relationships, especially if they have an unsupportive partner.
This isn't necessarily true, and while not all quiet people are necessarily smart, highly intelligent people will often refrain from speaking if they are accessing a situation. They will take some time to think about what was said and prepare an adequate response, and they find silence better than pointless small talk.
Sensory Issues and Affect Regulation
Given that children who are intellectually gifted are born with very intense limbic systems, it makes sense that their limbic systems might get overwhelmed easily and that highly gifted children may have challenges processing intense stimulation.
Research has shown that there is a high correlation between being intelligent and socially anxious. The higher your IQ, the higher the chance your social apprehension is higher than usual. Of course, that doesn't mean that your social anxiety should be classified as a disorder.
It is hypothesized that logical/mathematical abilities will be most frequently perceived as most valued by society and musical, bodily-kinesthetic, and naturalist intelligence will be perceived as least valued.
Spatial intelligence or picture smart is a quality that is perhaps the rarest of all the nine Howard Gardner categorized.
It is important to note that many highly sensitive people are not narcissistic. Highly sensitive people are often aware, empathetic, and excellent listeners, which are the antithesis of narcissism.
Like any other of your reactions to stimuli, as a highly sensitive person (HSP) your trauma reactions are also more intense than most. As a result, many HSPs have used trauma splitting, or structural dissociation, as a way to cope.
Most highly sensitive people display rare strengths in key areas of emotional intelligence, also known as emotional quotient (EQ) — the ability to recognize and understand emotions in themselves and others. These strengths including self-awareness and social-awareness.