It is a relational disorder marked by high emotional sensitivity,
high emotional reactivity, and a slow return to baseline.
Family coaching focuses on the «doing», changing oneself in one's significant emotional relationships, as well as the «being», maintaining a sense of self - differentiation in the face of
high emotional reactivity.
Whereas fearless temperament can impair conscience development through insufficient engagement with important socialization cues (i.e., reduced face preference during early development; see Bedford et al., 2015),
high emotional reactivity / dysregulation might make children overwhelmed in negatively charged situations, thus more prone to miss such cues in those particular contexts where they tend to be elicited (e.g., parental anger, peer distress; see Hoffman, 1982; Young et al., 1999; Frick and Morris, 2004).
Resentment in relationships can manifest in various ways, including undue bouts of criticism, stonewalling, power struggles and
high emotional reactivity, suggests Steven Stosny, consultant in family violence, in his Psychology Today article, «Overcoming Chronic Resentment and the Abuse It Causes.»
Among other telltale signs, HSPs exhibit a high measure of sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), which is a personality trait that has been described as having hypersensitivity to external stimuli,
high emotional reactivity, and greater depth of cognitive processing.
Studies show pre-schoolers with deployed parents reveal
higher emotional reactivity, anxiousness, depression, somatic complaints, and withdrawal.
Not exact matches
For instance, some children may have tantrums or show
high levels of
emotional reactivity (eg.
For some children who have been traumatised, feelings of pain and anger can sometimes be seen in their behaviour, for instance, some children may tantrum or show
high levels of
emotional reactivity (eg become upset very easily).
Feelings of pain and anger can also be seen in the behaviour of some children who have been traumatised, in the form of tantrums, aggression or
high levels of
emotional reactivity (e.g., becoming very upset quite easily).
Specifically, negative
emotional reactivity has been found to predict both internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety, depression) and externalizing problems (e.g., aggression, rule - breaking).1 Fearfulness predicts internalizing problems, and self - regulation difficulties predict externalizing problems.1 The large literature on parenting2 generally shows that
high levels of warm and firm parenting are associated with positive child development.4
Temperament — Parenting: There is some, but not much, evidence that child positive
emotional reactivity may elicit
higher levels of parental warmth.6, 7 There is also a little evidence of the opposite direction of effects, suggesting that parental warmth gives rise to more child positive emotionality.8, 9 We do not yet have enough evidence to know whether child positivity and parental control influence one another.
Temperamental factors related to problems in
emotional regulation (e.g.,
high levels of
emotional reactivity, poor frustration tolerance) have been predictive of the disorder.
Preterm young adults exhibited
higher levels of
emotional reactivity and fusion with others, and
higher levels of death anxiety than their counterparts.
Several investigations found that conduct problems coupled with low levels of CU traits are associated with increased amygdala
reactivity to fearful and angry facial expressions (Viding et al., 2012; Hyde et al., 2013; Blair et al., 2014; Sebastian et al., 2014), while those coupled with
high levels of CU traits are correlated with decreased amygdala
reactivity to
emotional stimuli, particularly fearful facial expressions (Odgers et al., 2008; Jones et al., 2009).
As for ODD, studies have shown, as early as preschool age, that, compared to children with low levels of CU traits and ODD, those with
higher levels of CU traits have more severe ODD problems, showing deficits in processing
emotional stimuli, such as fearful faces, having lower levels of fearfulness and anxiety, manifesting insensitivity to punishment and displaying physiological hypoarousal, such as low stress reaction — lower heart rate at rest and during
reactivity to
emotional stimuli (Fanti, 2016).
Psychologist and ADHD coach Michele Novotni, Ph.D., says she sees
higher levels of physical sensitivities and
emotional reactivity in her ADHD clients than in the general population.
Therefore, for this temperamental profile, problems in regulating
high negative
emotional reactivity and a hypervigilent style toward
emotional stimuli increase the propensity for serious conduct problems.
Multiple - group models estimated in structural equation modeling suggested that youth who were
higher in social anxiety or coping efficacy problems were more likely to transmit
emotional reactivity developed in the family - of - origin to
emotional reactivity in response to conflict in close friendships.
Additionally, those youth
higher in self - blame and depressive affect were more likely to transmit
emotional reactivity from friendships to romantic relationships.
On the whole, results indicated that spouses had similar levels of differentiation on two scales:
emotional cutoff and I - position, while women reported
higher levels of
emotional reactivity and fusion with others.
The DBD - only group manifests
higher reactivity to
emotional and threatening stimuli, more intense
reactivity to provocation, a hostile cognitive bias and low verbal intelligence, and has been more exposed to dysfunctional parenting practices [10].
The
higher levels of
emotional reactivity were more commonly associated with the children's self - reported habits of falling asleep in their parents» or sibling's bed, nightmares seen, and feeling sleepy during the day.
Investigating autonomic
reactivity in (pre) marital interactions, Roisman [48] found
higher heart rates in the preoccupied attachment group as compared to the dismissing group while conversing with their partners, suggesting
emotional over-involvement.
Moreover, they had significantly lower scores in avoidance and
emotional reactivity and significantly
higher scores in cognitive restructuring and problem solving SCS subscales.
In both samples, child maltreatment was associated with
higher levels of internalizing psychopathology, elevated
emotional reactivity, and greater habitual engagement in rumination and impulsive responses to distress.