Synonyms
Definition
Threat sensitivity refers to affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological responses toward threatening (likely to cause damage or danger) stimuli, information, or cues. Threat may be actual, perceived, or potential. Metrics of threat sensitivity capture the degree to which an individual shows heightened arousal and preparedness before, during, or following interactions with the aversive stimulus. Although humans rely on the ability to detect, attend to, and respond to threat (fight/flight) for survival, exaggerated threat sensitivity can be maladaptive. For example, sustained threat sensitivity is thought to contribute to clinical anxiety- and stressor-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Introduction
Jeffrey Gray, a British psychologist and personality theorist, proposed two distinct neurological systems that regulate an individual’s sensitivity to either aversive...
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Denefrio, S., Dennis-Tiwary, T.A. (2020). Threat Sensitivity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_869
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_869
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