Elaine N. Aron is an American clinical research psychologist and author. Aron has published numerous books and scholarly articles about inherited temperament and interpersonal relationships, especially on the subject of

sensory processing sensitivity Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a temperamental or personality trait involving "an increased sensitivity of the central nervous system and a deeper cognitive processing of physical, social, and emotional stimuli". The trait is charact ...

, beginning with ''The Highly Sensitive Person'' (1996), which has sold over a million copies.

Education

20190807 SPS block diagram from Greven et al 2019

Aron graduated

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and later earned a Master of Arts in

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well ...

from

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

(Toronto) and a Ph.D. in clinical depth psychology at

Pacifica Graduate Institute Pacifica Graduate Institute is a private for-profit graduate school with two campuses near Santa Barbara, California. The institute offers masters and doctoral degrees in the fields of clinical psychology, counseling, mythological studies, dept ...

(Santa Barbara, California). She interned at the C. G. Jung Institute in San Francisco.

Professional practice and personal life

Aron maintains a psychotherapy practice in

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mill Valley is lo ...

. Aron is married to SUNY-Stony Brook psychology professor

Arthur Aron Arthur Aron (born July 2, 1945) is a professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is best known for his work on intimacy in interpersonal relationships, and development of the self-expansion model of motivation i ...

, with whom she collaborates in studies of the interaction of childhood environment with SPS in predicting adult functioning.

36 questions

In 1997, the couple published an academic paper called ''The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness: A Procedure and Some Preliminary Findings'', in which the appendix featured a set of 36 questions of increasing intimacy.Participants who were strangers to each other were grouped in pairs to ask each other the questions, and found afterwards to develop a stronger friendship and in some cases even a relationship. In January 2015, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' writer Mandy Len Catron posted the article "To Fall In Love With Anyone, Do This" and listed them as the "36 questions that lead to love".https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/style/36-questions-love-wedding-mandy-len-catron.html The list has been used in hundreds of studies, to create closeness in a lab setting, to break down barriers between strangers, and improve understanding between police officers and community members.

Published works

Books

Source: * ''The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You'' (1996) * ''The Highly Sensitive Person's Workbook'' (1999) * ''The Highly Sensitive Person in Love: Understanding and Managing Relationships When the World Overwhelms You'' (2001) * ''The Highly Sensitive Child: Helping Our Children Thrive When the World Overwhelms Them'' (2002) * ''The Undervalued Self: Restore Your Love/Power Balance, Transform the Inner Voice That Holds You Back, and Find Your True Self-Worth'' (2010) * ''Psychotherapy and the Highly Sensitive Person: Improving Outcomes for That Minority of People Who Are the Majority of Clients'' (2010) * ''The Highly Sensitive Parent: Be Brilliant in Your Role, Even When the World Overwhelms You'' (2020)

Scholarly journal articles

* * Note 3 (p. 195) cites Chen ''et al.'' (1992) re social and cultural unacceptability adding to environmental stressors. * Aron, Elaine N., Ph.D., (July 21, 2011
"Understanding the Highly Sensitivity Person: Sensitive, Introverted, or Both? , Extraverted HSPs face unique challenges"
() ''

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. The publication began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The print magazine's reported circulation is 275,000 as of 2023. ...

''. * * *

Magazine articles

References

External links

The Highly Sensitive Person: An Interview with Elaine Aron
Uploaded February 1, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aron, Elaine Living people York University alumni American women psychologists 21st-century American psychologists University of California, Berkeley alumni 1944 births 20th-century American psychologists Pacifica Graduate Institute alumni