Sensitivity consists of sensory perceptual capacity referring to emotions, feelings or even physical sensations.
All human beings are endowed with different levels of sensitivity, whether physical (the reaction to physical stimuli) or emotional. For example, there are people with pain sensitivity and, in this case, they tend to have pain more easily or more intensely than other individuals.
To have emotional sensitivity it means being able to feel empathy, that is, to capture and assimilate the different feelings of other people, or of a specific group, for example.
Learn more about meaning of empathy.
Emotionally sensitive people can also be easily offended or frightened by things and tend to get hurt easily.
In the field of medicine, sensitivity represents the reaction that the body can have when exposed to certain substances, such as medication, for example.
In some cases, however, sensitivity can also represent a malfunction of the body, such as teeth sensitivity which consists of wearing away their protective enamel.
Some of the main synonyms of sensitivity they are: emotion, empathy, compassion, appreciation, perception, sense, sense, delicacy, susceptibility and squeamishness.
Etymologically, the word sensitivity originated from the late Latin you sensitize, which can be translated as "sense".
Sensitivity and Specificity
Both are concepts that determine the accuracy of diagnostic tests in the medical field.
Sensitivity is the ability of the test to detect a disease in patients who are ill. Specificity, on the other hand, corresponds to the test's ability to rule out the hypothesis of disease in healthy patients.