Glossary / Lexicon

Deutsch: Empfindung / Español: Sensación / Português: Sensação / Français: Sensation / Italiano: Sensazione

A Sensation is one of the basic senses of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling and negative sensations that may include headaches, dizziness, numbness, stomach trouble, hallucinations, or sexual disturbances.

Sensation in the psychology context refers to the initial process of detecting and responding to environmental stimuli through the sensory organs. It involves the conversion of physical energy from the environment into electrical energy that can be processed by the brain. Sensation is the foundational step in perception, where raw sensory input is interpreted to form a coherent understanding of the world around us.

Description

Sensation begins with sensory receptors that respond to specific types of stimuli, such as light, sound, or temperature. These receptors translate physical inputs into signals that the nervous system can understand, a process known as transduction. The brain then receives these signals, leading to the experience of sensory impressions.

Application Areas

Understanding sensation is crucial in various subfields of psychology:

• Cognitive Psychology: Studies how sensations are integrated and processed to form perceptions.
• Developmental Psychology: Examines how sensory abilities develop from infancy through adulthood.
• Biopsychology: Focuses on the biological processes that underlie sensation and perception.

Well-Known Examples

Common examples of sensation include:

• Visual Sensation: Light waves are captured by the eye, where they are converted into neural signals that are processed by the brain.
• Auditory Sensation: Sound waves are transformed into electrical signals by the ear and interpreted by the brain.
• Tactile Sensation: The skin senses pressure, temperature, or pain, which are then transmitted as neural information to the brain.

Treatment and Risks

Understanding sensory processes is essential for diagnosing and treating sensory processing disorders, which can affect how individuals perceive and interact with their environment. These disorders can lead to difficulties in learning, attention, and social interactions if not properly managed.

Similar Terms

Related concepts include:

• Perception: The cognitive process that follows sensation, involving the interpretation and organization of sensory information to understand its meaning.
• Transduction: The conversion of physical stimuli into neural signals that can be processed by the nervous system.

Weblinks

• medizin-und-kosmetik.de: 'Empfindung' im Lexikon von medizin-und-kosmetik.de (German)
• medizin-und-kosmetik.de: 'Empfindung' im Lexikon von medizin-und-kosmetik.de (German)

Articles with 'Sensation' in the title

• Sensationalism: Sensationalism in the context of psychology refers to the exaggerated or sensational presentation of information or events with the aim of arousing strong emotional reactions, often at the expense of accuracy and objectivity
• Negative sensations: Negative sensations is a term which according to Fechner refer to sensations that occur below the absolute threshold and are therefore below the level of awareness
• Spinning sensation: Spinning sensation: Deutsch: / Español: Sensación de giro / Português: Sensação de giro / Français: Sensation de vertige / Italiano: Sensazione di giramento- A spinning sensation, often referred to as vertigo in the psychology . . .

Summary

In psychology, sensation is the process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. This information is sent to our brains in raw form where perception comes into play. Sensation is critical for our understanding of the world; it not only impacts our direct interactions with the environment but also influences how we perceive and react to different situations.

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