Highly Sensitive Person Traits That Create More Stress

Highly Sensitive Person Traits That Create More Stress Theories Personality Psychology Print Highly Sensitive Person Traits That Create More Stress By Elizabeth Scott, MS twitter Elizabeth Scott, MS, is a wellness coach specializing in stress management and quality of life, and the author of 8 Keys to Stress Management. Learn about our editorial policy Elizabeth Scott, MS Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD on February 16, 2017 Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Learn about our Medical Review Board Steven Gans, MD Updated on July 16, 2019 Jovo Jovanovic/Stocksy United More in Theories Personality Psychology Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Behavioral Psychology Cognitive Psychology Developmental Psychology Social Psychology Biological Psychology Psychosocial Psychology In This Article Table of Contents Expand What Is an HSP? Frequency Signs Stress Experience Coping View All Back To Top Have you ever been told that you’re “too sensitive” or that you “shouldn’t think so much,” particularly by people who strike you as too insensitive or who perhaps should think a little more? You may be what is known as a “highly sensitive person,” or HSP. What Is an HSP? Highly sensitive people are generally known as being “empaths” and may also be referred to as having sensory processing sensitivity, or SPS for short. People may have labeled you “highly sensitive” or “too sensitive” in the past and meant it as a negative thing, but this is not necessarily negative as much as it is a personality trait that brings both strengths and challenges. Yes, it is possible to be too easily offended by people who mean no harm or who are trying their best to be kind. Likewise, it is possible to overreact to daily stressors or relationship issues, particularly if you become emotionally aggressive as a response. However, being a highly sensitive person (or HSP for the sake of brevity) doesn’t necessarily mean that you imagine negative motives in people when they are not there; it is more that you may perceive them more easily, or you may be affected more deeply by negative experiences, which is not necessarily a weakness. If you know how to manage the unique features of being an HSP, you can make it more of a strength and less of a challenge in your life. To do this, it helps to understand what you’re dealing with, whether you are reading this for yourself or trying to build a deeper understanding of someone in your life who may be highly sensitive. How Common Are HSPs? Psychologists Elaine Aron and Arthur Aron, a husband and wife pair, coined the term HSP in the 1990s and have extensively studied and published on the topic. Researchers found that HSPs make up roughly 15 to 20 percent of the general population, so they are not as exceedingly rare as they may sometimes feel. That said, highly sensitive is a less common way to be, and our society tends to be built around people who notice a little less and are affected a little less deeply. Therefore, it helps to recognize the differences and make adjustments to minimize the stress that can come at greater levels to HSPs. This is true for those who recognize themselves as highly sensitive as well as those who have someone they care for who is more sensitive than the average person. How to Identify an HSP High sensitivity applies across a few different categories. It is important to remember that being an HSP does not mean that you have a diagnosable condition; it is a personality trait that involves increased responsiveness to both positive and negative influences. There are several traits or characteristics common to HSPs. According to the researchers who identified this personality trait, here’s what to look for. Being overwhelmed by sensory stimuli like noisy crowds, bright lights, or uncomfortable clothingFeeling the need to avoid violent movies or TV shows because they feel too intense and leave you feeling unsettledFeeling not just a preference, but a need for downtime, especially when you have hectic days; needing to retreat to a dark, quiet roomBeing deeply moved by beauty, either expressed in art, nature, or the human spirit, or sometimes even a good commercialHaving a rich and complex inner life, complete with deep thoughts and strong feelings that go with it For a more thorough or “official” identification, there is a personality questionnaire that these researchers developed to help people identify themselves as HSPs, which is known as Aron’s Highly Sensitive Persons Scale (HSPS) questionnaire and is available on their website. How HSPs Experience Stress Not surprisingly, highly sensitive people tend to get more stressed by things that many people experience stressful, plus a few things that may roll off of other people’s backs. Social stress, which is perceived as more taxing to most people than other types of stress, can be particularly taxing on someone who can perceive many different ways that things could go wrong in a conflict, for example, or can perceive hostility or tension where others may not notice it. Here are a few specific things that can be significantly stressful for the highly sensitive. Hectic Schedules Not everyone loves being too busy, but some people thrive on the excitement and exhilaration of a busy life. HPSs, on the other hand, feel overwhelmed and rattled when they have too much to do in a short amount of time, even if they technically have enough time to get everything done if they rush. The need to juggle  the uncertainty of maybe not being able to make it all work and the pressure of such situations feels overwhelmingly stressful. Expectations of Others Highly sensitive people tend to pick up on the needs and feelings of others. They hate letting people down. Learning to say no is a challenge and a necessity for HSPs because they can feel crushed by the demands of others, particularly because they can feel their friends’ disappointment if HSPs need to say no or can’t do what is expected of them. They tend to be their own worst critics and can feel responsible for the happiness of others, or at least acutely aware of it when there are negative emotions floating around. Conflicts As mentioned, HSPs may be more prone to being stressed by conflict because they may be more aware of it when there is trouble brewing in a relationship, including when things just feel a little “off” with someone who may not be communicating that there is a problem. They can be prone to the stress of social comparison as well.  They may feel the negative feelings of the other person as well as their own feelings, and they may experience them more strongly and deeply than others. They may be more aware of both the possibilities to improve things and upset when potentially good outcomes give way to more negative outcomes through the course of a deteriorating conflict. They may also be more upset when they realize that a relationship is over, feeling that things could have been resolved, whereas someone else may feel there is nothing that could be done and walks away. The highly sensitive may feel the loss more acutely as well and engage in rumination. Tolerations Life coaches refer to those daily energy drains that we all have as ?tolerations,  as in “things we tolerate” that create stress and aren’t strictly necessary. Distractions may feel more frustrating for the HSP who is trying to concentrate, for example, or foul smells in one’s house may be felt more strongly and make relaxation more elusive for an HSP in a messy home. They are more easily startled by surprises. They get “hangry” when hungryâ€"they don’t tolerate it well. In this way, life’s daily stressors often add up to more frustration for the highly sensitive. Personal Failures As mentioned, HSPs are their own worst critics. That means they are more prone to rumination and self-doubt. They may remember for quite a while if they make an embarrassing mistake, and feel more embarrassed about it than the average person would. They don’t like being watched and evaluated when they are attempting something challenging, and can even mess up because of the stress of being watched. They are more often perfectionists, but may also be more aware of the ways that this stress is not inevitable and of how it is affecting them. Being Deeply Moved Feeling things more deeply has an upside as well. Highly sensitive people tend to feel deeply moved by the beauty they see around them. They have been known to cry while watching particularly heartwarming videos about puppies on YouTube, and can really feel the feelings of others, both negative and positive. They care deeply about their friends and tend to form deep bonds with the right people. They really appreciate a fine wine, a good meal, a beautiful song, and many of the finer things in life on a level that most people cant access. They may feel more existential angst, but they also may feel more gratitude for what they have in life, knowing that it is possibly fleeting and nothing is certain. Their lows may be lower, but their highs have the potential to be higher as well. Stress Relief for the Highly Sensitive Much of your stress relief plan as a highly sensitive person can involve insulating yourself from too many stimuli. Put a barrier between you and sensory stimuli that feel overwhelming. Dont watch those late-night slasher movies. Stay away from people who sap your positive energy, make heavy demands on you, or make you feel bad about yourself. Learn to say no to overwhelming demands and feel OK  with it, and create a perimeter in your life. Set up your home as a soothing environment and a safe space for yourself emotionally. Create some extra positive experiences in your schedule to insulate you from additional stress you may encounter. And above all, know what triggers stress in you, and learn to avoid these things. How to Develop a Stress Reduction Plan That Works

Application of Science and its implications to the factors - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 1033 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2018/12/27 Category Physics Essay Type Cause and effect essay Level High school Tags: Knowledge Essay Did you like this example? The quality of life today at so many different levels has greatly improved due to use of scientific knowledge, this range from the mere daily activities to global activities. Application of science informs policy making and greatly play very critical role in social, political, economic, cultural, and demographic fields across the world. It is apparent that without the knowledge of science life would be difficult and almost impossible to progress, (Bickman et al, pg 65-70) The knowledge of science is being applied today in so many areas such as in the modern medicine whereby there has been great deliverables in the field of medicine unfolding smart antibiotics and vaccines useful in treating the once deadly diseases. Today, with emergence of many new advanced drugs the world is enjoying heightened levels of health care and management with low death cases from some deadly diseases compared to the past, (Bickman et al, pg 65-70) Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Application of Science and its implications to the factors" essay for you Create order Science has also contributed positively in the agricultural sector, for instance application of agricultural technology has facilitated initiation of hybrid varieties of foodstuffs which contribute to balanced diet and good health. On the other hand science has enabled crossbreeding of the once low yielding crops to better yielding crops, thus ensuring high harvests to farmers. Food security has improved largely and with better effective pesticides being discovered to protect the crops while at the plantations and after harvesting. Additionally discovery of DNA has played a key role a major breakthrough in biology that has helped in discovering solutions for genetic diseases, and crops that are genetically engineered, (Bickman et al, pg 65-70) Water security has been greatly enhanced due to adoption of favorable policies to ensure a good blend of the water resources available and against the financial budget for that sector against the population of any given country, (Osborne et al pg 1049-1079). Science is also being applied in statistics in probability to predict behavior of two occurring activities or phenomena. For instance the discovery of the probabilistic nature, a major discovery and a conclusion was drawn about atomic scale which is being applied even today, (Osborne et al pg 1049-1079). The application of science has so many implications and the most conspicuous one are the major drawbacks that come with the application of science in our daily activities, (Osborne et al pg 1049-1079). For instance research and development into developing and coming up with new informed policies comes with huge budget implications which in most cases renders the research and development work impossible. O n the other hand grants given to the researchers have a short expiry period of less than 3years and this makes most researchers shy off from long-term projects which maybe could yield great deliverables helpful to the society, (Pidd, pg 46-52) Its worth mentioning that apart from the above challenge, researchers are being faced with the challenge of low funding with small amounts of cash. This definitely pushes them to the very fast and wrong research which might not yield anything at all. One of the reason being that the governments funding are being faced by so many researchers and have the pressure to fund adequately with sufficient funds, (Pidd, pg 46-52) One more challenge of application of science is that only a few researchers are willing to participate in the high profile risky projects while the less risky projects could be the most obvious ones not warranting research. This could lead to wastage of funds in projects which are meaningless, (Pidd, pg 46-52) Part of the major political implication application of science has is on the stem cell as well as on the embryo research whereby both politicians and interested religious groups are in constant debate over GMOS on the safety and ethics, (Kandel, pg 912-914). Another major ethical and legal implication of of this factor is that it lacks the legitimacy in the sense that this perspective doesnt offer a new view on genetic engineering, (Kandel, pg 912-914). Economically the emergency of new anonymous currency the so called Bit coin has led issues such as hacking of the currency, valuation of the currency against other currencies as well as promotion of illegal business transactions which cant be identified easily. This is among the negative implications of the application of science, (Baeza et al, pg 199-208) The use of robots in the enforcement of automated law implies that these robots may not exercise the right judgment required if it were a rational human being probably they would exercise better decisions unbiased as opposed to the robots which in most cases are set to think or act in just one way or direction, (Baeza et al, pg 199-208) The idea of making computers that have the same knowledge as human beings is a big concern since in the long run this may lead to constant permanent replacement of human beings and this may render human beings good for nothing in their roles. The biggest question being that will this interface be affected perfectly and whether or not can the machines perfectly replace human beings to perform like human beings, (Baeza et al, pg 199-208) The use of and application of science has led to assumption of social bonds and neglect ion of social responsibility with emergence of sexbots replacing girlfriends and wives for sexual satisfaction. This displays moral decay and erosion of culture and norms, (Baeza et al, pg 199-208) Work cited Bickman, Leonard, and Debra J. Rog, eds.? The Sage handbook of applied social research methods. Sage publications, 2008. Funtowicz, Silvio O., and Jerome R. Ravetz. A new scientific methodology for global environmental issues.? Ecological economics: The science and management of sustainability? 10 (1991): 137. Pidd, Michael. Tools for thinking.? Modelling in management science? 1 (1996). Bickman, L., and D. J. Rog. Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods.BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES? 46 (1998): 351-351. Osborne, Jonathan, Shirley Simon, and Sue Collins. Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications.International journal of science education? 25.9 (2003): 1049-1079. Kandel, Denise. Stages in adolescent involvement in drug use.? Science? 190.4217 (1975): 912- 914. Baeza, M. J., et al. Factors influencing fire behaviour in shrublands of different stand ages and the implications for using prescribed burning to reduce wildfire risk.? Journal of Environmental Management? 65.2 (2002): 199-208.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Deliberative Democracy

The advocates of the criticisms of liberal democracy suggest its replacement with a more egalitarian version called deliberative democracy. Deliberative democracy contrast with interest-based democracy in several ways. Deliberative democracy encourages the meeting of people to decide public ends and policies through rational discussion. It impels free and equal deliberations among participants. And a consensus is the preferred outcome of such discussions. Even when consensus eludes the participants, all possible care is taken to bring the ultimate decision closer to the collective judgment rather than simply presuming it as the aggregate of private preferences (xxx, xxx). Deliberative democracy has potentials to reduce the exclusionary†¦show more content†¦This is essential to mean that the essence of democracy should be the ability to speak across differences of culture, social positions and needs without necessarily erasing them. Preserving and listening across such differences of position and perspective causes the transformation in preferences (xxx, xxx). Generally, it can be said that self-determination and deliberative democracy are integrally linked. First, deliberative democracy can help identify: (1) whether a group qualifies for the right to self-determination by better ascertaining its members’ subjective beliefs and matching those with its objective distinctiveness; and (2) whether and how a group wants to exercise that right by better aggregating the individual preferences to a collective choice (xxx, xxx). Second, deliberative democracy can better deliver and individualize the group right of self-determination and ensure that the respect for the rights and well-being of each individual serves as a guiding principle for the implementation of self-determination (xxx, xxx). Third, deliberative democracy can augment the instrumental value of self-determination and promote more efficient policies and institutions, both during self-determination by discerning whether self-determination is welfare-improving and after the ent renchment of the new political status by reducing political transaction costs (xxx, xxx). Hence, the above argument shows exitance of a strong link between deliberative democracy andShow MoreRelatedAlthough there are advantages and disadvantages to both a representative government and1300 Words   |  6 PagesAlthough there are advantages and disadvantages to both a representative government and deliberative democracy the benefits are largely dependant on the context of policy making and whose interests are being considered. 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Media and Children Free Essays

Today I came here to discuss the topic media and children In this topic I will I tell you what is the influence of media on our childrens But First of all I will explain to you what is media? Media: Communication channels  through which  news,  entertainment,  education,  data, or  promotional messages  are disseminated. In my opinion Our media has negative impact on our children’s . because When children see scenes of violence, natural disasters, and crime reports on TV Which leads to stress, and fear among children leaving far reaching impacts on their personality. We will write a custom essay sample on Media and Children or any similar topic only for you Order Now Now I will tell you some points with examples Blind Imitation: you have often seen that young girls and boys imitate celebrities blindly do you give a thought to whether they are doing right or wrong?. in such that the impact of media is wrong Wrong Message: in our society negatives are highlighted with the purpose of awakening people about them. For example, the negative effects of addiction are portrayed through advertisements. Newspapers, television and the Internet are used to convey social messages. But unfortunately sometimes, the message is misconstrued. Unhealthy Lifestyle: Media is responsible for the change in eating habits of teenagers and the unhealthy lifestyle they are adopting. Media Addiction: The negative effects of media on children are manifested in terms of their changing mental setup and the declining quality of their lifestyle. Health Problems: Media has negative effects on the physical and psychological well-being of society. People spending hours in front of a television or surfing the Internet experience eye problems. A survey is conducted by  Gilani Research Foundation, on January 20, 2011 According to that survey Fifty two per cent people believed that media has a valuable effect on culture and lives . Whereas,   29 per cent said that it left no impact on their lives. A considerable 19 per cent gave no comments because they were unsure. Now I will tell you about a seminar which is organized by a Youth Forum on Tuesday, June 29, 2004 at Aga Khan University Auditorium. The speakers said that research had shown that children were prone to imitate what they saw on media. Teachers’ Development Centre Director Prof Abbas Hussain said that children through media got aware about certain facts of life mysteries, contradictions, tragedies and violence, which were not considered suitable for them to know. suggestions parents should see what children were watching in order to minimize the effects of such programmes. â€Å"Television should not be used as a baby-sitter,† we should remove television sets from bedrooms, monitoring of the websites they visit, setting of time limitation and finding alternative activities for them would be very helpful in reducing negative effects on personality of children. How to cite Media and Children, Papers

Russian History free essay sample

This was due to Peter I (Peter the Great) because of his accomplishments forced the West to take notice of his nation. Peter The Great When Peter I came into power in 1689, he had two basic goals for his country: †¢Modernize his country in the western fashion. †¢Gain warm water ports to access to the west, thus, bringing more trade, recognition, and respect by the other European powers. Dealing with the West Peter set out his plans by sending a grand embassy to the European powers in 1697 to enlist their help against Turkey. He went along too, pretending to be a ships carpenter, and worked in English and Dutch shipyards. He studied everything from anatomy and engraving to European industrial techniques in order to gain as much information as possible. He was determined to give Russia an outlet to the sea, both on the Baltic Sea and Caspian Sea. He brought European shipbuilders to Russia. We will write a custom essay sample on Russian History or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Then in 1696, with a new fleet, he was able to capture Azov, the chief Turkish fortress on the Sea of Azov. As Captain Peter Alekseevich, he commanded from the Principium – a ship built by his own hand. In 1700, he felt ready to attack Sweden. With Poland and Denmark as allies, he started the Great Northern War, which lasted until 1721. Peter defeated the Swedes and gained an outlet to the Baltic Sea. The Treaty of Nystad (1721) ended the war and gave Russia the prized Swedish provinces on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Sweden became a second-rate military power, and Poland was reduced in status. As a result of the victory, the Russian Empire was formed on October 22, 1721. On that day Peter was acclaimed Father of the Fatherland, Peter the Great, and emperor of all the Russia’s, by the Russian Senate, in gratitude for victory in the war. Internal Affairs Peter was organizing and modernizing his country internally as well as externally. He was ruthless when he ruled Russia as he was so determined for his country to be recognised. He forced his subjects to conform to his ideas, founded a navy, introduced factories, and organized a modern army. He also created a new Russian capital, St Petersburg. In 1703, Peter began construction a fortress on territory that he had won – which became the new capital city of St Petersburg – and moved his imperial court there in 1712. In order to populate St Petersburg, Peter forced all upper-class Russians to move there. One problem was that the country had no proper means of transportation. What roads there were only ran east to west, and even then, they were difficult to traverse, especially during the Russian winter. Peter westernized his subjects by using taxation and implementing new laws. Some examples are: †¢He put a high tax on beards and Oriental dress to force the people to adopt Western dress. †¢He modernized the calendar, simplified the alphabet, unified the currency, and introduced universal taxation

Prehistoric Life During the Paleocene Epoch

Prehistoric Life During the Paleocene Epoch Although it didnt boast as wide an array of prehistoric mammals as the epochs that succeeded it, the Paleocene was notable for being the geologic stretch of time immediately following the extinction of the dinosaurswhich opened up vast ecological niches for surviving mammals, birds, reptiles and marine animals. The Paleocene was the first epoch of the Paleogene period (65-23 million years ago), the other two being the Eocene (56-34 million years ago) and Oligocene (34-23 million years ago); all these periods and epochs were themselves part of the Cenozoic Era (65 million years ago to the present). Climate and geography. The first few hundred years of the Paleocene epoch comprised the dark, frigid aftermath of the K/T Extinction, when an astronomical impact on the Yucatan peninsula raised enormous clouds of dust that obscured the sun worldwide. By the end of the Paleocene, however, the global climate had recovered, and was nearly as warm and muggy as it had been during the preceding Cretaceous period. The northern supercontinent of Laurasia had yet to completely break apart into North America and Eurasia, but the giant continent Gondwana in the south was already well on its way to separating into Africa, South America, Antarctica and Australia. Terrestrial Life During the Paleocene Epoch Mammals. Contrary to popular belief, mammals didnt suddenly appear on the planet after the dinosaurs went extinct; small, mouselike mammals coexisted with dinosaurs as far back as the Triassic period (at least one mammalian genus, Cimexomys, actually straddled the Cretaceous/Paleocene boundary). The mammals of the Paleocene epoch werent much larger than their predecessors, and only barely hinted at the forms they would later attain: for example, the distant elephant ancestor Phosphatherium only weighed about 100 pounds, and Plesidadapis was an extremely early, extremely small primate. Frustratingly, most mammals of the Paleocene epoch are known only by their teeth, rather than well-articulated fossils. Birds. If you were somehow transported back in time to the Paleocene epoch, you might be forgiven for concluding that birds, rather than mammals, were destined to inherit the earth. During the late Paleocene, the fearsome predator Gastornis (once known as Diatryma) terrorized the small mammals of Eurasia, while the very first terror birds, equipped with hatchet-like beaks, began to evolve in South America. Perhaps not surprisingly, these birds resembled small meat-eating dinosaurs, as they evolved to fill that suddenly vacant ecological niche. Reptiles. Paleontologists still arent sure why crocodiles managed to survive the K/T Extinction, while their closely related dinosaur brethren bit the dust. In any case, prehistoric crocodiles continued to flourish during the Paleocene epoch, as did snakesas evidenced by the truly enormous Titanoboa, which measured about 50 feet from head to tail and may have weighed more than a ton. Some turtles, too, attained giant sizes, as witness Titanoboas contemporary in the swamps of South America, the one-ton Carbonemys. Marine Life During the Paleocene Epoch Dinosaurs werent the only reptiles that went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. Mosasaurs, the fierce, sleek marine predators, also disappeared from the worlds oceans, along with the last straggling remnants of plesiosaurs and pliosaurs. Filling the niches vacated by these voracious reptilian predators were prehistoric sharks, which had existed for hundreds of millions of years but now had the room to evolve to truly impressive sizes. The teeth of the prehistoric shark Otodus, for example, are a common find in Paleocene and Eocene sediments. Plant Life During the Paleocene Epoch A huge number of plants, both terrestrial and aquatic, were destroyed in the K/T Extinction, victims of the enduring lack of sunlight (not only did these plants succumb to darkness, but so did the herbivorous animals that fed on the plants and the carnivorous animals that fed on the herbivorous animals). The Paleocene epoch witnessed the very first cactuses and palm trees, as well as a resurgence of ferns, which were no longer harassed by plant-munching dinosaurs. As in preceding epochs, much of the world was covered by thick, green jungles and forests, which thrived in the heat and humidity of the late Paleocene climate. Next: the Eocene Epoch

Formation and Types of Irregular Galaxies

Formation and Types of Irregular Galaxies The word galaxy brings to mind images of the  Milky Way  or perhaps  the Andromeda galaxy, with their spiral arms and central bulges. These  spiral galaxies  are what people commonly imagine all galaxies look like. Yet, there are many types of galaxies in the universe and theyre not all spirals. To be sure, we live in a spiral galaxy, but there are also elliptical (rounded without spiral arms) and lenticulars (sort of cigar-shaped). Theres another set of galaxies that are rather shapeless, dont necessarily have spiral arms, but do have a lot of sites where stars are forming. These odd, blobby ones are called irregular galaxies.  Sometimes they get lumped in with the so-called peculiar galaxies due to their unusual shapes or other characteristics. Hubble Space Telescopes deepest view of the cosmos. There are hundreds of galaxies of all shapes and sizes in this image. NASA/ESA/STScI As many as a quarter of known galaxies are irregular.  With no spiral arms or central bulge, they dont seem to visually share much in common with either spiral or elliptical galaxies. However, they have some characteristics in common with spirals, at least. For one thing, many have sites of active star formation. Some may even have black holes at their hearts. Formation of Irregular Galaxies So, how do irregulars form? It seems that they are typically formed through gravitational interactions and mergers of other galaxies. Most,  if not all of them began life as some other galaxy type. Then through interactions with each other, they became distorted and lost some, if not all of their shape and features. Hubble Space Telescope looked at a pair of colliding galaxies that are tangling as they interact. The shock of the collision has produced blue streamers that look like clouds. They are actually giant starburst regions, where clusters of hot, massive young stars are being born. In the future, this may end up being an irregular galaxy for a time. NASA/ESA/STScI Some may have been created simply by passing near another galaxy. The gravitational pull of the other galaxy would tug on it and warp its shape. This will happen particularly if they pass near larger galaxies. This is likely what happened to the Magellanic Clouds, the smaller companions to the Milky Way. It appears that they were once small barred spirals. Because of their close proximity to our galaxy, they were distorted by gravitational interactions into their current unusual shapes. The Large Magellanic Cloud (middle left) and Small Magellanic Cloud (upper center) over Paranal Observatory in Chile. European Southern Observatory Other irregular galaxies seem to have been created through mergers of galaxies. In a few billion years the Milky Way will merge with Andromeda galaxy. During the initial time of the collision, the newly formed galaxy (which is nicknamed Milkdromeda) may look to be irregular as the gravity of each galaxy pulls on the other and stretches them like taffy. Then, after billions of years, they may eventually form an elliptical galaxy. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the massive elliptical galaxy Messier 60 (also called M60, or NGC 4649). M60 is 120 million light-years across and contains an estimated 400 billion stars. Highlighted in the inset is the dwarf galaxy M60-UDC1 which orbits the giant elliptical.M60-UCD1 is a tiny galaxy with a diameter of 300 light-years - just 1/500th of the diameter of the Milky Way! Despite its size it is pretty crowded, containing some 140 million stars.The dwarf galaxy may actually be the stripped remnant of a larger galaxy that was torn apart during a close encounter with Messier 60. Circumstantial evidence for this comes from the recent discovery of a monster black hole, which is not visible in this image, at the centre of the dwarf. The black hole makes up 15 percent of the mass of the entire galaxy, making it much too big to have formed inside a dwarf galaxy. NASA/ESA/STScI Some researchers suspect that large irregular galaxies are an intermediate step between the merger of similarly sized spiral galaxies and their eventual final forms as elliptical galaxies. The most likely scenario is that two spirals either mingle together or simply pass very near each other, resulting in changes to both partners in the galactic dance.   There is also a small  population of irregulars that dont fit into other categories. These are called dwarf irregular galaxies. They also look a lot like some galaxies as they existed early in the history of the universe, without a definite shape and looking more like a shred of a galaxy. Does this mean that the irregulars that are observed today are more like early galaxies? Or is there some other evolutionary path that they take? The jury is still out on those questions as astronomers continue to study them and compare younger to the ones they see that existed many billions of years ago. Types of Irregular Galaxies Irregular galaxies come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. This is not surprising considering  they may have started out as either spiral or elliptical galaxies  and simply distorted through the merger of two or more galaxies, or perhaps by nearby gravitational distortion from another galaxy. However, irregular galaxies can still all into a number of sub-types. The distinctions are usually associated with their shape and features, or lack thereof, and by their size. Irregular galaxies, particularly the dwarfs, are still not well understood. As weve already discussed, their formation is at the heart of the issue, particularly as we compare old (distant) irregular galaxies to newer (nearer) ones. Irregular Sub-types Irregular I Galaxies (Irr I): The first sub-type of irregular galaxies are known as Irr-I galaxies (Irr I for short) and are characterized by having some structure, but not enough to classify it as a spiral or elliptical galaxies (or any other type). Some catalogs break this sub-type down even further into those that exhibit either spiral features (Sm) - or barred spiral features (SBm) - and those that have structure, but not structure associated with spiral galaxies such as a central bulge or arm features. These are therefore identified as Im irregular galaxies.   Irregular II Galaxies (Irr II): The second type of irregular galaxy does not have any feature what so ever. When they were formed through gravitational interaction, the tidal forces were strong enough to eliminate all identified structure of what galaxy type it may have been previously. Dwarf Irregular Galaxies: The final type of irregular galaxy is the dwarf irregular galaxy mentioned above. As the name suggests, these galaxies are smaller versions of the two sub-types listed above. Some of them contain structure (dIrrs I), while others have no trace of such features (dIrrs II). There is no official cut-off, size-wise, for what constitutes a normal irregular galaxy and what is a dwarf. However, the dwarf galaxies tend to have low metallicity (that means that they are mostly hydrogen, with low amounts of heavier elements). They may also form  in a different way than normal-sized irregular galaxies. However, some galaxies currently classified as dwarf Irregulars are simply small spiral galaxies that have been distorted by a much larger nearby galaxy. Edited and updated by Carolyn Collins Petersen.