Search PubMed⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Shyness”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed2002

Shyness and social phobia: a social work perspective on a problem in living.

Social phobia is classified as an anxiety disorder in psychiatric nomenclature. It represents a fear of performance or social interaction that significantly interferes with a person's social or occupational functioning. The author takes issue with the fact that social phobia is considered by many professionals to be a mental illness that is often treated best with medication. Social phobia can be conceptualized from a social work perspective as an extreme shyness that can be overcome with cognitive learning and behavioral rehearsal. This article reviews the biopsychosocial causes of social phobia and presents a summary of cognitive and behavioral interventions with empirically demonstrated effectiveness.

Anxiety Disorders↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Is allergic rhinitis more frequent in young adults with extreme shyness? A preliminary survey.

Previous studies suggest that social anxiety, allergies and distressed affect may be interrelated in some persons. For example, extremely introverted patients experience a poorer course and outcome of allergies as well as greater degrees of distressed affect such as depression and anxiety than do extraverts. Patients with affective disorders have a higher prevalence of atopic allergy than the general population; families of patients with panic disorder and major depression have the highest frequency of shy children. Preliminary investigation also indicate that behaviorally inhibited Caucasian children (initially shy and cautions in unfamiliar situations) and their families have more allergies, especially hay fever, than do uninhibited, socially outgoing children. The present survey evaluated the frequency of self-reported shyness. The most introverted subjects had significantly higher scores on self reports of depression, fearfulness, and fatigue, as well as a higher prevalence of hay fever. The data support the possibility of a distinct subgroup of shy individuals with concomitant vulnerability to specific allergies and affective disorders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

Biological bases of childhood shyness.

The initial behavioral reaction to unfamiliar events is a distinctive source of intraspecific variation in humans and other animals. Two longitudinal studies of 2-year-old children who were extreme in the display of either behavioral restraint or spontaneity in unfamiliar contexts revealed that by 7 years of age a majority of the restrained group were quiet and socially avoidant with unfamiliar children and adults whereas a majority of the more spontaneous children were talkative and interactive. The group differences in peripheral physiological reactions suggest that inherited variation in the threshold of arousal in selected limbic sites may contribute to shyness in childhood and even extreme degrees of social avoidance in adults.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1992

Low self-esteem in differentiating fearful and self-conscious forms of shyness.

Differences between fearfully and self-consciously shy individuals in self-esteem were investigated. Analysis indicated that fearfully (n = 45) compared to self-consciously (n = 40) shy individuals self-reported lower self-esteem. This result suggests that the role of low self-esteem may be different for each shyness subtype. A possible explanation was proffered.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Shyness and informal help-seeking behavior.

The present study examined whether shy individuals are more reluctant to seek help than less shy individuals. A sample of 48 undergraduates (46% men, Mage=20.6 yr.) were selected from a pool of 72 students based on their relatively high or low scores on the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. They were then exposed to a situation involving an impossible task, on which they had the option of seeking assistance. Analysis indicated that participants scoring high on Shyness took significantly more time to seek help than participants scoring low. This result suggests that even when help is readily available, shy individuals may refrain from seeking it. Presumably, shy people may be reluctant to seek help because that often requires them to initiate a social interaction.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

Shyness, group dependence and self-concept: attributes of the imaginary audience.

The imaginary audience of 328 early and late adolescents was studied from the viewpoint of providing educators and clinicians with insight into its attributes--those which both facilitate and hinder youths' development. Early adolescents (about 14 or 15 years of age) displayed a greater awareness of an imaginary audience which probably contributed to their observed, elevated group dependence. Unexpectedly, the shyness of adolescents highly sensitive to an imaginary audience increased with age, possibly because they are unwilling to provide themselves with the social experiences necessary for decentering. Likewise, those highly sensitive to an imaginary audience projected low self-concepts and thus imply that their audience is relatively critical; thus, they probably validate a self-fulfilling prophecy, oblivious to a possible contradictory external reality. The anticipated fact that females appeared to be less socially bold and more group dependent than males might account, in part, for females' greater responsiveness to an imaginary audience. It is suggested that educators and clinicians encourage youth to validate social hypotheses in order to promote the dissolution of the imaginary audience, especially of those who are shy and display self-deprecatory tendencies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Summation of latent inhibition and overshadowing in a generalized bait shyness paradigm of rats.

This paper reports a single experiment using four groups of rats. A group of thirsty rats showed aversion to sodium chloride (NaCl) solution in testing after drinking lithium chloride (LiCl) solution, demonstrating generalized bait shyness due to the common "salty" taste. The other two groups of rats were treated identically except that the rats were either exposed to NaCl solution prior to drinking the LiCl solution or allowed to drink LiCl-sucrose solution instead of the LiCl solution. The weaker salt aversion observed in these groups indicates latent inhibition and overshadowing, respectively. The rats in the fourth group were preexposed to NaCl and allowed to drink the LiCl-sucrose solution. The weakest salt aversion in this group suggests summation of latent inhibition and overshadowing effects.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Modifying shyness-related social behavior through symptom misattribution.

An experimental misattribution paradigm proved to be a significant intervention treatment of altering social participation among dispositionally shy women. When specific arousal symptoms previously associated with their social anxiety were misattributed to a nonpsychological source, high-frequency noise, these extremely shy women behaved as if they were not shy. Their verbal fluency and interactional assertiveness resembled that of not-shy comparison women given the same treatment. Moreover, their scores on these measures were significantly elevated from the low levels recorded by shy controls who had been led to expect shyness-irrelevant "side effects" from their exposure to noise. A male partner (a confederate) accurately perceived whether or not the women in the two control groups were shy, but he misjudged as "not shy" the shy women in the misattribution group. The greater enjoyment of the interaction by those in this latter group, despite high-frequency noise bombardment, was also reflected in their stronger preference for further affiliation than that shown by either comparison group. The continuously monitored heart rate data provide grounds for speculation as to the relationship of physiological arousal and behavior. However, a paradoxical placebo finding emerged when it appeared that the non-shy women in this same misattribution condition experienced a higher level of arousal, and this anxiety-like arousal was associated with preferences for nonaffiliation.

Adult↗
PubMed1982

The treatment of extreme shyness in maladjusted children by implosive, counselling and conditioning approaches.

This article deals with the reason why little research has been conducted into the area of timidity or shyness in children, and the effect this has on their socialisation and learning. The study attempts to define and treat the problem of timidity by: reducing anxiety both general and specific; developing greater assertiveness in the child's behaviour; promoting the ability to communicate effectively with other people; discovering and treating the areas which are creating feelings of inadequacy by reducing or eliminating them; investigating parental background and trying to influence this, and attempting to decrease over-sensitivity. A control group of 11 and an experimental group of 11 are studied and treated after random sampling. The duration of study is 7 months. They are treated for 6 months and followed up by reassessment of both groups 2 weeks after the 6-month period. The sample is assessed by the MPI (Maudsley Personality Inventory) and a rating scale. Among the implosive approaches used is the forcing of the individual to react by promoting an emotion such as anger, or even verbal or physical attack, to develop communication of some kind. Individuals are therefore forced to participate in activities such as swimming and games, experience loud noises in music, are involved in drama therapy and encouraged to mix with members of the opposite sex. Additionally, behaviour therapy is used including the shaping of increasingly assertive responses. Timidity is modified statistically by showing an improved reading ability and through the measurement of extroversion on the MPI. No such change is reported in the control group. Changes in reading, spelling and math are also in the expected desired direction.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Electrical stimulation of the amygdala as a conditioned stimulus in a bait-shyness paradigm.

Animals receiving low-intensity electrical stimulation of the basolateral nucleus of the amygdala while drinking plain tap water were injected with toxic doses of lithium chloride to examine whether brain stimulation can serve as a conditioned stimulus in a bait-shyness paradigm. Subjects receiving this pairing greatly reduced their water intake in a retention test, in a similar manner to a group in which saccharin was paired with poisoning. Pairing lithium chloride with stimulation of the amygdala had no effect on subsequent water intake in the absence of brain stimulation. This effect appears to be locus specific, as caudate stimulation could not serve as a conditioned stimulus.

Amygdala↗
PubMed1979

Guilt and shyness: a profile of social discomfort.

The Mosher Guilt Scales, the Stanford Shyness Survey, and measures of anxiety, hostility, and self-esteem were administered to 54 college females in an effort to clarify the nature of the personality problems that beset shy and guilty persons in social situations. As was hypothesized, it was found that shy people also tended to be guilty. This complicates attempts to understand the nature of the problems with which shy and guilty persons must cope. In addition, it was found that both shy and guilty people tended to be high in trait anxiety, and low in hostility and self-esteem. Thus the profile of a shy, guilty person is that of an individual who is uncomfortable with her own feelings, actions, and beliefs across a variety of social situations.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1998

Shyness and little boy blue: iris pigmentation, gender, and social wariness in preschoolers.

In recent years, researchers have uncovered a link between iris pigmentation and inhibition/social wariness among young children (e.g., Rosenberg & Kagan, 1987, 1989; Rubin & Both, 1989). In the present study, 152 Caucasian preschool-aged (Mage = 54.09 months, SD = 5.84) children (77 males) with either blue (n = 84) or brown (n = 68) eyes, were compared in terms of parental and teacher ratings of social wariness, social play, and aggression. A significant Eye Color x Gender Interaction was found in terms of indices of social wariness; blue-eyed males were rated as more socially wary than brown-eyed males, while blue- and brown-eyed females did not differ in this regard. These results supported the notion that eye color is a marker variable for social wariness in young children.

Aggression↗