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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Shyness and education: the relationship between shyness, social class and personality variables in adolescents.

The study considers the relationship between shyness, some related personality variables and socio-economic status. Adolescent shyness levels are examined using two self-report questionnaires which cover the spectrum of inherent, emotional and situational shyness. These findings were correlated with individual levels of anxiety, neuroticism and also with socio-economic status. The educational implications of these results are discussed and the problem of the definition of shyness is addressed. The sample comprised 650 adolescents in the age range 11-18 years, drawn at random from two secondary schools, the number of boys being 300 and the number of girls 350. The results indicate that high levels of both situational and inherent shyness are related significantly to high levels of anxiety and neuroticism. Inherent shyness and situational shyness correlate only moderately with one another. Low levels of situational and inherent shyness are related positively and significantly to high levels of self-esteem and extraversion. Similar patterns of relationships occur for the other variables considered. The stability coefficients of correlations for each type of shyness were high after an interval of six months. Furthermore, shyness is related significantly to the socio-economic class of adolescents: a relatively higher percentage of shyness occurs among adolescents of lower socio-economic class.

Achievement↗
PubMed1986

Shyness: conceptualization and measurement.

The concept of shyness and its measurement were investigated in a series of studies (total N = 1,687). Data collection and analysis proceeded in three phases: the revision and continued development of a measure of shyness, the Social Reticence Scale; a psychometric comparison among five measures of shyness; and an examination of the factor structure underlying the construct of shyness. Phase 1 assessed the reliability and validity of the Social Reticence Scale, including ratings of videotaped monologues and ratings by significant others. Phase 2 compared the five shyness measures with one another on indices of internal consistency and with other relevant measures of emotionality, personality, relationships, and behavior. Items from the five shyness measures were combined in a factor analysis in Phase 3, and the resulting factors were correlated with the self-report and rating data obtained in Phase 2. Overall, the results from these studies confirmed that the shyness measures were valid, reliable, and empirically distinct from measures of related constructs. Behavioral validity was observed for several of the shyness scales. Additional analyses suggested that three interpretable factors underlie responses to the shyness scales but provided little support for drawing conceptual distinctions among types of shyness. Discussion focuses on the implications of these data for the measurement and conceptualization of shyness.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Shyness: anxious social sensitivity and self-isolating tendency.

Based on shyness self-rating, 96 students in grade 10 were divided into shy and non-shy groups to study commonalities and differences between the groups on various aspects of the shyness experience. The shy group had significantly more negative self-ratings on the following items: loneliness, interference of shyness with academic success and with developing friendships, shyness around the opposite sex, and belief in the noticeability of shyness reactions by others. There were no significant group differences in the levels of self-liking and being liked by others. Compared to the non-shy, the shy group reported more negative cognitive reactions during the shyness experience, such as loss of concentration, speech problems, self-consciousness, and self-punitive self-talk. In spite of the shy group's cognitive problems, both groups identified many similar shyness-inducing social situations and physiological and non-verbal reactions. These similarities and differences between the shy and the non-shy seemed to point to their different ways of processing the same shyness experience. A self-alienating tendency at three levels (cognitive, affective, and behavioral), and two phases (primary and secondary) of the shyness experience are discussed as possible contributing factors. Shy students appeared to regard normal shyness as an unacceptable and shameful experience. Implications for therapeutic intervention and future research are discussed, and a new definition is given.

Achievement↗
PubMed1994

Psychological characteristics and subjective intolerance for xenobiotic agents of normal young adults with trait shyness and defensiveness. A parkinsonian-like personality type?

The present study examines the psychological characteristics and self-reported responses to xenobiotic agents such as tobacco smoke and pesticide of normal young adults with personality traits similar to those claimed for Parkinsonian patients. Previous research, though controversial, has suggested that persons with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) have premorbid personality traits that may include shyness and repressive defensiveness. Other epidemiological evidence indicates that PD patients may have premorbidly increased prevalence of anxiety, affective, and/or somatoform disorders; decreased rates of smoking and alcohol consumption; and elevated exposure to herbicides or pesticides. A total of 783 college students enrolled in an introductory psychology course completed the Cheek-Buss Scale (shyness), the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (defensiveness), Symptom Checklist 90 (revised), the Mastery Scale, a health history checklist, and rating scales for frequency of illness from alcohol and 10 common environmental chemicals. Subjects were divided into four groups on the basis of above- versus below-median scores on the Cheek-Buss and Marlowe-Crowne scales (persons high in shyness and defensiveness, those high only in shyness, those high only in defensiveness, and those low in both shyness and defensiveness). The group high in shyness but low in defensiveness had the highest, whereas the group low in shyness but high in defensiveness had the lowest, total scores on the SCL-90-R; the two shyest groups were lowest in sense of mastery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Videotape reconstruction of emotions and cognitions related to shyness.

This study tested predictions of the self-presentational approach to situational and dispositional shyness within a broader perspective. Forty subjects who were high in self-rated dispositional shyness and 30 subjects who were low in self-rated dispositional shyness watched videotapes of their interaction with a confederate of the experimenter in various situations, including apprehension of evaluation and positive feedback provided by the confederate. The subjects' free verbal responses to particular events during these situations were content-analyzed. Compared with the group lower in shyness, the shy subjects (a) recalled more fear of social evaluation (including fear of positive evaluation) but did not more often report other kinds of fear, (b) had more negatively biased thoughts about the impression made on their partner but not more impression-related thoughts in general, and (c) showed more negatively biased reactions to the positive feedback of their partner. These results support the self-presentational view that fear of being socially evaluated is pivotal to dispositional shyness. However, some unexpected findings suggest that social evaluative situations also arouse fears of having to evaluate others; this would limit self-presentational explanations of situational shyness in these situations.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

Shyness and public self-consciousness: additive or interactive relation with social interaction?

Shy people are characterized as engaging in self-derogatory thinking leading to anxiousness and inhibition, while people who are publicly self-conscious are focused on the impression they create on others. In addition, public self-consciousness has been described as an antecedent of shyness. In the present research, we tested additive versus interactive hypotheses about the association of shyness and public self-consciousness with dysfunctional social interaction. Undergraduate men varying in shyness and public self-consciousness engaged in a conversation with an unfamiliar woman confederate. Following the conversation, subjects completed self-report measures focusing on their responses during the conversation. Only main effects for shyness and public self-consciousness were found, supporting an additive hypothesis. Shyness was related to all dependent variables reflecting a negative self-bias, while public self-consciousness was not. In particular, shyness was inversely related to the balance of subjects' positive and negative thoughts and to reported use of protective as well as avoidance of acquisitive self-presentation responses. Public self-consciousness was positively related to use of protective self-presentation responses but unrelated to acquisitive responses.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Shyness as a risk factor for adolescent substance use.

The role of shyness in adolescent substance use was examined in a sample of about 1,300 high school students from 14 senior high schools. Sample members were classified as not-shy, shy, or super-shy based on scores from an established measure of shyness, the Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale. Significant shyness category by gender interaction analysis of variance effects and gender-specific chi-square analyses indicated shy males were more likely to use marijuana or hashish, cocaine, amphetamines, and hallucinogenic substances than not-shy males and females. Further, super-shy males were more likely to report use of most of the substances than shy males. Super-shy females were less likely to drink alcohol than females who were less shy or not-shy. Findings from this study, as well as studies investigating other behavioral problems, suggest shyness may be more a burden for males than for females. Use of certain substances may assist very shy males cope with shyness by reducing psychosocial discomfort and inhibition.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Correlates of Portuguese college students' shyness and sociability.

This study investigated the relationship between shyness and sociability among 194 Portuguese college students. A factor analysis of the intercorrelation matrix of shyness and sociability items gave two distinct factors indicating that shyness and sociability are distinct personality dispositions. Shyness scores showed only a moderate negative correlation with sociability. Further, the measures of shyness and sociability had different patterns of correlations with other personality scales. The Portuguese translation of shyness and sociability scales seems sufficiently reliable and valid to warrant further use with Portuguese individuals.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

A Brunswikean approach to trait continuity: application to shyness.

A new method of assessing the continuity of traits independent of their stability is proposed that is based on Brunswik's lens model of person perception. The method is applied to the continuity of shyness between preschool age and adulthood. A sample of 108 children (observed at age 4 and again at age 6) and a sample of 70 university students were video-taped in conversations with adult strangers. Detailed coding of 17 different behaviors revealed a highly similar rank order of their validity coefficients for parental reports of children's shyness, self-reports of students' shyness, and observer judgments of both children's and students' shyness, even after controlling for differences in the behaviors' reliability. These findings suggest that the construct of shyness shows a strong continuity from preschool age through adulthood. The proposed methodology can also be applied to the continuity of emotional states or to the cross-situational generality of traits and states.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1995

[A study on the relationship of shyness and gaze].

Sixty-four women, either scoring high or low on Trait Shyness Scale, were selected from a population of 130 junior college students. An experiment with a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design was conducted, with shyness (high vs. low), interviewer gaze (high vs. low), and interviewer sex (man vs. woman) as its factors. Sitting directly in front of a subject, an interviewer read questions one by one from a list. Two trained judges coded the subject's gaze and speech through a one-way mirror, and later by watching videotaped records. Results showed that high shyness persons gazed less than the others in the high interviewer-gaze condition. In addition, high shyness women tended to talk less than low shyness women.

Adult↗
PubMed1995

Trait shyness in the elderly: evidence for an association with Parkinson's disease in family members and biochemical correlates.

The emergence of potential treatments to slow the progression of idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD) has increased the need for early identification of persons at risk. Although considered controversial, some prior studies indicate that PD patients may have premorbid histories of greater trait introversion or shyness as well as increased rates of disorders associated with shyness (e.g., anxiety, affective disorders, and irritable bowel syndrome). Essential features of trait shyness include (a) inhibited and avoidant behaviors and (b) physiological hyperreactivity to the novel or unfamiliar. In parallel, (a) depression in PD patients is associated with increased harm avoidance (a possible serotonergic function), and (b) PD patients have premorbid and comorbid decreases in novelty-seeking (a possible dopaminergic function). Taken together, previous research suggests the following hypotheses: (1) given evidence for marked heritability of shyness, shy elderly should report higher rates of PD in their family members than would nonshy elderly; and (2) shy elderly without PD should exhibit psychological and biologic characteristics similar to those reported in PD. Two groups, representing the top 27% (n = 37) and bottom 31% (n = 43) of scores on a standardized shyness scale, were drawn from a larger cohort of 138 older adults (ages 50-90) living in an active retirement community. Seventeen percent of the shy versus 2% of the nonshy reported PD in a family member or self (P < .05). Shy elderly were significantly more anxious (P < .01) and depressed (P < .05) than were the nonshy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗
PubMed1982

The Social Reticence Scale: an objective instrument to measure shyness.

The development of a 22-item measure of shyness, the Social Reticence Scale, is described. Shyness is a common but often seriously limiting constellation of feelings and attitudes experienced in social situations. Research on shyness has been hampered by the lack of a valid, reliable and easily administered instrument with which to measure shyness. The Social Reticence Scale was found to have substantial internal consistency and test-retest reliability and several assessments of criterion and construct validity suggested that the scale was a valid measure of shyness. Preliminary evidence regarding discriminant validity is also presented as well as the factor structure of the scale.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Continuity and change in infant shyness from 14 to 20 months.

Objective measures of shyness in the MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study were obtained in two testing situations: the laboratory and the home. A longitudinal hierarchical model was fitted to the data, allowing estimation of the extent to which genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental influences contributed to continuity and change of the shyness phenotype from 14 to 20 months of age. The sample consisted of 163 monozygotic and 138 same-sex dizygotic twin pairs. Models were fitted to raw data using a maximum-likelihood pedigree approach. Genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental first-order factors, with specific variances, were modeled on each of four shyness ratings assessed in the laboratory and home at 14 and 20 months. Four second-order genetic, shared environmental, and unique environmental factors were also modeled. Results indicated that developmental change from 14 to 20 months and situational specificity between the laboratory and the home are mediated largely by shared and unique environmental influences. Genetic variation is largely responsible for both the stability in shyness from 14 to 20 months and the phenotypic correlations observed between the laboratory and the home settings.

Female↗
PubMed1997

Perceptions of intelligence in leaderless groups: the dynamic effects of shyness and acquaintance.

Perceptions of intelligence were investigated in 2 longitudinal studies of leaderless discussion groups (LDGs). In Study 1 (N = 87), students completed trait-shyness questionnaires and met 7 times in groups of 4-5. After Meetings 2 and 7, participants rated all group members on state shyness and intelligence. Trait-shy participants were initially judged to be less intelligent on both self- and peer ratings. At Time 2, however, trait-shy participants were no longer derogated by peers. Study 2 (N = 103) replicated the same pattern of shy derogation while demonstrating no actual relation between IQ and trait shyness. Again, trait-shy derogation disappeared by Time 2, but state-shy derogation continued. The state shy were now the low-IQ participants, who had begun to talk less. Thus, the bias against quiet individuals, originally inappropriate, gradually became a valid cue for low intelligence. Results were traced to overlapping cues for intelligence and shyness in LDGs.

Female↗
PubMed1995

Shyness and self-esteem in middle childhood.

The relationship between shyness and self-esteem was assessed for two samples of children aged 9 to 12 years. Shyness was measured by a new self-report questionnaire based on an elicitation of children's conceptions of shyness. Shyness was significantly correlated with measures of global self-esteem, with external locus of control and with perceived competence across different domains of the self. The relationship among variables were similar to those reported for adolescents and adults. Girls were more shy than boys, and there was a suggestion that 11-year-old children were more shy in secondary than in primary school.

Child↗
PubMed1982

Correlation of shyness and self-esteem for elementary school children.

98 children were identified as shy based on their self-perceptions and specific criteria related to shyness. These shy children were administered a self-esteem inventory and self-report measures of shyness. A significant correlation of .63 was found between shyness and self-esteem scores which indicated that shyness is related to low self-esteem.

Anxiety↗
PubMed1982

Shyness and love on a college campus.

Shyness and Love scales were administered to investigate the relation between shyness and love for 153 men and 217 women on a college campus. Three groups, Love, Dating, and Friendship, were identified on the Love scale, which was composed of 5 subscales, Respect, Congeniality, Altruism, Physical Attraction, and Attachment. For the Love and Friendship groups shyness appears to be a barrier to congeniality and physical attraction, which are aspects of love, as well as to love itself. Shyness did not appear to inhibit the Dating group.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1994

Patterns of cortical electrophysiology and autonomic activity in adults' shyness and sociability.

We examined differences in brain electrical activity (EEG), heart rate (EKG), heart rate variability, and behavior among 40 young women who were selected for high (HI) and low (LO) self-ratings of shyness and sociability. EEG and EKG were continuously recorded for 6 min from each subject, just prior to an expected novel social encounter. Each subject was also observed unobtrusively for 5 min during the social encounter. Analyses indicated that the pattern of frontal EEG asymmetry was related to sociability, but not to shyness. LOSOCIABLE subjects displayed greater relative right mid-frontal activation while HISOCIABLE subjects displayed greater relative left mid-frontal activation. A significant shy x sociable interaction was found for parietal asymmetry and for measures of heart rate and heart rate variability. LOSHY/HISOCIABLE subjects displayed greater relative right parietal activation while LOSHY/LOSOCIABLE subjects displayed greater relative left parietal activation. And HISHY/HISOCIABLE subjects displayed a significantly higher and more stable (less variable) heart rate than HISHY/LOSOCIABLE and LOSHY/HISOCIABLE subjects. Analyses also indicated that LOSOCIABLE subjects displayed significantly more signs of nonverbal social avoidance as compared with HISOCIABLE subjects. The present findings suggest that shyness and sociability may be subserved by different neurophysiological systems.

Adolescent↗