The shyness spectrum

Debate continues regarding the relationship between shyness and social phobia. Some have proposed that this relationship is best understood by adopting a spectrum approach where increasing levels of shyness eventually merge into the clinical disorder of social phobia. This paper begins to explore the validity of this spectrum by reviewing similarities and differences between shyness and social phobia and investigating how shyness relates to social phobia subtypes. This paper will also explore precursors to social phobia, namely childhood behavioral inhibition.     

The effect of witnessing consequences on the behavioral recordings of experimental observers

The cueing effects of interviewer praise contingent on a target behavior and expectation of behavior change were examined with six observers. Experiment I investigated the effect of cues in conjunction with expectation. Experiment II assessed the relative contributions of cues and expectation, and Experiment III examined the effect of cues in the absence of expectation. The frequencies of two behaviors, client eye contact and face touching, were held constant throughout a series of videotaped interviews between an "interviewer" and a "client". A within-subjects design was used in each experiment. During baseline conditions, praise did not follow eye contact by the client on the videotape. In all experimental conditions, praise statements from the interviewer followed each occurrence of eye contact with an equal number of praises delivered at random times when there was no eye contact. Three of the six observers dramatically increased their recordings of eye contact during the first experimental phase, but these increases were not replicated in a second praise condition. There were no systematic changes in recorded face touching. Witnessing the delivery of consequences, rather than expectation seemed to be responsible for the effect. This potential threat to the internal validity of studies using observational data may go undetected by interobserver agreement checks.     

Lasting false beliefs and their behavioral consequences

False beliefs and memories can affect people's attitudes, at least in the short term. But can they produce real changes in behavior? This study explored whether falsely suggesting to subjects that they had experienced a food-related event in their childhood would lead to a change in their behavior shortly after the suggestion and up to 4 months later. We falsely suggested to 180 subjects that, as children, they had gotten ill after eating egg salad. Results showed that, after this manipulation, a significant minority of subjects came to believe they had experienced this childhood event even though they had initially denied having experienced it. This newfound autobiographical belief was accompanied by the intent to avoid egg salad, and also by significantly reduced consumption of egg-salad sandwiches, both immediately and 4 months after the false suggestion. The false suggestion of a childhood event can lead to persistent false beliefs that have lasting behavioral consequences.     

Explanations of social shyness

Shyness is a widespread reaction to social situations, characterized by inaction, self-consciousness, and heightened physiological reaction. Two explanations of this pattern have been proposed, in terms of a primary emotion related to shame or as a form of social anxiety. These positions lead to different predictions, but have attracted little investigation. Explanations of individual differences in shyness have emphasized either social skill deficits or low self-esteem, but these are not supported by empirical evidence. It is argued that an explanation in terms of self-attentional processes accounts for current findings, leads to original predictions, and relates shyness more closely to social psychological principles.     

群体认同对群际敏感效应及其行为表现的影响

通过实验研究了群际互动中个体对不同来源身份的消极群体评价的情绪反应及群体认同的调节作用,并从情绪-行为反应的连续性视角探索群际敏感效应的行为表现及内在机制。结果发现:(1)相比内群体的消极群体评价,外群体的消极群体评价更能引起消极情绪反应;(2)群体认同对群际敏感效应起调节作用,高群体认同者对来自外群体消极评价的情绪反应更加负面,而低群体认同者这种趋势并不明显;(3)高群体认同者在经历外群体的消极群体评价后会表现出更多的内群体积极行为,且消极情绪反应对此起中介作用。研究扩展了群际敏感效应的适用范围,并为探讨其内部机制和后续影响提供了新的研究思路。     

Implicit self-theories of shyness

Three studies examined implicit self-theories in relation to shy people's goals, responses, and consequences within social situations. Shy incremental theorists were more likely than shy entity theorists to view social situations as a learning opportunity and to approach social settings (Study 1). Shy incremental theorists were less likely to use strategies aimed at avoiding social interaction (Studies 2 and 3) and suffered fewer negative consequences of their shyness (Study 3). These findings generalized across both hypothetical and actual social situations as well as both self-reports and observer reports and could not be attributed to individual differences in level of shyness. Together, these studies indicate that implicit self-theories of shyness are important for understanding individual differences among shy people and suggest new avenues for implicit self-theories research.     

The influence of shyness on children's test performance

Background: Research has shown that shy children differ from their peers not only in their use of language in routine social encounters but also in formal assessments of their language development, including psychometric tests of vocabulary. There has been little examination of factors contributing to these individual differences. Aims: To investigate cognitive‐competence and social anxiety interpretations of differences in children's performance on tests of vocabulary. To examine the performance of shy and less shy children under different conditions of test administration, individually with an examiner or among their peers within the familiar classroom setting. Sample: The sample consisted of 240 Year 5 pupils (122 male, 118 female) from 24 primary schools. Method: Shy and less shy children, identified by teacher nomination and checklist ratings, completed vocabulary and mental arithmetic tests in one of three conditions, in a between‐subjects design. The conditions varied individual and group administration, and oral and written responses. Results: The conditions of test administration influenced the vocabulary test performance of shy children. They performed significantly more poorly than their peers in the two face‐to‐face conditions but not in the group test condition. A comparable trend for the arithmetic test was not statistically significant. Across the sample as a whole, shyness correlated significantly with test scores. Conclusions: Shyness does influence children's cognitive test performance and its impact is larger when children are tested face‐to‐face rather than in a more anonymous group setting. The results are of significance for theories of shyness and have implications for the assessment of schoolchildren.     

Asymmetrical consequences of behavioral change through reward and punishment

Previous research (Greitemeyer & Weiner, 2003 ) has demonstrated that compliance, because of an anticipated reward is attributed more to the person than compliance because of an anticipated punishment. The present research extended these findings to an educational context. Three studies revealed that parents who ask their children to change inappropriate behaviors are more likely to ascribe their children's improvement to the child, if the child was promised a reward, rather than threatened, to receive a punishment if the child did not improve. Moreover, because a child's improved behavior is more likely to be ascribed to the child given a reward as compared to a punishment, parents expect that rewards (as opposed to punishments) are more likely to sustain improved behavior, when the incentive is no longer offered. Finally, participants report to be more likely to induce behavioral change through reward rather than punishment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The up- and down-regulation of amusement: experiential, behavioral, and autonomic consequences

A growing body of research has examined the regulation of negative emotions. However, little is known about the physiological processes underlying the regulation of positive emotions, such as when amusement is enhanced during periods of stress or attenuated in the pursuit of social goals. The aim of this study was to examine the psychophysiological consequences of the cognitive up- and down-regulation of amusement. To address this goal, participants viewed brief, amusing film clips while measurements of experience, behavior, and peripheral physiology were collected. Using an event-related design, participants viewed each film under the instructions either to (a) watch, (b) use cognitive reappraisal to increase amusement, or (c) use cognitive reappraisal to decrease amusement. Findings indicated that emotion experience, emotion-expressive behavior, and autonomic physiology (including heart rate, respiration, and sympathetic nervous system activation) were enhanced and diminished in accordance with regulation instructions. This finding is a critical extension of the growing literature on the voluntary regulation of emotion, and has the potential to help us better understand how people use humor in the service of coping and social goals.     

Physiological, psychological and behavioral consequences of activating autobiographical memories

Activating an autobiographical memory for a specific childhood event can have immediate and robust physiological, psychological, and behavioral consequences. The target behavior was public speaking, a vital skill about which many people are socially anxious. In this study, it was suggested to subjects that they had a positive public speaking experience in early childhood; they then thought about and retrieved details of this true childhood memory. Compared to a control condition in which a different suggestion was made, subjects in the treatment group exhibited superior public speaking performance on the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Further, physiological measures of cortisol and a self-report measure of anxiety (STAI-S) reflected a significantly smaller increase in anxiety from before to after the TSST in the treatment than control condition. Activating autobiographical memory for an event increases the accessibility of that memory and consequently affects performance on related behaviors.     

It takes two to mimic: behavioral consequences of self-construals

The present studies demonstrated the moderation of self-construal orientation on mimicry. Recent research has indicated that an interdependent self-construal is associated with assimilation of the other to the self whereas an independent self-construal is associated with minimizing the influence of others on the self (H. R. Markus & S. Kitayama, 1991; D. Stapel & W. Koomen, 2001). Therefore, the authors hypothesized that an interdependent self-construal would be associated with more mimicry than an independent self-construal. When self-construal orientations were experimentally primed, as in Studies 1 and 2, independent self-construals produced less nonconscious mimicry than interdependent self-construals. When self-construals were examined as cultural differences with either a chronically dominant independent (Americans) or interdependent (Japanese) construal of the self, these results were replicated.     

The effects of shyness on love styles and relationship status

As prior research has indicated that shyness is associated with social anxiety, inhibition, and generally less fulfilling social relationships, this study examined the possible affect of shyness on one specific type of relationship, romantic love. Participants (N = 124) completed the Revised Cheek-Buss Shyness Scale and the Love Attitudes Scale, and provided basic information about themselves and their current romantic relationships. A chi-square test showed no significant association between high or low Shyness scores and whether participants were currently involved in a romantic relationship, but there were significant positive correlations between these scores and those on two of the six love styles, Storge and Mania. In interpreting the results, the effects of shyness on relationships, social expectations, and love attitudes are discussed.     

Motivational basis of dissonance: the singular role of behavioral consequences

This article provides the first empirical test of the idea that discrepancy is not needed in order to arouse cognitive dissonance. Dissonance was aroused when Ss felt responsible for some aversive consequence, regardless of whether their behavior was consistent (writing a proattitudinal essay) or inconsistent (a counterattitudinal essay) with beliefs. The data demonstrate that in both situations, dissonance is aroused. This result, based on the dissonance motivation model of Cooper and Fazio (1984), strongly suggests that the motivational basis for dissonance is the felt responsibility for aversive consequences. The theoretical implications of this outlook are explored, including a discussion of the many ways that it expands the applicability of dissonance theory.     

Personality variables related to shyness

Shyness has been a very common Finnish characteristic as social skills are manifest. Shy people may have a good empathetic listening but self-disclosure, another aspect of empathetic communication, is missing. Shyness refers to poor social skills more than a personality trait, which would have a more genetic background, as Finns have been genetically isolated for a long time. Shy persons show a mediocre empathy (good empathetic listening and sensitivity but poor self-disclosure), weak self-esteem, weak narcissism, and sometimes more burnout.     

On differentiating shame and shyness

To differentiate shame from shyness on the Differential Emotions Scale, the shame adjectives—ashamed, disgraced, humiliated—were distinguished from the shyness adjectives—shy, sheepish, bashful. The Differential Emotions Scale was completed by 127 males and 130 females for six randomly ordered emotions in life situations: shame, shyness, embarrassment, guilt, anxiety, and depression. In life situations, the situation of shame in comparison to shyness was more unpleasantly experienced with significantly higher elevations on shame, guilt, distress, anger, disgust, surprise, and contempt factors, and significantly lower levels on shyness, interest, embarrassment, and enjoyment factors. The rank-order correlation between the emotional profiles in the shame and shyness situations was inverse and nonsignificant. The experiences of shame and shyness occurred at significantly different intensities within life situations epitomizing shame, shyness, embarrassment, guilt, and depression. Some sex differences in emotional experience emerged. The results strongly supported the empirical proposition that shame and shyness can be differentiated on the Differential Emotions Scale and weakly supported the proposition that shame and shyness are different theoretical constructs within differential emotions theory.     

Social phobia: Relationship to shyness

The characteristics of social phobia and shyness were compared on six dimensions: somatic features, cognitive characteristics, behavioral responses, daily functioning, clinical course, and onset characteristics. The results revealed that shyness and social phobia have a number of similar features. However, as currently conceptualized, the two syndromes differ in a number of important aspects as well. Definitive distinctions are hampered by the lack of empirical studies directing comparing the two conditions and by the heterogeneity of the shy population. Recommendations for clarifying some of the ambiguities are made.