Running Head: WHY SHY?
Poster Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association,
Washington, D.C., August 2000
Why Shy?: A Content Analysis of Self-Perceived Causes of Shyness
Bernardo J. Carducci, David Henderson, Michelle Henderson
Angela Marie Walisser, Amanda Brown, David Mayfield
Shyness Research Institute
Indiana University Southeast
Alison C. McLeish
Duke University
Address all correspondence to: Bernardo J. Carducci, Director, Shyness Research Institute, Indiana University Southeast, New Albany, IN 47150 or E-mail: bcarducc@ius.edu.
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to assess the extended written comments of shy individuals regarding the self-perceived causes of their shyness. The 240 participants were randomly selected from 800 individuals completing a shyness survey appearing in the Nov.\Dec. 1995 Psychology Today. A content analysis revealed five general categories of self-perceived causes of shyness, including seven subcategories: family factors (family lifestyles & parenting), personal difficulties (intrapersonal/psychological disruptions & interpersonal/social disruptions), victimization (genetic, physical disabilities, abuse, & tormented), “other,” and causal uncertainty/no answer category. A discussion of the temporal and attributional patterns of the self-perceived causal explanations and the treatment implications of the results are also presented
Why Shy? A Content Analysis of Self-Perceived Causes of Shyness
Within the last twenty years, the contemporary literature on shyness represents a steady progression of development characterized by an increasing level of theoretical, methodological, and clinical sophistication (Carducci, 1999; Carducci & Zimbardo, 1995). However, concerns have been expressed with respect to the extent that this research, which tends to rely primarily on the use of college students completing fixed-format questionnaires, to study the definition, causes, and treatment of shyness accurately reflects the actual nature of how shyness is experienced by shy individuals in their everyday lives (Harris, 1984a; Cheek & Watson, 1989). While attempts to address this issue have examined how non-collegiate samples of shy individuals define and experience their shyness (cf. Carducci 1998; Cheek and Watson, 1989) and the self-selected strategies/treatments they employed to deal with their shyness (Carducci 1997), an aspect missing from this literature is an examination of the self-perceived cause of shyness. In response to such concern, the purpose of the present study is to gain a more in-depth understanding of shyness by performing a content analysis of the extended written responses from a nation-wide non-collegiate sample of shy individuals describing what they believe to be the cause of their shyness.
Methods
Participants: The 240 participants (74 males and 150 females, with 16 respondents failing to indicate gender, ranging in age from 12 to 69 years of age, with a mean of 33.23 years of age) completed, with complete confidentially, a shyness survey appearing in the Nov.\Dec. 1995 issue of Psychology Today (Carducci & Zimbardo, 1995) and mailed it to the first author. The respondents, representing a variety of educational levels and ethnic backgrounds, were randomly selected from a larger sample of over 800 returned surveys.
Materials: The 1995 Psychology Today Survey on Shyness consisted of ten fixed-format items and five open-ended requesting questions, once of which asked the respondents to describe what causal factors contributed to their shyness.
Procedures: Six raters were given 40 surveys each. Each rater read the written responses to the question: "Describe what factors you believe have contributed to your shyness?" and summarized each self-perceived causal statement provided. Because of the open-ended nature of the question, respondents were free to state more than one self-perceived cause. Each statement was then rated by all six raters and assigned to one of ten causal categories.
Results
Overall, a total of 1382 self-perceived causal statements were identified by all six of the raters, with a mean of 5.8 statements per respondent.
The content analysis of the statements surveys revealed five general problem areas: family factors, personal difficulties, victimization, an "other" category, and a “no answer” category.
Family Factors: As seen in Table 1, 48% of the self-perceived causes of shyness were classified into a family factors category, which included two subcategories. The family/family lifestyles subcategory (21%) included self-perceived causes of shyness related to life organization patterns of the nuclear and extended family (e.g., divorce, birth order, family violence, family relocating). The parenting subcategory (19%) included self-perceived causes of shyness related to styles of parent-child interaction and child-rearing techniques and practices (e.g., over-protective or judgmental parent(s), parents lacking and/or failing to teach social skills).
Personal Difficulties: Twenty percent of the self-perceived causes were classified into a personal difficulties category, which included two subcategories. The intrapersonal difficulties subcategory (9%) included self-perceived causes of shyness related to unfavorable and/or unpleasant thoughts that created a negative self-image (e.g., low self-esteem, high self-consciousness, feeling stupid, depressed, or anxious). The interpersonal difficulties subcategory (11%) included self-perceived causes of shyness related to the individual's difficulty interacting with others (e.g., poor social skills, dating difficulties, and being rejected by a romantic interest).
Victimization: Twenty-four percent of the self-perceived causes were classified into a victimization category, which included four subcategories. The genetics subcategory (9%) included self-perceived causes of shyness related to genetics (e.g., being born shy or shyness being innate). The disabilities subcategory (8%) included self-perceived causes of shyness related to real or imagined problems with one's physical appearance (e.g., facial acne or being overweight), characteristics (e.g., speech impediment or race or cultural factors), and abilities (e.g., not being a good athletic or dancer, sexual inadequacies). The abuse subcategory (5%) included self-perceived causes related to being abused (e.g., physical, emotional, verbal, psychological, or sexual abuse by family members, teachers, coaches, bosses, or caretakers). A tormented subcategory (2%) included being bullied, teased, or tormented for being different or inferior.
The “other” category (3%, n = 37) included an assortment of statements that did not fit into any of the other previously noted categories while the “no answer” category (12%, n 165) included the statements of causal uncertainty, such as “don’t know” or “not sure” (5%, n = 63), or no statement given to the question (7%, n = 102).
Discussion
The present study demonstrates the diversity of the possible explanations shy individuals have to account for their shyness, with many citing factors from more than one causal category. In addition, there was a tendency to focus on early experiences with family members and peers as principal causal factors. Finally, the pattern of results seems to reflect an emphasis on the self-perceived causes of shyness being attributed more to external sources (e.g., family factors and victimization categories, totaling 64% of the responses) than to internal sources (e.g., personal difficulties category, totaling only 20% of responses). Such an attributional bias may be self-serving by allowing shy individuals to blame others for their problems with shyness and justify the limited number of self-initiated strategies shy individuals employ to deal with their shyness (cf. Carducci et al., 1997)
The results of the present study also have implications for the treatment of shyness by taking into consideration the causal beliefs of the shy individuals (cf. Carducci, 1999). For example, those shy individuals whose causal concerns with shyness are assumed to be internal in nature might benefit most from individualized treatment programs emphasizing cognitive modification to help minimize feelings of self-doubt and a sense of victimization. Those whose causal concerns are assumed to be external in nature might benefit most from group treatment programs emphasizing social support and interaction to address family-factor issues and offering opportunities to improve social skills.
A discussion of the benefits and limitations of employing extending written comments to create a more personalized, as well as ecologically valid, approach to studying shyness and suggestions for future research will also be presented.
References
Carducci, B. J. (1999). Shyness: A bold new approach. New York: HarperCollins.
Carducci, B. J. Marion, C. R., Lynch, D., Dosch, M. M., & Boley, A. L. (1997, August). Top-10 self-selected strategies to overcome shyness: A content analysis. Poster session presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago.
Carducci, B. J., Ragains, K. D., Kee, K. L., Johnson, M. J., & Duncan, H. R. (1998, August). Identifying the pains and problems of shyness: A content analysis. Poster session presentation at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco.
Carducci, B. J., & Zimbardo, P. G. (1995, November/December). Are you shy? Psychology Today, 34-41, 64, 66, 68, 70, 78, 82.
Cheek, J. M., & Watson, A. K. (1989). The definition of shyness: Psychological imperialism or construct validity. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 4, 85-95.
Harris, P. R. (1984a). Shyness and psychological imperialism: On the dangers of ignoring the ordinary language roots of the terms we deal with. European Journal of Social Psychology, 14, 169-181.
Table 1
Frequency
Summary of the Content Analysis of Self-Reported Causal
Categories of
Shyness*
Causal Area Percent Responding
___________________________________ _________________
Family Factors (40%, n = 566)
Family/Family Lifestyles 21% (n = 295)
Parenting
19%
(n = 271)
Personal Difficulties (20%, n = 276)
Intrapersonal/Psychological Disruptions 9%
(n = 125)
Interpersonal/Social Disruptions 11% (n = 151)
Victimization (24%, n = 338)
Genetic 9% (n = 125)
Disabilities 8% (n = 111)
Abuse 5% (n = 75)
Tormented 2% (n = 27)
Other (3%, n = 37)
No Answer (12%, n = 165)
_________________________________________________________________________________________
*Number of respondents given in parenthesis (N = 1382)