SHYNESS

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hyness (also called diffidence) is the feeling of apprehension, lack of comfort, or awkwardness experienced when a person is in proximity to, approaching, or being approached by other people, especially in new situations or with unfamiliar people. Shyness may come from genetic traits, the environment in which a person is raised and personal experiences. There are many degrees of shyness. Stronger forms are usually referred to as social anxiety or social phobia. Shyness may merely be a personality trait or can occur at certain stages of development in children. The primary defining characteristic of shyness is a largely ego-driven fear of what other people will think of a person's behavior, which results in the person becoming scared of doing or saying what he or she wants to, out of fear of negative reactions, criticism, or rejection, and simply opting to avoid social situations instead.

The initial causes of shyness vary. Scientists believe they have located genetic data supporting the hypothesis that shyness is at least partially genetic. However, there is also evidence that suggests the environment in which a person is raised can also be responsible for his or her shyness. This includes child abuse, particularly emotional abuse such as ridicule. Shyness can originate after a person has experienced a physical anxiety reaction; at other times, shyness seems to develop first and then later causes physical symptoms of anxiety. Shyness differs from social anxiety, which is a broader, often depression-related psychological condition including the experience of fear, apprehension or worrying about being evaluated by others in social situations to the extent of inducing panic.

Misconceptions and negative aspects

Many misconceptions, stereotypes about shy individuals exist in western culture and negative peer reactions to "shy" behavior abound. This takes place because individualistic cultures don't value quietness and meekness, and more often reward outgoing behaviors. Some misconceptions include viewing introversion and social phobia synonymous with shyness, and believing that shy people are less intelligent.

Shyness vs. introversion

The term shyness may be implemented as a lay blanket-term for a family of related and partially overlapping afflictions, including timidity (apprehension in meeting new people), bashfulness and diffidence (reluctance in asserting oneself), apprehension and anticipation (general fear of potential interaction), or intimidation (relating to the object of fear rather than one's low confidence). Apparent shyness, as perceived by others, may simply be the manifestation of reservation or introversion, character traits which cause an individual to voluntarily avoid excessive social contact or be terse in communication, but are not motivated or accompanied by discomfort, apprehension, or lack of confidence.
Both shyness and introversion (unsociability) can be classified as personalities that lead to socially withdrawn behaviors (behavioral tendencies to avoid social situations, especially when they are unfamiliar). A variety of research has been done suggesting that these two personalities possess clearly distinct motivational forces and lead to uniquely different personal and peer reactions and therefore cannot be described as theoretically the same.
Group ideals and self-control, while perceiving chosen isolation (introverted behavior) negatively, as a threat to group harmony. Because society accepts shyness and rejects unsociability, shy individuals develop higher self-esteem than introverted individuals. On the other hand, individualistic cultures perceive shyness as a weakness and a character flaw, while unsociable personality traits (preference to spend time alone) are accepted because they uphold the value of autonomy. So, in contrast, shy individuals develop low self-esteem in Western cultures while unsociable individuals develop high self-esteem. Psychological methods and pharmaceutical drugs are commonly used to treat shyness in individuals who feel crippled because of low self-esteem and psychological symptoms, such as depression or loneliness. According to research, early intervention methods that expose shy children to social interactions involve working team work, especially team sports, decrease their anxiety in social interactions and increase their all around self-confidence later on. Implementing such tactics could prove to be an important step in combating the psychological effects of shyness that make living normal life difficult for anxious individuals.

Shyness vs. social phobia

An extreme case of shyness is identified as a psychiatric illness, which made its debut as "social phobia" in 1980, but was then described as rare. By 1994, however, when, it was given a second, alternative name in parentheses (social anxiety disorder) and was now said to be relatively common, affecting between 3 and 13% of the population at some point during their lifetime. This process has been seen as a case study of "disease-mongering" in psychiatry.
Shyness affects people mildly in unfamiliar social situations where one feels anxiety about interacting with new people. Social anxiety disorder, on the other hand, is a strong irrational fear of interacting with people, or being in situations which may involve public scrutiny, because one feels overly concerned about being criticized if one embarrasses oneself. Two types of social phobia exist, generalized social phobia, the fear of most social situations, and specific social phobia, the fear of one or several kinds of social situations such as public speaking. The generalized form of this condition can interfere with normal living because people who feel this way may avoid social situations as much as possible. Physical symptoms of social phobia can include shortness of breath, trembling, increased heart rate, and sweating; in some cases, these symptoms are intense enough and numerous enough to constitute a panic attack. Shyness, on the other hand, may incorporate many of these symptoms, but at a lower intensity, infrequently, and does not interfere tremendously with normal living.

Intelligence

No correlation (positive or negative) exists between intelligence and shyness but data collected leans toward a positive rather than negative correlation between intelligence and shyness, though it isn't statistically significant. The stereotype exists that shy people are less intelligent and peers initially perceive them this way. The data supporting this hypothesis falsely identifies a cause and effect relationship between low academic standing and high levels of shyness, when in fact a third factor, academic engagement verbally expressing knowledge accounts for this correlation. Research indicates that shy children have a harder time expressing their knowledge in social situations which many academic curriculums utilize and because they do not engage actively in discussions, teachers view them as less intelligent. Test scores, however, prove that shyness is unrelated to actual academic knowledge, and therefore only academic engagement. Depending on the level of a teacher's own shyness, more indirect vs. socially oriented strategies are used with shy individuals to assess knowledge in the classroom, and accommodations are made. Observed peer evaluations of shy people during initial meeting and social interactions thereafter found that peers evaluate shy individuals as less intelligent during the first encounter. During subsequent interactions, however, peers perceived shy individuals' intelligence more positively.