Skip to main content

Heterogeneity in Personality: Perspectives from Shyness

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

This research was supported by a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Doctoral Research Award awarded to KLP, and operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) awarded to LAS.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Asendorpf, J. B. (1990). Beyond social withdrawal: Shyness, unsociability, and peer avoidance. Human Development, 33, 250–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruch, M. A., Giordano, S., & Pearl, L. (1986). Differences between fearful and self-conscious shy subtypes in background and current adjustment. Journal of Research in Personality, 20, 172–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, A. H. (1986a). A theory of shyness. In W. H. Jones, J. M. Cheek, & S. R. Briggs (Eds.), Shyness: Perspectives on research and treatment (pp. 39–46). New York: Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, A. H. (1986b). Two kinds of shyness. In R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Self-related cognitions in anxiety and motivation (pp. 65–75). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheek, J. M., & Buss, A. H. (1981). Shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 330–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheek, J. M., & Krasnoperova, E. N. (1999). Varieties of shyness in adolescence and adulthood. In L. A. Schmidt & J. Schulkin (Eds.), Extreme fear, shyness and social phobia: Origins, biological mechanisms, and clinical outcomes (pp. 224–250). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Colonnesi, C., Bögels, S. M., de Vente, W., & Majdandžić, M. (2013). What coy smiles say about positive shyness in early infancy. Infancy, 18, 202–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colonnesi, C., Napoleone, E., & Bögels, S. M. (2014). Positive and negative expressions of shyness in toddlers: Are they related to anxiety in the same way. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 624–637.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colonnesi, C., Nikolić, M., de Vente, W., & Bögels, S. M. (2017). Social anxiety symptoms in young children: Investigating the interplay of theory of mind and expressions of shyness. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 45, 997–1011.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eggum-Wilkens, N. D., Lemery-Chalfant, K., Aksan, N., & Goldsmith, H. H. (2015). Self-conscious shyness: Growth during toddlerhood, strong role of genetics, and no prediction from fearful shyness. 20, 160–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kopala-Sibley, D. C., & Klein, D. N. (2017). Distinguishing types of social withdrawal in children: Internalizing and externalizing outcomes of conflicted shyness versus social disinterest across childhood. Journal of Research in Personality, 67, 27–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melchior, L. A., & Cheek, J. M. (1990). Shyness and anxious self-preoccupation during a social interaction. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5, 117–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, L. J. (2013). Going it alone: Comparing subtypes of withdrawal on indices of adjustment and maladjustment in emerging adulthood. Social Development, 22, 522–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nikolić, M., Colonnesi, C., de Vente, W., & Bögels, S. M. (2016). Blushing in early childhood: Feeling coy or socially anxious? Emotion, 16, 475–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Page, R. M. (1990). Shyness and sociability: A dangerous combination for illicit substance use in adolescent males. Adolescence, 25, 803–806.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Poole, K. L., & Schmidt, L. A. (2018a). Smiling through the shyness: The adaptive function of positive affect in shy children. Emotion. Advance online publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole, K. L., & Schmidt, L. A. (2018b). Positive shyness in the brain: Frontal EEG alpha asymmetry and delta-beta correlation. Manuscript submitted for publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poole, K. L., Van Lieshout, R. J., & Schmidt, L. A. (2017a). Exploring relations between shyness and social anxiety disorder: The role of sociability. Personality and Individual Differences, 110, 55–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poole, K. L., Van Lieshout, R. J., & Schmidt, L. A. (2017b). Shyness and sociability beyond emerging adulthood: Implications for understanding the developmental sequelae of shyness subtypes. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 36, 315–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy, V. (2001). Positively shy! Developmental continuities in the expression of shyness, coyness, and embarrassment. In W. R. Crozier & L. E. Alden (Eds.), International handbook of social anxiety: Concepts, research, and interventions relating to the self and shyness (pp. 77–99). New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santesso, D. L., Schmidt, L. A., & Fox, N. A. (2004). Are shyness and sociability still a dangerous combination for substance use? Evidence from a US and Canadian sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 37, 5–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, L. A. (1999). Frontal brain electrical activity in shyness and sociability. Psychological Science, 10, 316–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, L. A., & Fox, N. A. (1994). Patterns of cortical electrophysiology and autonomic activity in adults’ shyness and sociability. Biological Psychology, 38, 183–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, L. A., & Poole, K. L. (2018). On the bifurcation of temperamental shyness: Development, adaptation, and neoteny. New Ideas in Psychology. Advance online publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, L. A., & Robinson, T. N., Jr. (1992). Low self-esteem in differentiating fearful and self-conscious forms of shyness. Psychological Reports, 70, 255–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spere, K. A., Schmidt, L. A., Riniolo, T. C., & Fox, N. A. (2005). Is a lack of cerebral hemisphere dominance a risk factor for social “conflictedness”? Mixed-handedness in shyness and sociability. Personality and Individual Differences, 39, 271–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sroufe, L. A., & Waters, E. (1976). The ontogenesis of smiling and laughter: A perspective on the organization of development in infancy. Psychological Review, 83, 173–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tang, A., Santesso, D. L., Segalowitz, S. J., & Schmidt, L. A. (2016). Distinguishing shyness and sociability in children: An event-related potential study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 142, 291–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kristie L. Poole .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Poole, K.L., Schmidt, L.A. (2019). Heterogeneity in Personality: Perspectives from Shyness. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2337-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2337-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics