Assessment of Shyness among Tribal and Rural Adolescents and Its Relationship with Vocational Interests

Abstract

The present study aims to find out the prevalence of shyness among adolescents in tribal and rural areas as well as to find out the relationship between of occupational preference among adolescents of tribal and rural areas, influence of shyness levels, gender, and income on job preference among the adolescents. The experience of shyness can occur at any or all of the following levels: cognitive, affective, physiological and behavioural and may be triggered by a wide variety of situational cues. Since shyness could affect any dimension, the present study aims to identify the influence of shyness on occupational preference of the adolescents. The study of adolescent shyness has implications for understanding some of the more extreme examples of adolescent violence as exhibited by recent high school shootings perpetrated by shy, socially isolated, angry adolescents labeled as “cynically shy” (Carducci, 2000) and the development of strategies for reducing the social isolation experienced by such socially disenfranchised adolescents. Finally, severe shyness that continues into the later years of life can result in chronic social isolation that leads to increasingly severe loneliness and related psychopathology, and even to chronic illness and a shorter life span. Lastly, after studying the shyness aspects and relationship with other variables, an attempt will be made to suggest few remedial measures for shyness.