Conflicted Shyness Research Articles

Social Cognition, Self-Perceptions, and Social Withdrawal in Adolescents

This study explored individual differences in emotion recognition within the context of social orientations and self-perceptions. One hundred and forty-four Canadian adolescents (88 girls, 11–14 years), with a mean age of 13.4 years completed emotion recognition, perceived self-competencies, social preferences (shyness, unsociability, and regulated withdrawal), and social (dis)satisfaction measures. The highest scores were related to epistemic or neutral emotions, followed by negative and finally positive emotions. Furthermore, there were relationships between high levels of emotion recognition (negative emotions) and low levels of physical and global self-worth. Positive correlations were found between high levels of shyness and the ability to recognise negative and epistemic emotions, and experience feelings of low self-worth, with girls scoring higher than boys in recognising positive emotions. Adolescents characterised by high shyness and high social satisfaction (i.e., conflicted shyness) scored the highest on emotion recognition and feelings of low self-worth. Implications for the refinement of theory and research on social withdrawal and social cognition are discussed.

Personality and opponent processes: Shyness, sociability, and visual afterimages to emotion.

The opponent process theory of emotion posits that emotional states evoke opposite emotion states as they wane, resulting in sequential approach and withdrawal motivations. However, whether opponent processes are associated with individual differences in personality remains an empirical question. Using visual afterimage responses to emotional faces as an index of opponent processes, we found that young adults (N = 101; Mage = 19.41 years, SD = 2.06 years) characterized by relatively high shyness and high sociability (i.e., conflicted shyness) were more likely to perceive a negative face emotion afterimage after adapting to happy faces and a positive face emotion afterimage after adapting to angry faces, compared with young adults classified by other combinations of high and low shyness and sociability. We speculate that conflicted shyness may result from strong opponent processes to both positive and negative emotions to real or anticipated social situations in some individuals, resulting in conflicting social motivations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and ADHD Symptoms in a Nationally Representative Sample of U.S. Children: Differentiation Using Categorical and Dimensional Approaches

A nationally representative sample of U.S. children was used to determine the empirical and clinical differentiation of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms using both categorical and dimensional approaches. Mothers of children (N = 2,056, M± SD age = 8.49 ± 2.15 years, 49.3% girls) completed measures of SCT, ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, daily life executive functioning, conflicted shyness, friendship difficulties, and social and academic impairment. Scores greater than the top 5% on SCT and ADHD measures were used to create SCT-only (n = 53, 2.58%), ADHD-only (n = 93, 4.52%), SCT+ADHD (n = 49, 2.38%), and comparison (n = 1,861, 90.52%) groups. Fifty-two percent of the SCT group did not qualify for the ADHD group, whereas 65% of the ADHD group did not qualify for the SCT group. The SCT-only group had higher levels of anxiety, depression, conflicted shyness, and sleep difficulties than the ADHD-only group. In contrast, the ADHD-only group had greater executive functioning deficits and higher ODD than the SCT-only group. SCT-only and ADHD-only groups showed similar levels of friendship, social, and academic impairment. Similar findings emerged when using structural regression analyses to determine the unique clinical correlates of SCT and ADHD dimensions. This is only the second study to examine the distinction of clinically-elevated SCT from ADHD in a national sample of children and extends previous findings to a broader array of functional outcomes. Normative information on the SCT scale also provides a validated rating scale to advance research and clinical care.

On the bifurcation of temperamental shyness: Development, adaptation, and neoteny

In the present paper, the authors use Tinbergen's (1963) seminal four question framework regarding ontogeny, causation, function, and phylogeny to understand individual differences in human shyness. We argue that there are at least two shyness subtypes, an early appearing fearful shyness, and a later emerging self-conscious shyness (Buss, 1986) that develop into avoidant and conflicted shyness, respectively, in early childhood and remain relatively stable into adulthood. We proffer that each shyness subtype is presumed to have a different cause and function: fearful/avoidant shyness results from social novelty, its function is to motivate vigilance, action and avoidance of impending threat and harm from conspecifics, and is subserved by evolutionarily old brain circuits; self-conscious/conflicted shyness results from the experience of competing emotions of interest and fear of negative evaluation in social situations, its function is to allow more time for additional learning to take place about conspecifics' intentions and motives before responding, and is linked to relatively newer brain circuits. We argue for a highly speculative idea that self-conscious/conflicted shyness bifurcated from fearful/avoidant shyness later in human evolution as the neocortex grew bigger, self-awareness emerged, and the nature of social interactions became more complex. We further speculate that conflicted shyness may be reflective of neoteny (i.e., delaying maturity and retaining child-like features into adulthood). We also provide some ways in which this shyness-neoteny hypothesis can be empirically tested. We conclude by suggesting that considering the adaptive value of some temperamental phenotypes has implications for how we view normal and abnormal behavior.

Shyness and sociability among extremely low birth weight survivors in the third and fourth decades of life: Associations with relationship status

We examined differences between the oldest known longitudinally followed cohort of extremely low birth weight survivors (ELBW; < 1,000 grams) and normal birth weight (NBW; > 2,500 grams) control participants on shyness and sociability, as well as conflicted shyness in adulthood across nearly a decade from their 20s to 30s. 100 ELBW survivors and 88 NBW control participants self-reported on shyness and sociability using the Cheek and Buss (1981; Cheek, 1983) shyness and sociability scale. Participants also self-reported on their relationship status. A composite measure of conflicted shyness was also computed (i.e., the product of shyness and sociability). We found that, in their 30s, ELBW survivors reported higher shyness, but similar levels of sociability and conflicted shyness compared to controls. However, the ELBW group exhibited a greater decrease in conflicted shyness than NBW controls from their 20s to their 30s. Greater decreases in conflicted shyness in both groups were associated with being male, as well as with changes in relationship status such as finding a partner or getting married. Relatively higher shyness among ELBW survivors in adulthood suggests that stressful pre- and early postnatal environments may have lasting effects on personality development. However, later social influences such as relationship status may attenuate some types of shyness in adulthood.

Advancing the Multi-Informant Assessment of Sluggish Cognitive Tempo: Child Self-Report in Relation to Parent and Teacher Ratings of SCT and Impairment.

Despite increasing interest in sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) in children and advancements in its measurement, little research has examined child self-reported SCT. Child self-report of SCT is important for the multi-informant assessment of SCT. The current study used a large, school-based sample of children and a multi-informant design to examine child self-reported SCT using the Child Concentration Inventory - Version 2 (CCI-2) which was recently revised based on meta-analytic findings and parallels the item content of validated parent and teacher rating scales. The study involved 2142 unique children (ages 8-13years, 50.51% males). Children (n = 1980) completed measures of SCT, loneliness, and preference for solitude. Mothers (n = 1648), fathers (n = 1358), and teachers (n = 1773) completed measures of SCT, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-IN (ADHD-IN), academic impairment, social impairment, and conflicted shyness. Children's self-reported SCT demonstrated good reliability with the 15 SCT symptoms showing moderate to strong loadings on the SCT factor. The child self-report SCT factor also showed moderate convergent validity with mother, father, and teacher ratings of children's SCT. In addition, higher child-reported SCT predicted greater mother, father, and teacher ratings of children's academic impairment even after controlling for mother, father, and teacher ratings of children's SCT and ADHD-IN. Higher child-rated SCT also predicted greater mother ratings of children's social impairment after controlling for mother ratings of children's SCT and ADHD-IN. The present study provides initial empirical support for the reliability and validity of child-reported SCT as part of the multi-informant assessment of SCT. A key direction for future research includes evaluating the unique contributions of different informants and their utility within specific contexts to guide evidence-based recommendations for assessing SCT.

Shyness and Sociability Beyond Emerging Adulthood: Implications for Understanding the Developmental Sequelae of Shyness Subtypes

Emerging evidence suggests that conflicted shyness (combination of shyness and sociability) places individuals at risk for maladjustment in childhood, adolescence, and emerging adulthood. However, it is not known (1) if this risk for maladjustment persists into adulthood, (2) the extent to which it is generalizable to a broad range of adaptive domains, and (3) if there are mechanisms that might underlie the link between the conflicted shyness phenotype and domains of functioning. Here, we find that the combination of shyness and sociability (i.e., conflicted shyness) places individuals in their thirties at the greatest risk for poor functioning across demographic, health, interpersonal, and psychological domains above and beyond shyness alone. We also report that attention and loneliness may be factors that underlie the risk for poor mental health in individuals characterized by conflicted shyness. Our findings extend work on conflicted shyness by considering several domains of functioning beyond emerging adulthood and suggest possible mechanisms linking this phenotype with symptoms of psychopathology. Findings suggest that the conflicted shyness subtype may be associated with negative consequences across various domains of functioning and across developmental periods at least until the fourth decade of life.

Exploring relations between shyness and social anxiety disorder: The role of sociability

We explored the relation between shyness and social anxiety disorder (SAD) by investigating the role of sociability in this association. Using a multicomponent approach, we found that sociability moderated the association between shyness and SAD in adults, such that individuals who experience conflicted shyness (i.e., scoring high on shyness and sociability) displayed the greatest disturbance across cognitive, behavioral, and somatic components of SAD. Our findings lend support to the notion that shyness is a broad, heterogeneous construct, and that not all highly shy individuals meet diagnostic criteria for SAD. Adults with a conflicted shyness phenotype represent a subgroup of shy individuals who may be at particular risk for SAD symptoms. This finding provides empirical support that an approach–avoidance conflict may be a motivational underpinning in the development of SAD.

Distinguishing types of social withdrawal in children: Internalizing and externalizing outcomes of conflicted shyness versus social disinterest across childhood

Little research has examined the effect of subtypes of social withdrawal on the development of psychopathology across childhood.Parents of 493 children (220 females) completed a measure of their child’s conflicted shyness and social disinterest as well as the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) when their child was age 3, and again at age 6. When children were age 9, parents completed the CBCL.From 3 to 6, conflicted shyness predicted increases in anxiety symptoms in boys and girls, and predicted depressive symptoms in boys. From 6 to 9, social disinterest predicted increases in anxiety symptoms in girls and boys, and predicted increases in depressive symptoms in boys. In addition, in boys, conflicted shyness at age 6 predicted increases in externalizing symptoms at age 9.Conflicted shyness appears to be particularly problematic in early to middle childhood, while social disinterest appears to be more maladaptive in later childhood, with some differences by gender.

Distinguishing shyness and sociability in children: An event-related potential study

Shyness and sociability are independent personality dimensions, each with distinct behavioral and psychophysiological correlates that are conserved across development, culture, and phylogeny. However, relatively little is known regarding how shyness and sociability are instantiated in the brain, particularly during childhood and during the processing of nonsocial stimuli. Using a three-stimulus auditory oddball task, we examined whether variations in shyness and sociability were related to the N200 and P300 event-related potential (ERP) brain responses to processing task-relevant, novel, and standard auditory tones in 53 typically developing 10-year-old children. ERP amplitudes were measured at four midline scalp sites: Fz, FCz, Cz, and Pz. We found that increases in shyness were correlated with increases in target P300 amplitudes across all four head sites, increases in standard P300 amplitudes, and decreases in target P300 latencies in anterior sites. No relations were found for sociability and P300 responses. We also found that P300 amplitude in the frontal region to standard tones mediated the relation between conflicted shyness (i.e., high shyness and high sociability) and emotional instability. These results suggest that shyness and sociability are distinguishable on neurocognitive measures and that these neurocognitive measures may be putative mechanisms in understanding risk for emotional instability and a broad range of dysregulated behavioral problems observed in individuals characterized by conflicted shyness.

Shyness in early infancy: approach-avoidance conflicts in temperament and hypersensitivity to eyes during initial gazes to faces.

‘Infant shyness’, in which infants react shyly to adult strangers, presents during the third quarter of the first year. Researchers claim that shy children over the age of three years are experiencing approach-avoidance conflicts. Counter-intuitively, shy children do not avoid the eyes when scanning faces; rather, they spend more time looking at the eye region than non-shy children do. It is currently unknown whether young infants show this conflicted shyness and its corresponding characteristic pattern of face scanning. Here, using infant behavioral questionnaires and an eye-tracking system, we found that highly shy infants had high scores for both approach and fear temperaments (i.e., approach-avoidance conflict) and that they showed longer dwell times in the eye regions than less shy infants during their initial fixations to facial stimuli. This initial hypersensitivity to the eyes was independent of whether the viewed faces were of their mothers or strangers. Moreover, highly shy infants preferred strangers with an averted gaze and face to strangers with a directed gaze and face. This initial scanning of the eye region and the overall preference for averted gaze faces were not explained solely by the infants’ age or temperament (i.e., approach or fear). We suggest that infant shyness involves a conflict in temperament between the desire to approach and the fear of strangers, and this conflict is the psychological mechanism underlying infants’ characteristic behavior in face scanning.

Longitudinal associations between preschool psychopathology and school-age peer functioning.

The current study examined the effects of preschool psychopathology on peer functioning around school entry. Children (N = 211) were assessed at ages 3 and 6. A semi-structured diagnostic interview, the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment, was administered to a parent at both time points to assess psychopathology. The peer functioning constructs examined at age 6 included child popularity, socially inappropriate behavior, and conflicted shyness. Simultaneous multiple regressions revealed that age 3 anxiety disorder diagnosis was the only unique diagnostic predictor of age 6 socially inappropriate behavior and conflicted shyness, with age 3 anxiety dimensional scores uniquely predicting all three peer constructs. Age 3 anxiety disorder had direct effects on both socially inappropriate behavior and conflicted shyness, which were not mediated by concurrent anxiety disorder at age 6. Thus, preschool anxiety disorders may have enduring effects on child peer relationships in the early school-age years. Possible explanations and implications are explored.

Do you "want" to play? Distinguishing between conflicted shyness and social disinterest in early childhood.

This study attempted to distinguish two types of social withdrawal in early childhood: (a) one based on social fear and anxiety despite a desire to interact socially (conflicted shyness) and (b) one based on the lack of a strong motivation to engage in social interaction (social disinterest). Two samples of preschoolers (n = 119 and n = 127) 3-5 years of age participated. Their mothers completed the newly developed Child Social Preference Scale, which was designed to assess conflicted shyness and social disinterest. Maternal ratings of child temperament, parenting style, and social goals, teacher ratings of child social adjustment, observations of child free-play behaviors, and child interview assessments of perceived competence and preference for playing with peers were also collected. Distinct patterns of associations were found between conflicted shyness and social disinterest and outcome variables. Implications for the motivational underpinnings and adjustment outcomes of shyness and social disinterest are explored.