Shyness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Shyness - Essay Example Shyness reactions can occur at any or all of the following levels: cognitive, affective, physiological and behavioral, and may be triggered by a wide variety of arousal cues. Among the most typical are: authorities, one-on-one opposite sex interactions, intimacy, strangers, having to take individuating action in a group setting, and initiating social actions in unstructured, spontaneous behavioral settings. Metaphorically, shyness is a shrinking back from life that weakens the bonds of human connection. The percentage of adults in the United States reporting that they are chronically shy, such that it presents a problem in their lives, had been reported at 40%, plus or minus 3%, since the early 1970's. Recent research indicates that the percentage of self-reported shyness has escalated gradually in the last decade to nearly 50% (48.7% + /- 2%). The National Co-morbidity Survey in 1994 revealed a lifetime prevalence of social phobia of 13.3%, making it the third most prevalent psychiatric disorder. (Encyclopedia of Mental Health, Academic Press, San Diego, CA, SHYNESS, Lynne Henderson The Shyness Clinic, Portola Valley, California, Phillip Zimbardo, Stanford University, Stanford, California). In humans, shyness is the feeling of apprehension or lack of confidence experienced in regard to social association with others, e.g. being in proximity to, approaching and being approached by others. In zoology, shy generally means "tends to avoid human beings". Adolescence can be a challengin g time with youth experiencing biological, psychological, and social changes. Both normative stressors (such as moving from middle school to high school), as well as non-normative stressors (such as parental divorce) have been linked to an increased risk of such internalizing behaviors as depression and anxiety. The first thing to understand about shyness is that neither is it a symptom of cowardice or inferiority. Shyness has nothing to do with cowardice or inferiority, so no one should make the association, either consciously or unconsciously. As a part of the growing or adolescence comes the necessity of "showing performance", often this competition or the need to prove one's self starts at home among the siblings. If a boy of 13 to 16 years of age is very shy in nature and finds a problem in interacting with people as any other physically and mentally normal boy of his age would do with ease, a peep into his family frequently exposes a very dominating elder sibling. Other than t he sibling often very dominating, criticizing, discouraging and strict parental behavior also contributes immensely in forcing the child to withdraw and eventually become shy and afraid. As a result of this stress and of the fear of being judged and criticized, often the person is unable to unearth his/her own capabilities; they deprive themselves of the chance of doing something worthy. Even though they have the potential they lack the confidence to pull a job efficiently, they themselves become their worst critics. One of the most common and prominent reason among the others that lead adolescents to become shy and introvert, is the inhuman experience of any sort of physical and/or sexual abuse during their childhood. In their childhood children are often prey to these