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The aim of this quantitative study was to analyze teachers’ most common and perceived effective strategies for reducing anxiety in shy elementary-school students. Participants were 275 elementary-school teachers, representative of the teacher population of Norway. Participants nominated a shy student they had taught and completed a questionnaire including strategies for reducing anxiety, reporting their use and effectiveness of each strategy. Latent class and profile models identified groups of teachers that differed in terms of how often they applied strategies and in how useful they found their attempts to intervene. Strategy use and usefulness ratings were consistent across participants although there was evidence of an association with student grade, student gender and school size on a number of strategies. A consistent theme across the strategies is the reliance on protective strategies, which may help a child cope with anxiety in the short term but can be less productive in the longer term. Results are discussed in terms of best practices for teachers in helping shy students cope with anxiety at school.

Shy children can find engaging with classroom demands challenging, inhibiting their development as agentic learners. In the present study, seven Norwegian elementary school teachers with acknowledged success with shy students were observed teaching and then interviewed about their observed pedagogies. A shy child in each class was also interviewed. Both sets of interviews were analysed drawing on concepts from cultural-historical theory: relational expertise, common knowledge and relational agency. Analyses revealed that teachers employed relational expertise to build common knowledge (understandings of their and the child's motive orientations) with each student. Common knowledge then mediated the unfolding of the child's agency as an engaged learner. The study offers unique insights into how shy children can be supported as learners.

The present study explored variations in the characteristics of teacher-nominated shy students. Participants were N = 329 teachers from 303 elementary schools across Norway. Teachers were first asked to select a current (or previously taught) student who was considered “shy,” and then rated different aspects of this child’s school adjustment. Among the results, teacher-nominated shy students were found to be a heterogeneous group, varying substantively across several domains of functioning at school. Teachers’ descriptions of shy students functioning did not vary significantly as a function of school characteristics (class/school size), teacher characteristics (gender/age/experience), or student grade. However, overall, teachers rated shy male students as evidencing more adjustment difficulties than shy female students. Results are discussed in terms of implications for educational practice.

Formal schooling presents shy children with many challenges in terms of teaching and learning—speaking up in front of class, participating in discussions, and answering questions aloud are difficult for children—as well as making friends and avoiding social rejection or neglect. In this chapter, I consider evidence for shy children’s adaptation to academic challenges, focusing on educational attainments, performance on language assessments, adjustment to school, and the long-term implications of social anxieties. Much research has emphasized the deficits of shy students in these areas, although I suggest that the evidence for these deficits is not robust. I analyze shy students’ reluctance to volunteer answers in class to consider their reticence as a form of management of the risks and rewards involved. The educational applications of this analysis are discussed.

Literary analysis of the blush in Austen's novels identifies three themes, namely the potential ambiguity of a blush, its association with modesty, and its erotic and gendered nature, issues that scarcely figure in current psychological explanations of the phenomenon. I examine these themes and compare them with current psychological accounts which assign a central place to embarrassment and, more specifically, emphasise either unwanted social attention, exposure of the self, or the blush's signalling function. Analysis of Austen's work suggests that greater attention should be paid to self-consciousness as it relates to threats to reputation, to the erotic dimension of the blush, and to potential gender differences. It should encourage researchers to be aware of limitations of psychological accounts and to expand their range of sources of information in order to enhance understanding of this elusive phenomenon.

Questions about the relation between shame and embarrassment are often posed in discussion of emotion but have rarely been examined at length. In this study I assemble and examine distinctions that have been proposed in the literature with the aim of identifying the criteria that have been used to differentiate shame and embarrassment. Relevant empirical studies are also reviewed. Despite the attention paid to the question of the difference between shame and embarrassment consensus on differentiating criteria has not been reached nor has there been consideration of what kind of question is being posed. Three positions that have been adopted are identified and critically evaluated.

Shy and withdrawn behaviours are cause for concern and have attracted contrasting perspectives. On the one hand, they are regarded as predictive of social anxiety disorder and may benefit from intervention; on the other hand, there are claims that normal behaviours are being pathologised. Evidence is reviewed which suggests that while they represent a risk factor for social anxiety disorder, these patterns of behaviours are only moderately predictive, the large majority of shy children do not go on to meet diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder, nor have adults who meet these criteria necessarily been shy as children. A fruitful approach may be to develop effective social and emotional learning programmes to increase children’s understanding of shyness and to aid identification of children at risk.

BackgroundIn recent years, researchers have begun to explore the implications of shyness for the psychosocial wellbeing of children and adolescents, exploring its association with internalizing problems. Research in an Italian context is hindered by the lack of a validated self-report measure of shyness. We report two studies aimed to assess the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire (CSQ-it) and investigate its correlations with convergent and divergent constructs. The first study aimed to examine associations between CSQ-it and self-report measures of anxiety and somatic symptoms and attachment with parents and peers. The second study aimed to investigate its relations to internet addiction.MethodsThe self-report measures were completed by 550 participants in the first study and 131 participants in the second study. Parents provided information on their child's problems. Psychometric properties were assessed by Cronbach's alpha in both studies and by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in Study 1. The relations between shyness and measures of internalizing problems and attachments were analyzed by correlational methods. In Study 2 a moderated mediation model tested the hypothesis that the relationship between shyness and internet addiction is mediated by somatic symptoms and that shyness moderates the relationship between somatic symptoms and internet addiction.ResultsThe reliability and validity of the Italian Version of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire were satisfactory. Results from confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the single-factor model of the questionnaire previously identified in North American and Chinese studies. There were significant correlations between shyness, anxious and somatic symptomatology, impaired psychosocial functioning and specific components of attachment relationships. In Study 2 the indirect effect of shyness on internet addiction through somatic symptoms was significant as well as significantly moderated for high shyness scores but not for low levels of shyness.ConclusionTo our knowledge this is the first study that explored the psychometric proprieties of the Children's Shyness Questionnaire in the Italian context. Findings demonstrated that this self-reported measure of shyness has sound psychometric properties and can be used as a sensitive and appropriate instrument for the assessment of shyness in children and adolescents.

Psychology has been closely involved with educational research, policy and practice since its emergence as a scientific discipline in the late 19th century but it has occupied a less certain place in recent years. This paper describes aspects of the organisational framework of psychology as a discipline and draws upon Research Assessment Exercise data to gain a picture of the research capacity of the psychology of education. The division of research in universities between psychology departments and education departments is identified and its relevance to the ‘demographic crisis’ in educational research considered. Three areas of recent applications of cognitive psychology are reviewed and promising intervention studies are outlined. The implications of demographic trends in educational research together with indications of the limited capacity of the psychology of education pose threats to the potential to develop original education‐based psychological research and to overcome limitations of much existin...

The aims of the present study are to examine whether preschool children's scores on a standardized test of vocabulary mediate or moderate the relation between shyness and reticence and to test whether any influence of vocabulary would be found for both teacher and parent assessments of shyness. Participants were 108 children (50 males), mean age, 63.96 months, attending preschool in Saudi Arabia. Teachers selected shy and non-shy children and both teachers and parents rated the children on a shyness checklist. Children completed a test of receptive vocabulary. Systematic observations of verbal behaviour were made in ‘show and tell’ and play sessions. Shyness scores were negatively correlated with vocabulary test scores. Shy children were more reticent during ‘show and tell’ and play. Vocabulary test scores did not moderate relations between teacher-assessed or parent-assessed shyness and reticence. Vocabulary test scores did not mediate the relation between teacher-assessed shyness and reticence but there was partial mediation in analyses involving parents' assessments. The variation in findings between different informants is discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Many people are extremely anxious about their blushing and regard it as the cause of their social difficulties rather than as a symptom of them. This paper addresses the belief that there is something inherently unpleasant or unattractive about blushing. Historical evidence shows that redness of the cheeks has long been regarded as a sign of facial beauty and youth, and transitory changes such as the blush have also been seen in a positive light as an indication of modesty and charm. The blush is an expression of shame and embarrassment and it too can be regarded in positive or negative light depending on the circumstances. What is distinctive about contemporary anxieties about blushing is that perceived personal inadequacies are in themselves reason to be ashamed and embarrassed: there is a vicious circle where a blush is both a sign of, and reason for, self-deprecation. This perception is not a necessary one but reflects current cultural values and this has implications for the treatment of blushing anxieties.

A sample of 741 university students completed the Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness scale. Item analysis showed that the scale has sound psychometric properties. There was no gender difference in total shyness scores although there were differences on two of the 14 items. A series of confirmatory factor analyses tested the fit of several models of the factor structure of the scale and showed that a two-factor model taking into account differences in the direction of item wording provided a satisfactory and parsimonious fit to the data. The implications of the factor structure for understanding the nature of trait shyness are discussed.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of shyness on students' perceptions of seminars, particularly their estimates of the frequency of their participation, their reasons for remaining quiet in class and their satisfaction with their performance. A questionnaire constructed for this study was administered to a sample of students in one British university along with the Cheek-Buss shyness scale. Across the whole sample, students' knowledge, the content of seminars and the tutor's style of leading them were most frequently endorsed as important reasons for being quiet. Nevertheless reasons related to shyness were judged as very important by approximately 25% of the sample. Scores on the shyness scale were negatively correlated with estimates of participation and were significantly associated with greater emphasis on nervousness and embarrassment as reasons for quietness in class. Factor analysis of questionnaire responses identified three dimensions of perceptions of seminars: confidence in participation, inhibition and positive attitudes. Shy students differed from their peers on all three dimensions and inhibition was a prominent factor in their expressed dissatisfaction with their performance – they are not unwilling to participate but feel inhibited from doing so. The implications of the findings for encouraging participation in class are discussed.

W. Ray Crozier, Self-consciousness, Exposure, and the Blush, pp. 1-17. Little is known about the circumstances that give rise to blushing and there have been no systematic attempts to classify and analyze the types of situations where it occurs. The study reported here analyzes a sample of recollections of occasions and a selection of literary episodes. The two sources of evidence yield somewhat different patterns but prominent themes in both are being the centre of attention, whether this is positive, neutral or negative, and the disclosure, or threat of exposure, of a private or sensitive topic. Inspection of examples suggests that a blush is associated with self-consciousness. More specifically, it is elicited when circumstances cause someone to take another's perspective on the self, and this generates awareness of a discrepancy between his or her position and this position as it appears to the other. A blush does not require that the other take an adverse view of the actor's position. The blush shows sensitivity to the opinions of others and it is its capacity to communicate this that makes it effective in deflecting aggressive or rejecting responses from others.

High artistic achievement by siblings is rare. The Powys family is distinctive in that 3 brothers achieved eminence in literature, and 7 of the 10 siblings who survived to adulthood had creative accomplishments. Analysis of biographical material suggests that the Powys home provided an intensely stimulating environment and promoted a high level of interdependence that persisted into adulthood, factors that may have influenced the creative interests and unconventional lifestyles of the family members. Nevertheless, the siblings differed in their artistic interests and accomplishments. Temperament, educational experiences, gender roles and availability of social support networks are examined as factors influencing disparities in achievement.

Background: Research has shown that shy children differ from their peers not only in their use of language in routine social encounters but also in formal assessments of their language development, including psychometric tests of vocabulary. There has been little examination of factors contributing to these individual differences. Aims: To investigate cognitive-competence and social anxiety interpretations of differences in children's performance on tests of vocabulary. To examine the performance of shy and less shy children under different conditions of test administration, individually with an examiner or among their peers within the familiar classroom setting. Sample: The sample consisted of 240 Year 5 pupils (122 male, 118 female) from 24 primary schools. Method: Shy and less shy children, identified by teacher nomination and checklist ratings, completed vocabulary and mental arithmetic tests in one of three conditions, in a between-subjects design. The conditions varied individual and group administration, and oral and written responses. Results: The conditions of test administration influenced the vocabulary test performance of shy children. They performed significantly more poorly than their peers in the two face-to-face conditions but not in the group test condition. A comparable trend for the arithmetic test was not statistically significant. Across the sample as a whole, shyness correlated significantly with test scores. Conclusions: Shyness does influence children's cognitive test performance and its impact is larger when children are tested face-to-face rather than in a more anonymous group setting. The results are of significance for theories of shyness and have implications for the assessment of schoolchildren.

Differences between shy and non-shy children were found on measures of speech in an assessment situation even when variation in vocabulary scores was statistically controlled. The findings have implications for understanding shyness and for practice in assessing shy children.

Pupils' nicknames for teachers are typically clandestine and serve a reference function rather than acting as terms of address. Despite being a ubiquitous feature of school life, they have attracted little research. This questionnaire study explores characteristics of the use of nicknames as recalled by a sample of 103 university students. Most nicknames expressed contempt or dislike, or attempted to get back or get even, or to put one over on the teacher. The majority of names drew upon physical characteristics of the target person. Although nicknames were derogatory in intent, aptness, wit and cleverness are seen as important characteristics; specifically, wit and aptness seem to have a moderating effect on the offensiveness of nicknames.

A sample of 220 adults responded to a questionnaire on their recollections of name-calling and nicknames while at school. Hurtful names were reported by 141 participants, who described coping with them primarily by means of verbal retaliation or ignoring the names. Participants rarely told teachers and most stated that their school was unhelpful. Although the experience was regarded less negatively over time, this was not the case for those who reported finding the names most hurtful. These participants reported greater effects on all areas of school life and a stronger association of name-calling with physical bullying, and they rated their current feelings about the past experience as more negative. The most common content of names referred to physical appearance, play on the individual's own name, and animals, trends also found in studies of children and in research into teasing.

This study drew on biographical and bibliographical documentary material to investigate individual differences in productivity within a large sample of 20th-century British novelists. Length of literary career predicted the output of both fiction and nonfiction work. Judged literary eminence and gender predicted variation in nonfiction output but not fiction output. However, a substantial proportion of the variance in output could not be explained by career length or the other variables included. Age trends in productivity were similar to those predicted by Simonton 's (1984b) information processing model, but there were differences in the trends of the least and most prolific authors. Consideration of biographical information about individual authors revealed lengthy gaps in the literary careers of the least prolific novelists. The results suggest the need to include both intra-individual factors and social support factors in explaining variation in creative productivity.

Measures of self‐esteem, as assessed by the Harter Self‐Perceived Profile for Children, and sociometric nominations were made prior to, and subsequent to streaming in the first year of a comprehensive school. Although the sample as a whole gained in self‐esteem from one testing to the other, pupils destined to join the special needs stream had lower self‐esteem on three sub‐scales than their peers within a few weeks of starting school, and this difference persisted after streaming. There were changes in reciprocal sociometric choices that involved pupils in the special needs stream. The study shows the value of taking a multi‐dimensional approach to self‐esteem and assessing the impact of streaming through longitudinal rather than cross‐sectional design.

Colour preferences have both scientific significance and relevance to manufacturers. Despite claims that these preferences are unsystematic and that saturation and brightness exert more influence on judgements than hue, a substantial body of research suggests that the rank order of preference for hues ‐ blue, red, green, violet, orange, yellow ‐ emerges with some degree of consistency and, in particular, blue is regularly preferred to other hues. Five explanations of this trend are considered: preferences are simply conventional; blue is more neutral and less susceptible to extremes of judgement than other hues; preference for blue is a by‐product of more general principles; blue has largely positive associations; blue has an evolutionary significance. It is proposed that further investigation of the connotations of hues will provide insight into the pattern of colour preferences.

(1998). The Psychology of Embarrassment. Cognition and Emotion: Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 715-721.

1. The study of the blush: Darwin and after W. Ray Crozier and Peter J. de Jong Part I. The Nature of the Blush: 2. Psychophysiology of the blush Peter D. Drummond 3. Measurement of the blush Ruth Cooper and Alexander L. Gerlach Part II. Theoretical Perspectives on the Blush: 4. Psychological theories of blushing Mark R. Leary and Kaitlin Toner 5. Colours of the face: a comparative glance Jan A. R. A. M. van Hooff 6. Self-conscious emotional development Hedy Stegge 7. A biosocial perspective on embarrassment Ryan S. Darby and Christine R. Harris 8. The affective neuroscience of human social anxiety Vladimir Miskovic and Louis A. Schmidt Part III. The Blush in Social Interaction: 9. The interactive origins and outcomes of embarrassment Rowland S. Miller 10. Performing the blush: a dramaturgical perspective Susie Scott 11. Blushing and the private self W. Ray Crozier 12. Signal value and interpersonal implications of the blush Peter J. de Jong and Corine Dijk Part IV. Blushing Problems: Processes and Interventions: 13. Red, hot and scared: mechanisms underlying fear of blushing Corine Dijk and Peter J. de Jong 14. Psychological interventions for fear of blushing Michelle C. Capozzoli, Imke J. J. Vonk, Susan M. Bogels and Stefan G. Hofmann 15. Psychological aspects of rosacea Peter D. Drummond and Daphne Su Conclusions: 16. Conclusions, what we don't know and future directions for research W. Ray Crozier and Peter J. de Jong.

The impact of residential care upon the self-concepts of the elderly was investigated through the analysis of the frequency of state and action verbs in the self-descriptions of elderly people living in residential care or in their own dwelling. There was a significant interaction between verb class, eliciting question and type of accommodation, suggesting only qualified support for the hypothesis that occupants of residential care accommodation have a more passive sense of self.

The utility of the release from proactive interference paradigm as a technique for the indirect assessment of ethnic sensitivity was explored. Children in Northern Ireland, aged 7 and 11, recalled sets of names that changed in religious affiliation between the third and fourth sets. Only the older age group demonstrated the predicted improvement in recall following change in name type, findings consistent with studies that have taken approaches to the assessment of ethnic sensitivity.

Drawing upon Buss's theory and upon research into self-reflection it was hypothesized that fearful shyness would be developmentally prior to self conscious shyness with the transition between the two forms taking place at 7–8 years of age. Analysis of interviews conducted with 60 children aged between 5 and 11 years showed a clear tendency for references to self-consciousness and embarrassment (which were rare at 5–6 years) to increase with age. References to fearful shyness were frequent at all age groups, suggesting an expansion in children's understanding of shyness rather than the replacement of one form by another.

Background. Little research has examined interactions between self-reported dispositional and experimentally manipulated situational group orientations in their effect on self-regulation. Aims. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of dispositional and situational learning goal orientation on children's self-efficacy and engagement and persistence at a puzzle task. Sample. A self-report learning goal orientation scale was completed by 110 children, aged 9–11 years. Fifty-three children (24 girls) selected to be high and low on the scale participated in the experiment. Method. Half of the children were given instructions designed to evoke learning goals, while the remainder received performance goal instructions. Children attempted a difficult puzzle task on two occasions, when measures were made of self-regulatory behaviours. Results and conclusions. Children assigned to the learning goal instruction were more likely to persist at the task until the end of the allotted time, displayed more on-task behaviour and engaged in more autonomous help-seeking. These effects were more pronounced following the first task, which all children had been unable to complete. Dispositional task orientation did not predict individual differences on these measures. The findings are interpreted in terms of learned helplessness and self-worth theory.

Darwin was aware that the redness of the face, ears, neck and upper chest — the ‘blush region’ — is due to increased blood flow in that region brought about by vasodilation of the capillaries lying just under the skin. The mechanism responsible for this reddening was not understood at the time and while we now know a great deal more about the cardiovascular system and have learnt a little more about the physiology of the blush, the process remains mysterious. The blush is rarely discussed in textbooks of the cardiovascular system and if it is mentioned, it is typically to acknowledge how little it is understood. This chapter locates the blush within the context of what is known about the system and considers explanations that have been proposed. The final section examines measurement issues.

Redness of the face is characteristic of anger as well as of embarrassment although it is labelled a flush rather than a blush. Casimir and Schnegg (2002) found that the colour red was associated with shame in 78 of the 98 languages they surveyed; of the 78, 51 also associated red with anger and 48 associated it with rage. Correspondence analysis showed that shame, anger and rage clustered along with the colour red at one pole of a dimension, and at the other pole the colour white formed a cluster with shock, pain and fear. Of course, in English we do talk of blushing with shame, flushing with anger, and going pale or white with fright and shock (‘his face was ashen’; ‘she turned white as a ghost’).

The self has generated a seemingly endless number of philosophical enquiries, theoretical expositions and empirical investigations and yet remains a complex and controversial topic. In the process it has become increasingly elusive, as the consensus position in scholarship, which may broadly be characterised as social constructionist, is to deny that there is any ‘essential’ self: the self comprises a multiplicity of identities and roles. Yet it is clear that we will not be able to understand the blush without taking the self into account. Darwin and Campbell associated the blush with the mental state of self-consciousness; this too remains little understood, and uncertainties about terminology contribute to this state of affairs in no small measure. The chapter begins by considering various meanings of self-consciousness as the term has been used by psychologists, and goes on to examine a conceptualisation of self-consciousness as self-focused attention that has attracted considerable psychological and clinical research. Finally, it introduces the self-conscious emotions, which are considered individually in later chapters.

There have been scarcely any systematic attempts to classify situations that elicit blushing. This contrasts with research into embarrassment where there exist several schemes for categorising incidents (Miller, 1996; see also Chapter 6). The dearth of taxonomies presumably reflects the widespread assumption that blushing is simply an expression of embarrassment and hence no specific analysis of eliciting circumstances is required.

Preceding chapters have sought to identify circumstances that elicit a blush, the mechanisms that are involved and implications for the blusher and others present. Nevertheless, while the blush is a ubiquitous phenomenon, some people believe that they blush more often or more intensely than others do, and for many this creates problems so troublesome that they seek professional help. Individual differences in tendency to blush are typically assessed by means of self-report questionnaire, and three approaches to the construction of such questionnaires are now briefly described.