Shyness and Self-Presentation

Interpersonal consequences of the pursuit of safety

“…Both the confederates and observer were blind to the S's status and the hypotheses of the experiment. The Social Self-Presentation Style Scale (SPSS; Meleshko and Alden, 1993) is an eight-item scale that was developed to assess the two primary motivations believed to underlie social interactions: (1) self-protection, the desire to protect oneself from negative social outcomes; and (2) social acquisition, the desire to direct one's behavior to garner positive social outcomes (Arkin et al, 1986;Wolfe et al, 1986). The scale has previously been shown to have two underlying factors, and this was the case in the present study.…”

“…According to cognitive theories, socially anxious individuals are concerned with protecting themselves from negative social outcomes and adopt safety behaviors to prevent the occurrence of the social catastrophes they fear (Arkin et al, 1986;Clark and Wells, 1995;Leary and Kowalski, 1995). Safety behaviors include such acts as avoiding eye contact, rehearsing sentences before speaking, talking only brie¯y, and not talking about oneself.…”

“…To the extent that safety behaviors distract the person from the interaction or create the appearance of disinterest in others, they are believed to result in negative responses from others (Arkin et al, 1986;Meleshko and Alden, 1993). It is well known that socially anxious students and social phobic patients are liked less by their conversational partners in ®rst meeting situations and are viewed as less likeable, less sympathetic, and less easy to talk to by their friends than are non-anxious individuals (e.g.…”

Adolescent Social Anxiety and Substance Use: The Role of Susceptibility to Peer Pressure

“…Possibly, socially anxious students avoid social situations like parties where people drink alcohol or abstain from drinking in these situations because they think that the alcohol may lower their self-control and they do not wish to embarrass themselves [23]. This avoidance of alcohol use would be in line with the self-presentation model developed for shyness [24]. According to this model, socially anxious individuals would fear that their behavior when drinking alcohol or using drugs might result in negative evaluations by others.…”

“…On the one hand, for different reasons, these adolescents may wish to avoid substance use. They may fear behaving in a way that is not approved of by most parents and teachers; or they may fear the direct consequences of substance use by losing control and embarrassing themselves as proposed by the self-presentation model [24]. On the other hand, socially anxious adolescents are susceptible to peer pressure and when peer pressure is high they possibly cannot resist and join their peers in smoking, drinking alcohol, or using cannabis [4].…”