Adaptive Shyness

This book examines the adaptive aspects of shyness. It addresses shyness as a ubiquitous phenomenon that reflects a preoccupation of the self in response to social interaction, resulting in social inhibition, social anxiety, and social withdrawal. The volume reviews the ways in which shyness has traditionally been conceptualized and describes the movement away from considering it as a disorder in need of treatment. In addition, it examines the often overlooked history and current evidence across evolution, animal species, and human culture, demonstrating the adaptive aspects of shyness from six perspectives: developmental, biological, social, cultural, comparative, and evolutionary.Topics featured in this book include:

• The study of behavioral inhibition and shyness across four academic generations.
• The development of adaptive subtypes of shyness.
• Shy children's adaptation to academic challenges.
• Adaptiveness of introverts in the workplace.
• The role of cultural norms and values in shaping shyness.
• Perspectives of shyness as adaptive from Indigenous Peoples of North America.
• The role that personality differences play on ecology and evolution.

Adaptive Shyness is a must-have resource for researchers and professors, clinicians and related professionals as well as graduate students in developmental psychology, pediatrics, and social work as well as related disciplines, including social/personality, evolutionary, biological, and clinical child psychology, anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies.

Auteur

Louis A. Schmidt is Professor and Director of the Child Emotion Laboratory in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. His research interests are in the areas of temperament, socioemotional development, and developmental psychophysiology. He is particularly interested in how biology and early experiences shape the development of individual differences in temperament in typical and atypical development.

Kristie L. Poole is a PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. Broadly, her research investigates the interaction among temperamental, physiological, and contextual factors involved in socio-emotional development. She is particularly passionate about studying the developmental origins and biological foundations of shyness, as well as investigating factors that maintain or alter shyness across development.

Contenu

Section 1. Historical Perspectives.- Chapter 1. The study of behavioral inhibition and temperamental shyness across four academic generations.- Section 2. Developmental Perspectives.- Chapter 2. Adaptive shyness: A developmental perspective.- Chapter 3. Development and psychophysiological correlates of positive shyness from infancy to childhood.- Chapter 4. Shy but getting by: Protective factors in the links between childhood shyness and socio-emotional functioning.- Section 3. Biological Perspectives.- Chapter 5. Inhibited children in a social world: Transactional and interactive processes.- Chapter 6. The biology of shyness and adapting to threat.- Chapter 7. Shyness, adaptation, human contact.- Section 4. Cultural Perspectives.- Chapter 8. The shy child adapting to the challenges of school.- Chapter 9. Shyness and sociability revisited.- Chapter 10. Quiet strengths: Adaptable introversion in the work place.- Section 5. Cultural Perspectives.- Chapter 11. Shyness and adaptation across cultures.- Chapter 12.The many faces of shyness in childhood across cultural contexts.- Chapter 13. Perspective on shyness as adaptive from Indigenous Peoples of North America.- Section 6. Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives.- Chapter 14. Comparative perspectives on temperament and personality in human and nonhuman animals.- Chapter 15. Evolution of adaptive individual differences in nonhuman animals.- Chapter 16. Why do people have painful feelings? An evolutionary tale of misery and woe.