The Role of Shyness and Self–Focused Attention for Attribution of Reactions in Social Situations to Internal and External Causes

• The hypothesis that shyness would be associated with attribution of emotional reactions to stable internal causes rather than to less stable internal and external causes was tested in Study 1 (N = 60). In Study 2 (N= 112) the hypothesis that the explanatory power of shyness would decrease once the effect of self-focused attention on attribution to stable internal causes had been controlled for was tested. The results confirmed both hypotheses. Shyness correlated positively with attribution to stable internal causes, but non-significant with attribution to less stable internal and external causes. Shyness explained a lesser portion of the variance in attribution to both of the internal causes when controlling for self-focus. Even though the findings indicate that self-focus is central to the social cognitive processes of shy individuals, they also suggest that self-focus cannot fully explain attribution to internal causes in general and shy individuals' attributional pattern in particular.

Nyckelord

Shyness

attribution

internal causes

external causes

emotional reactions

self-focused attention

SOCIAL SCIENCES

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)