Shyness and Defensive Style

Abstract

The Stanford Shyness Survey, the Defense Mechanism Inventory and the Activity Preference Questionnaire were administered to 92 college students to examine the relationship among shyness, reactivity to anxiety, and defensive style. As hypothesized, shy persons experienced greater ego threat and social anxiety. They turned aggressive impulses inwardly against the self more frequently than not so shy people. Shy subjects also used significantly less repression and denial defenses, increasing their vulnerability to the experience of internalized subjective distress. Although there were also no differences between shy and nor shy students on defenses that turn unacceptable impulses outward (e.g., projection and displacement), it was speculated that shy persons engage in such defenses in ways that do not represent a threat to self-esteem.