title: The role of shyness and self-focused attention for attribution of reactions in social situations to internal and external causes.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Sweden. charlotte.alm@liu.se
authors.forename: Charlotte
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alm
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001288:Attention; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D012649:Self Concept; D012792:Shyness; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires