A preview of this full-text is provided by American Psychological Association.
Content available from Developmental Psychology
This content is subject to copyright. Terms and conditions apply.
Approach-Avoidance Conflict and Shyness: A Developmental Investigation
Raha Hassan
1
, Kristie L. Poole
1
, Ayelet Lahat
2
, Teena Willoughby
3
, and Louis A. Schmidt
1
1
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University
2
Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
3
Department of Psychology, Brock University
One long-standing theoretical model of shyness proposes that the origins and maintenance of shyness
are associated with an approach-avoidance motivational conflict (Asendorpf, 1990), such that shy indi-
viduals are motivated to socially engage (high approach motivation) but are too anxious to do so (high
avoidance motivation). However, this model has not been empirically tested in predicting the develop-
ment of shyness. In two separate longitudinal studies, we used the Carver and White (1994) Behavioral
Inhibition and Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales as a proxy of approach-avoidance motivations and
growth curve analyses to examine whether individual differences in these hypothesized motivational
tendencies were associated with the development of shyness across 3 years from late childhood to ado-
lescence (Study 1, N= 1284; 49.8% female, M
age
=10.72, SD
age
= 1.73, Mlevel of parental education
fell between associate’s degree/diploma and undergraduate degree) and across nearly a decade from
emerging adulthood to young adulthood (Study 2, N= 83; 57.8% females, M
age
= 23.56 years, SD
age
=
1.09 years, 92.8% had at least a high school education). Contrary to the approach-avoidance conflict
model of shyness, we found that a combination of high BIS/low BAS, not high BIS/high BAS, was
associated with relatively higher shyness contemporaneously and across development in both studies.
We discuss the processes that might link individual differences in approach-avoidance motivations to
the development of shyness in adolescence and young adulthood.
Keywords: shyness, personality, BIS/BAS, approach-avoidance conflict, development
Supplemental materials: https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001175.supp
Shyness is characterized by an anxious preoccupation with the self
in response to real or imagined social situations (Melchior & Cheek,
1990) and is a ubiquitous phenomenon with over 90% of the popula-
tion having experienced it at some point in their lives (Zimbardo,
1977). However, a smaller percentage of people are characterized by
dispositional shyness, a stable feature of personality conserved across
time and context (Zimbardo et al., 1974). Although a number of stud-
ies have examined the correlates and consequences of shyness across
development (see Coplan & Bowker, 2014;Schmidt & Schulkin,
1999;Schmidt et al., 2017;Tang et al., 2017;Tang et al., 2020 for
reviews), relatively little attention has been directed toward under-
standing factors underlying the development of shyness beyond late
childhood.
Development of Shyness
The origin of some aspects of shyness are presumed to be rooted in
early temperament (e.g., Kagan, 1994;Poole et al., 2018). In infancy,
early temperamental precursors of shyness emerge, including individ-
ual differences in behavioral and physiological reactivity to novelty
(Calkins et al., 1996;Fox et al., 2001;Kagan, 1994). For example,
infants classified as highly reactive toward novel stimuli are described
as behaviorally inhibited in toddlerhood (Fox et al., 2001;Garcia-Coll
et al., 1984;Kagan, 1994). In early childhood, the development of
self-awareness, emergence of self-conscious emotions, and ability to
take on the perspective of others all become salient factors in the de-
velopment of shyness in which temperament and now self-concept
begin to play critical roles (see Buss, 1986;Poole et al., 2018;for
reviews). Adolescence is another important developmental period
with respect to shyness, likely due, in part, to the onset of puberty and
the saliency of peer relations (Cheek et al., 1986). These social
changes may lead to an increase in shyness during adolescence rela-
tive to childhood (e.g., Cheek et al., 1986;Tang et al., 2017).
We know, however, comparatively little about the developmental
course of shyness after late childhood and adolescence. This might
reflect a general lack of attention historically to the developmental
period now called “emerging adulthood”(Arnett, 2000). This lack of
attention to shyness is perhaps also surprising given recent cross-
Raha Hassan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2739-9993
Teena Willoughby https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7516-6895
The present study was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Vanier Doctoral Scholarship
awarded to Raha Hassan, a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to
Kristie L. Poole, a Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR)
operating grant awarded to Teena Willoughby, and operating grants from
the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC) and SSHRC awarded to Louis A. Schmidt. We thank the
participating schools, as well as the children and their families who
participated in this study.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Raha
Hassan, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour,
McMaster University, Room 130, Psychology Building, 1280 Main Street
West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4K1, Canada. Email: hassar@mcmaster.ca
814
Developmental Psychology
©2021 American Psychological Association 2021, Vol. 57, No. 5, 814–823
ISSN: 0012-1649 https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001175
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
