Cognitive and Behavioural Evaluation of the Psychology of Shyness

The personality trait of shyness can be analyzed from the biological, cognitive and behavioural perspectives of psychology. I perceive my fear of social interactions to be problematic because I find making friends and public speaking challenging. From the biological perspective, the theorist Charles Darwin believed that genetic factors play a role in human behaviour. From the cognitive perspective, the psychologist Ulric Neisser explored the theory that our thought processes have an effect on our behaviour. From the behavioural perspective, the psychologist John B. Watson argued that we are who we are because of what we learn from our environment. These three psychological approaches explain why I may possess this shy personality trait and display nervousness in the presence of other people.

The biological perspective emphasizes the importance of nature and that certain human characteristics are inherited from your parents. According to Charles Darwin, genetic information is passed to the child from their parents, which explains why humans possess similar behavioural patterns to their parents. He focused on the effect of genes on behaviour. After researched thoroughly on this theory, I attempted to apply it to my life to figure out why I am shy. I examined my parents’ dominant personality traits. Although my father is very outgoing and confident, my mother is very reserved and shy like me. She told me that when she was younger, she was scared of speaking in front of the class and found it difficult to meet new people because she was scared of talking to them. For this reason, I came to the conclusion that I inherited the personality trait of shyness from my mother. Therefore, I confirmed the biological perspective of psychology in that human behaviour can originate from genetics from our parents.

The cognitive perspective claims that the way humans behave is based on their mental processes how how they think. As reported by Ulric Neisser’s theory, our patterns of thinking and what goes on in our minds play a significant role in our motives, emotions and behaviour. According to the cognitive approach, my thought processes lead me to avoid social interactions. Based on this theory, because I am shy, I tend to follow certain a thought process. Firstly, I underestimate my ability to deal with social situations. For instance, I assume I’m going to say something boring that nobody cares about. Secondly, I overestimate the amount of threat in social situations. By way of illustration, I think that the person I’m talking to is judging me and focusing on all of my flaws. Thirdly, I expect negative results from social interactions. For example, I will believe that the person I interact with will think I’m strange and ugly. Finally, I overestimate the aftermath of these negative results in social environments. For instance, I will convince myself that the person I’m talking to will most likely tell everyone that I’m boring and awful, and then nobody will want to be friends with me. Thus, I regularly avoid social interactions because of my unrealistic expectations and process of thinking. During a social encounter, shy people tend to direct their focus on how other people are perceiving them, rather than on the encounter itself. To illustrate this thought process, while giving a handshake I would convince myself that my handshake was too shaky, and so the person is probably thinking that I have no confidence. From analyzing my thought process, I concluded that a cause of my shyness is from how my thinking works. For this reason, I confirmed the cognitive perspective of psychology in that human behaviour is governed by mental processes.

The behavioural perspective argues that people’s actions are shaped and driven by external environmental factors. The psychologist John B. Watson suggests that human behaviour is determined by learned habits in previous life experiences and by stimuli in their present environment. According to this theory, I am shy because of the way I was raised. To illustrate this point, when I was little my parents never put me in preschool. I didn’t have an opportunity in the early years old my life to develop social skills and interact with other people. My parents also didn’t take me out often to playgrounds to interact with other children. I was usually at home with my siblings, whom I was already comfortable with. Hence, when I began kindergarten, I found it very challenging to approach the other kids and start conversations. I was very scared to make friends and didn’t know how to act normally in social situations. I would never speak or participate in class and I would always hide behind my parents when approached by other humans. During my early years in elementary school, some students even thought I was mute because I never talked to anyone. Most people didn’t know my name. It then became my habit to be alone and fear interacting with others. This evidence supports Watson’s theory that human beings are a product of their experiences, and that their behaviour can be manipulated simply by modifying their environment and upbringing. From analyzing my earlier experiences, I concluded that my shy personality is due to the environment I was raised in. Hence, I confirmed the behavioural perspective of psychology in that human behaviour is influenced by environmental factors.

In conclusion, the character trait of shyness I possess can be evaluated from the biological, cognitive and behavioural perspectives of psychology. My problematic fear of interacting with other people can be explained from the biological perspective, supported by Darwin in that behaviour is determined by genes. The cognitive perspective, supported by Neisser, claims that humans behave in the way they do because of their mental processes and how they think. The behavioural perspective, emphasized by Watson, focuses on the theory that people’s behaviour is governed by their learned habits and environment in which they were raised in. These three psychological perspectives on human behaviour present valid points on the origins of our actions. I believe that my personality trait of being shy is due to a combination of my genetics, my thinking patterns, and the environment in which I was brought up in.