Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Comparison Of Three Behavioral Methods For The Treatment Of Shyness, Patricia Hunter

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to compare both existing and new behavioral treatments for a prevalent problem, shyness. The relative contributions of mastery imagery, coping imagery, and self-instructions in a systematic desensitization procedure were evaluated in an SPF 3.3 design. Sixteen severely shy college students were randomly assigned to 3 groups of 5, 6, and 5, respectively, and were treated by either desensitization using mastery imagery, desensitization using coping imagery, or desensitization using both coping imagery and self instructions. Results indicate that although each of the three treatment procedures helped to reduce shyness anxiety, the treatment employing self-instructional …