Essay --

The Continuum HypothesisShyness, Social Anxiety and Avoidant Personality disobligeIn todays extroverted world, the shy temperament has change by reversal synonymous with insecurity, hearty disquiet, functional deficits, inhibited complaisant skills, avoidant hearty bearing and impaired behavioral, somatic and cognitive symptoms in genial settings. However, unobtrusiveness has been suggested to imposition on a spectrum ranging from normative timidity to a pathological put forward of extreme social phobic neurosis and avoidant personality disorder. The distinction among the varying levels of coldness on the continuum has been a topic of interest to current researchers, specifically qualify normative shyness from highly shy, and highly shy individuals with and without social phobia. The residual between an individual with shyness and one with social phobia discharge be explained by comparing how the two approach social situations, and how they resolve cognitively, b ehaviorally and physiologically. A shy person might go to a social event but feel uncomfortable and not enjoy themselves really much. However, an individual with social phobia may not even be able to make themselves go to the event at all. Differing levels on the shyness continuum differ markedly in measures of symptom intensity, daily functioning, quality of life, and anxiety and performance in social settings or conversation tasks (Chavira, Stein & Malcarne, 2002). Individuals with social phobia differ around significantly from those with high shyness and no social phobia in dimensions such as number of social fears, avoidance of social environments, negative thinking and physiological symptoms. Even wad with shyness experience much higher(prenominal) quality of life and little functional impairment than those with soci... ...hibiting than the generalized type. However, in the highly shy group, most diagnoses were for generalized social phobia, indicating that highly shy individuals experience more mutual fears than performance based fears, which are common of non generalized social phobia and a limited type of social fears (Chavira, Stein & Malcarne, 2002). The central conclusion of the study was that 49% of highly shy individuals and 18% of normative shyness were diagnosed with social phobia (Chavira, Stein & Malcarne, 2002). This distinction supports the assertion that shyness and social phobia are significantly related. Additionally, the results of the study support the continuum hypothesis which dictates that higher shyness levels towards the end of the spectrum create greater susceptibility to psychiatric diagnoses such as social phobia and avoidant personality disorder.