Adaptive Shyness

Section 1. Historical Perspectives.- Chapter 1. The study of behavioral inhibition and temperamental shyness across four academic generations.- Section 2. Developmental Perspectives.- Chapter 2. Adaptive shyness: A developmental perspective.- Chapter 3. Development and psychophysiological correlates of positive shyness from infancy to childhood.- Chapter 4. Shy but getting by: Protective factors in the links between childhood shyness and socio-emotional functioning.- Section 3. Biological Perspectives.- Chapter 5. Inhibited children in a social world: Transactional and interactive processes.- Chapter 6. The biology of shyness and adapting to threat.- Chapter 7. Shyness, adaptation, human contact.- Section 4. Cultural Perspectives.- Chapter 8. The shy child adapting to the challenges of school.- Chapter 9. Shyness and sociability revisited.- Chapter 10. Quiet strengths: Adaptable introversion in the work place.- Section 5. Cultural Perspectives.- Chapter 11. Shyness and adaptation across cultures.- Chapter 12.The many faces of shyness in childhood across cultural contexts.- Chapter 13. Perspective on shyness as adaptive from Indigenous Peoples of North America.- Section 6. Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives.- Chapter 14. Comparative perspectives on temperament and personality in human and nonhuman animals.- Chapter 15. Evolution of adaptive individual differences in nonhuman animals.- Chapter 16. Why do people have painful feelings? An evolutionary tale of misery and woe. 

Louis A. Schmidt is Professor and Director of the Child Emotion Laboratory in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. His research interests are in the areas of temperament, socioemotional development, and developmental psychophysiology. He is particularly interested in how biology and early experiences shape the development of individual differences in temperament in typical and atypical development.



Kristie L. Poole is a PhD candidate in Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University. Broadly, her research investigates the interaction among temperamental, physiological, and contextual factors involved in socio-emotional development. She is particularly passionate about studying the developmental origins and biological foundations of shyness, as well as investigating factors that maintain or alter shyness across development.