Thoughts on Shyness

The video "Shyness" that we watched in class the other day, introduced three students who were socially introverted. These three students were deemed by a psychiatrist to be social outsiders. This test, which was like a popularity test, asked students a number of questions. The students had to answer each question by saying which member of the class would fit the criteria. For example, children were asked who they liked to play with. After the sociometric test was administered, only three students in the class were not chosen at all. The results meant that these three children were not developing healthily.

The first child Jimmy, was emotionally unstable. He did not have any friends and was almost scared to interact with another human being. Anna was an unhappy child who was a typical shy child. At recess, it looked as though she wanted to play with the other children but she was too shy to participate. Robert was another child who no one picked in the sociometric test. He was perfectly happy being alone; the psychiatrist deemed that he was developing healthily. It was the psychiatrist and teacher's responsibility to help Jimmy and Anna become more social and interactive.

Each child, proposed by the psychiatrist, had their own environmental factors that caused them to be shy. Jimmy's mom was extremely overprotective. Therefore, when Jimmy was little, he did not have the opportunity to interact with other children during this sensitive time period. Anna's mother was very demanding which caused Anna to feel that she could never do anything right no matter how hard she tried. Even though her mother did love her, Anna did not feel loved. She then transferred these feelings of inadequacy over to other social situations. If her mother did not lover her, then how would other people love and accept her.

The teacher and psychiatrist in the film were able to help Jimmy and Anna develop social skills necessary to interact with other children and adults. They achieved this by focusing on each child's strength as opposed to dwelling on their inadequacies determined by society.