Psychology can examine shyness from three perspectives: the cognitive, behavioral and biological. My fear of social interactions is problematic as I find it difficult to make friends and speak in public. Charles Darwin, a biological theorist, believed that human behavior is influenced by genetic factors. Ulric Neisser, a psychologist, suggested that our thoughts can influence our behaviour. John B. Watson, a psychologist and behavioural expert, stated that our environment influences how we think. These psychological perspectives explain why I might be shy and nervous around other people.
The biological perspective highlights the importance nature and the fact that some human traits are passed on from your parents. Charles Darwin claimed that genes are passed on to a child by their parents. This explains why people have similar behaviour patterns. He was particularly interested in the effects of genes upon behaviour. After reading up on the theory, I applied it to my own life to determine why I was shy. I looked at the dominant personality traits of my parents. My father is confident and outgoing, but my mother is shy and reserved like me. I was told by her that she was shy when she first started speaking in front. She was afraid to interact with strangers and was afraid to make new friends. My mother was the one who gave me the shyness trait. So, I came to the conclusion that my shyness was a result of my mother’s genes. Ulric Neisser’s theory says that our thought patterns and the way we process information in our heads play a key role in how we behave, think, and feel. My cognitive approach suggests that my thought patterns are what lead me away from social interaction. According to this theory, my shyness leads me to believe certain thoughts. First of all, I underestimate my abilities to handle social situations. For instance, I believe I’m going be boring and nobody will care about it. Secondly, my social situation fear is overestimated. As an illustration, I feel that the person I am speaking to is judging and focusing only on my weaknesses. Thirdly, social interactions will have negative consequences for me. I expect that my interactions with others will lead to me believing I am strange and ugly. These negative effects in social settings are often underestimated. I can convince myself that the person with whom I am speaking will probably tell everyone that I am boring and horrible, and that nobody will want me as a friend. Because of my unrealistic expectations and thinking process, I avoid social interaction. Shy people often focus more on what other people think of them than the actual encounter. This can be illustrated when I try to shake hands with someone. I convince myself that it is too awkward and that the person thinks that I don’t have enough confidence. My thought process revealed that shyness can be caused by my thinking. To this end, I agreed with the cognitive psychology perspective that human behavior is controlled by mental processes. The behavioural approach argues people’s actions are affected by their external environment. John B. Watson, a psychologist, suggests that humans’ behaviours are influenced by their past experiences and the stimuli they receive in their current environment. This theory suggests that I am shy as a result of how I was raised. This can be illustrated by the fact my parents didn’t send me to preschool as a child. In my early childhood, I wasn’t given opportunities to build social skills and communicate with others. I was not taken out to play with other children by my parents. My siblings were my closest friends and I was at home most of the time. It was difficult for me to make friends with other children and have conversations when I started kindergarten. I was terrified of making friends and did not know how normal to act in social situations. I was a shy person who would not speak up or take part in classes. I also avoided being approached by strangers and would hide behind my parents. Some students thought that I was deaf during my elementary school years. I had never spoken to anyone. My name was not known by most people. Then, I became accustomed to being alone and afraid of interacting in public. Watson’s theory is supported by this evidence. It appears that people are products of their environments and can be altered to change their behaviour. My childhood environment was responsible for my shy personality. I have analysed my past experiences and concluded that it is the result. I came to the conclusion that environmental factors influence human behaviour. The biological, cognitive, as well as behavioural psychology perspectives can all be used to evaluate my shyness. Darwin supported the biological perspective which explains why my shyness when interacting with people is problematic. Neisser supports the cognitive perspective that states that human behaviour is determined by their mental processes and how we think. Watson stresses the behavioural viewpoint, which is based on Watson’s theory that people behave according to their environment and learned habits. These psychological perspectives are valid in revealing the root causes of human behaviour. My shy personality is a result of my genes, my thinking patterns and the environment I was raised in.
