Variable Details

Available Studies

MAP, LATC

Scaled? 

Not Scaled

Variable Type 

Cross-Sectional

Variable Name 

hashyness

Categories

Affect and Personality

Shyness
Harm avoidance subscale: Shyness - Sum of 8 items

This variable is only available in MAP and LATC.

Shyness is measured using the 8-item shyness subscale of the Harm Avoidance scale. The Harm Avoidance scale comes from the Temperament and Character Inventory which consists of four subscales: anticipatory worry, fear of uncertainty, shyness, and fatigability.

Participants are asked to respond true/mostly true or false/mostly false to each item. The score for this subscale ranges from 0 to 8 and is the number of item responses indicative of the trait. Higher scores indicate more shyness.

Participants are presented the following items:

Item no.ItemCoding
1I often avoid meeting strangers because I lack confidence with people I do not know.True = 1
2When I have to meet a group of strangers, I am more shy than most people.True = 1
3I usually stay away from social situations where I would have to meet strangers, even if I am assured that they will be friendly.True = 1
4I would probably stay relaxed and outgoing when meeting a group of strangers, even if I were told they were unfriendly.False = 1
5It is easy for me to organize my thoughts while talking to someone.False = 1
6I feel very confident and sure of myself in almost all social situations.False = 1
7I am not shy with strangers at all.False = 1
8I think I would stay confident and relaxed when meeting strangers, even if I were told they were angry with me.False = 1

Reponse choices for each item:

CodingResponse
TrueTrue/mostly true
FalseFalse/mostly false

Note: The subscale is calculated if at least 75% of the items are non-missing. Missing values (when less than 25%) are assigned the average item score of the non-missing items.


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