Shyness Research

The Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS)
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13 Item Shyness Scale | 20 Item Shyness Scale


Cheek, J.M. (1983). Unpublished, Wellesley College, Wellesley MA 02181

Original 9-item version in Cheek, J.M., & Buss, A.H. (1981). Shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 330-339.

INSTRUCTIONS: Please read each item carefully and decide to what extent it is characteristic of your feelings and behavior. Fill in the blank next to each item by choosing a number from the scale printed below.
  1 = Very uncharacteristic or untrue, strongly disagree
2 = Uncharacteristic
3 = Neutral
4 = Characteristic
5 = Very characteristic or true, strongly agree
____
1. I feel tense when I'm with people I don't know well.
____
2. I am socially somewhat awkward.
____
3. I do not find it difficult to ask other people for information.
____
4. I am often uncomfortable at parties and other social functions.
____
5. When in a group of people, I have trouble thinking of the right things to talk about.
____
6. It does not take me long to overcome my shyness in new situations.
____
7. It is hard for me to act natural when I am meeting new people.
____
8. I feel nervous when speaking to someone in authority.
____
9. I have no doubts about my social competence.
____
10. I have trouble looking someone right in the eye.
____
11. I feel inhibited in social situations.
____
12. I do not find it hard to talk to strangers.
____
13. I am more shy with members of the opposite sex.

Items 3, 6, 9 & 12 are reversed, recode before scoring. (1=5) (2=4) (4=2) (5=1)

For college students, mean = 33.3 for men and 32.4 for women, alpha coefficient = .90, 45-day retest reliability = .88, correlation with aggregated ratings of shyness by friends and family = .68, and correlation with original 9-item version = .96. This revised scale is copyright 1983, Jonathan M. Cheek. The scale may be used in non-profit educational research without further permission.

For More Information

Cheek, J.M., & Briggs, S.R. (1990). Shyness as a personality trait. In W.R. Crozier (Ed.), Shyness and Embarrassment: Perspectives from Social Psychology (pp. 315 - 337). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Cheek, J. M., & Melchior, L.A. (1990). Shyness, self-esteem, and self-consciousness. In H. Leitenberg (Ed.), Handbook of Social and Evaluation Anxiety (pp. 47-82). New York: Plenum Publishing.

Leary, M.R. (1991). Social anxiety, shyness, and related Constructs. In Robinson, J.P., Shaver, P.R., & Wrightsman, L.S. (Eds.), Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes (pp. 182-184). San Diego: Academic Press.

 

20 Item Shyness Scale

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Cheek, J.M., & Melchior, L.A. (1985). Measuring the Three Components of Shyness. In M.H. Davis & S.L. Franzoi (Co-chairs), Emotion, Personality, and Personal Well-Being II. Symposium conducted at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles.

INSTRUCTIONS: Please read each item carefully and decide to what extent it is characteristic of your feelings and behavior. Fill in the blank next to each item by choosing a number from the scale printed below.

  1 = very uncharacteristic or untrue, strongly disagree
2 = uncharacteristic
3 = neutral
4 = characteristic
5 = very characteristic or true, strongly agree
____
1. I feel tense when I’m with people I don’t know well.
____
2. During conversations with new acquaintances, I worry about saying something dumb.
____
3. I am socially somewhat awkward.
____
4. I do not find it difficult to ask other people for information.
____
5. I am often uncomfortable at parties and other social gatherings.
____
6. When in a group of people, I have trouble thinking of the right things to talk about.
____
7. I feel relaxed even in unfamiliar social situations
____
8. It is hard for me to act natural when I am meeting new people.
____
9. I feel painfully self-conscious when I am around strangers.
____
10. I am confident about my social skills.
____
11. I feel nervous when speaking to someone in authority.
____
12. I have trouble looking someone right in the eye.
____
13. I am usually a person who initiates conversation.
____
14. I often have doubts about whether other people like to be with me.
____
15. Sometimes being introduced to new people makes me feel physically upset (for example, having an upset stomach, pounding heart, sweaty palms, or heat rash).
____
16. I do not find it hard to talk to strangers.
____
17. I worry about how well I will get along with new acquaintances.
____
18. I am shy when meeting someone of the opposite sex.
____
19. It does not take me long to overcome my shyness in a new situation.
____
20. I feel inhibited in social situations.

Items 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, & 19 are reversed, recode before scoring. (1=5) (2=4) (4=2) (5=1)

In the scale revision/construction sample of 326 college students the alpha coefficient of internal consistency reliability for the 20-item shyness scales was .94 (M = 51.8; SD = 13.6) and it correlated .96 with the original Cheek & Buss 9-item shyness scale. Melchior and Cheek (1990) reported that in a sample of 31 college women the 20-item scale had a 45-day test-retest reliability of .91, and correlated .69 with aggregated ratings of shyness received from family members and close friends.

Cheek, J.M., & Krasnoperova, E.N. (1999). Varieties of shyness in adolescence and adulthood. In L.A. Schmidt & J. Schulkin (Eds.), Extreme Fear, Shyness, and Social Phobia: Origins, Biological Mechanisms, and Clinical Outcomes (pp. 224-250). New York: Oxford University Press.

Melchior, L.A., & Cheek, J.M. (1990). Shyness and anxious self-preoccupation during a social interaction. In M. Booth-Butterfield (Ed.), Communication, cognition, and anxiety (Special issue). Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5, 117- 130. (Reprinted by Sage in book form, 1991)

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