The Revised Cheek and Buss Shyness Scale (RCBS)

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 Unpublished, Wellesley College, Wellesley MA 02181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

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1. I feel tense when I'm with people I don't know well.
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2. I am socially somewhat awkward.
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3. I do not find it difficult to ask other people for information.
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4. I am often uncomfortable at parties and other social functions.
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5. When in a group of people, I have trouble thinking of the right things to talk about.
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6. It does not take me long to overcome my shyness in new situations.
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7. It is hard for me to act natural when I am meeting new people.
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8. I feel nervous when speaking to someone in authority.
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9. I have no doubts about my social competence.
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10. I have trouble looking someone right in the eye.
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11. I feel inhibited in social situations.
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12. I do not find it hard to talk to strangers.
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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 a review of the 13-item RCBS, see 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.


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