Among students who are (compared to their peers) inactive in the classroom, many are well adjusted academically and socially but relatively quiet and content to work independently. Some are problematically shy or withdrawn in varying degrees, and a few may be headed toward schizophrenia. This digest focuses on the middle range of such students, who are commonly described as shy (inhibited, lacking in confidence, socially anxious) or withdrawn (unresponsive, uncommunicative, or daydreaming).
A degree of shyness is normal whenever social expectations are new or ambiguous. Shyness begins to emerge as a problem if it becomes not merely situational but dispositional, so that the child is labeled as shy. Especially if the child internalizes this label, a generalized pattern of shyness may become established and begin to include such additional symptoms as diffidence about entering social situations, discomfort and inhibition in the presence of others, exaggerated self-concern, and increasingly negative social self-concepts (Honig, 1987; Thompson & Rudolph, 1992).