Development and psychophysiological correlates of positive shyness from infancy to childhood

This chapter provides theoretical background and empirical evidence of developmental trajectories of the expressions of positive (and nonpositive) shyness from infancy to childhood. First, we review research about the expression of positive shyness in the last decades, illustrating its structural and functional configuration. Second, we report on a longitudinal study investigating the developmental stability of positive (and nonpositive/negative) shyness. One hundred fifteen children participated at 4, 12, 30, 48, and 72 months. At 4 months, early positive expressions of shyness were observed using an interaction task in which the infant received the attention of a novel person. A similar task was used at 12 months assessing positive and nonpositive shyness. At 30, 48, and 72 months, we observed children’s expressions of positive and negative shyness during performance tasks in which the child performed for a novel person. Moderate stability of positive shyness occurred in infancy (4–12 months) and in early childhood (30–48 months), but not in the infancy-childhood (12–30 months) and in the early-to-late childhood transitions (48–72 months). Negative shyness was found to be stable only in early childhood (30–48 months). Third, the same data were used to investigate the association among the expressions of shyness and psychophysiological correlates, including heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and skin conductance (SC). Positive, but not negative, shyness at 48 and 72 months was related to good physiological emotion regulation, indicated by high baseline HRV and a strong decrease in HRV during the performance. Results are discussed in terms of the developmental adaptive characteristic of positive shyness.