Examination Of Shyness And Self-Esteem Of High School Students From The Point Of View Of Dysfunctional Attitude

Purpose and significance: Shyness, which is described as that an individual feel restless in his relationships with other persons, is simply a disturbing feeling, which is felt during interpersonal relationships and embarrasses natural behaviors (Enç, 1980). Also, shyness is seen as the most important factor, which causes difficulties in the individual while he meets other people, tries to have new friends and enjoys different experiences (Zimbardo, 1977). Shyness affects not only the individual’s social relationships but also his self-esteem level and his cognitive comments about people and events. Ashamed persons focus on their own views and behaviors more than usual, blame themselves and are scared of if others evaluate them negatively. Such people generally interested in feedbacks, which shall come from others around them. This sort of considerations causes incorrect and negative beliefs in the individual about himself (Henderson and Zimbardo, 1998). According to Van Der Molen (1990), the most significant characteristic of ashamed people is their negative and irrational views about themselves. Such negative opinions developed by themselves on themselves cause low self-esteem (Henderson and Zimbardo, 1998). Page (1989) reported that possibility for low self-esteem is higher for ashamed people compared with those, who are not ashamed. Arends (2000) claims that contrary to general opinion, ashamed people’s selfesteem is not low. He emphasizes that ashamed people may build low self-esteem due to their experiences during their interpersonal relationships; however, this low self-esteem is not the reason for shyness but it’s a result of it. Another concept is the concept of dysfunctional attitudes, which is associated with depression. Furthermore, it is believed that it causes depression. It appeared for the first time when Beck’s cognitive-behavioral therapy approach, which was developed by him for depression treatment, was used (Beck, Rush, Show and Emery 1979). Therefore, it is generally considered along with * Bu çalışma Yrd. Doç. Dr. Erdal Hamarta’nın danışmanlığında Elif Demirbaş’ın yüksek lisans tezi olarak yapılmıştır. ** Yrd. Doç. Dr., Selçuk Üniversitesi *** Uzman, Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Lise Öğrencilerinin Utangaçlık ve Benlik Saygılarının Fonksiyonel Olmayan Tutumlar Açısından İncelenmesi Selçuk Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi • 21 / 2009 240 depression. According to Beck (1987), the reason for psychological problems is dysfunctional thought affecting the individual’s mental health and his behaviors. They disturb affection and cause depression. Common features of depressive people are the fact that they have cognitive distortions and they evaluate themselves as insufficient and worthless. It is an acceptance level, which is associated with depressive individuals in a variable. Ergin (1993) found a significant correlation between self-acceptance and depression level in his study in which he compared self-acceptance and depression levels. According to Bacanlı (1999), another group showing dysfunctional attitudes is ashamed people. In this study, whether or not a significant correlation exists between self-esteem and shyness, which causes insufficiency in teenagers, who tries to find their identities, in their interpersonal relationships and dysfunctional attitudes and whether or not dysfunctional attitudes affect shyness and self-esteem significantly were investigated.