Contextual referents in mothers' and teachers' constructions of shyness

Yiping Wang, Purdue University

Abstract

The present study explores the nature of discrepancies in mothers' and teachers' perceptions of shyness. Low agreement between parents' and teachers' ratings of shyness in particular, and children's social-personal behavior in general, has been consistently reported in previous research. One explanation of the sources of rating disagreement between raters across situations may be seen in the assumption involved in the use of rating scales (Edlebrock, 1988). That is, it is assumed that the rater shares with other raters, as well as with investigator, the theoretical concept and behavioral referents of the attribute being measured (Cairns & Green, 1979). In this study, three research questions were addressed: (1) What conceptual components of shyness do mothers and teachers use in their judgement of shyness? (2) To what degree do mothers' and teachers' conceptions of shyness coincide with the conceptualizations of shyness put forth by psychologists? (3) What is the source of agreement and variations in mothers' and teachers' perceptions of shyness. Free-response and experimental methods were used to explore these questions. The sample consisted of 52 mothers of preschool children and 28 of their children's teachers. The results showed that mothers and teachers not only shared to a great extent, but also differed to some degree, their beliefs about situational elicitors and behavioral characteristics of shyness. These perceptual differences reflected situational specificity of children's behavior and contextual differences in which mothers and teachers observed and interacted with children. In addition, it was found that mothers' and teachers' conceptions of shyness went beyond what was proposed by experts. These findings challenge the previously untested rating assumptions. It was suggested that perceptual differences in mothers' and teachers' beliefs of shyness, and discrepancies in the measurement of shyness between raters and investigators, may contribute to the variations in mothers' and teacher' ratings of shyness.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Diamond, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Preschool education

COinS