An Inhibition from Being Shy: Shyness and Its Effects on Career Preferences of College Students

Shyness affects career preferences and other aspects of an individual’s life. Hypotheses that the researcher considered were that shy individuals have poor social skills, have low self-esteem, are indecisive about their careers, and choose nonsocial careers. The correlational design included the variables shyness, self-esteem, communication competence, career decisiveness and career choice. The factorial design included the independent variables, presentation of careers and temperament, and the dependent variable, career choice. The statistical analyses that the researcher used were a correlation matrix and an ANOVA for the study and multiple linear regression analyses and Pearson r correlations to establish validity and reliability. The results supported the hypotheses with the exception of shy individuals choosing non-social careers in the experimental group and shyness predicting career decisiveness. Current and past research on shyness and its effects on self-esteem and social skills showed similar results, but the results pertaining to career development differed from past research.