Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Judging by the number of copies already sold (more than 300,000), scores of people suffer from the debilitating effects of shyness. A noted professor of psychology at Stanford University, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo helps men and women, youngsters and oldsters, overcome this self-defeating condition. Photographs. Reissue.
Rating: 
(out of 14 reviews)
List Price: $ 16.00
Price: $ 4.44
More Shyness Products
5 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Michael Polich, Friday @ 9:26 pm
Review by Michael Polich for Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Rating:
Philip G. Zambardo obviously wrote this book for the 70s generation. A lot of the theories that he offers about shyness have not stood the test of time. His self-help methods are overly simplistic, and he doesn’t really have a handle on how shyness affects people. Especially disturbing is his praise of Synanon, a 70s cult that eventually became mired in controversy over forced vasectomies, beatings, and attempted murder. Very little to offer to the modern reader.
By Anonymous, Friday @ 9:52 pm
Review by for Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Rating:
Being a true-blue shy person, I’ve ordered every book on shyness I could find. This author seems to be the only one who really knows what he’s talking about. The reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is that it’s outdated. The only thing that has changed since I bought this book 10 years ago is it’s cover.
By Anonymous, Friday @ 10:00 pm
Review by for Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Rating:
The book is *outdated*. It was written in 1979. Some of its theories really freaked me out. I thought there was some thing seriously wrong with me. And it’s not that informative. The impression I got from the writer is shyness is not normal and it’s some kind of a character defect that needs to be treated. I read a part about shy people tend to become perverts, rapists or killers. That’s not true. If you want a great book about shyness, then you should buy “Shyness: A bold new approach” By Bernardo J. Carducci, Ph.D. His book is recent and the information provided is totally up todate. He doesn’t think shyness is a character defect that needs to be treated, etc.
By parnassus2, Friday @ 10:48 pm
Review by parnassus2 for Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Rating:
Zimbardo opens his book by stating that shyness is “a universal experience” (page 14, paperback 6th ed. 1978), that nearly 80% of those polled said they had been shy at some point in their lives, half of whom had overcome it. He establishing a range of shyness from, on one end of the range a tendency toward introversion, to mid-range shyness of situational awkwardness and feeling intimidated, to the really shy people who dread public speaking, etc. and finally the far end of shyness that “may become a severe form of neurosis.” Zimbardo briefly discusses the 20% of shy people who like being shy, revealing what advantages it can have for people. Zimbardo seeks not to promote a rigid and narrow, academically approved “type” of personality, much less equate shyness with a tendency toward crime, as one reviewer claimed. At most Zimbardo implies that among those who are convicted criminals, there was a greater number who were isolated socially. Well…. Duh… One reviewer mischaracterizes Zimbardo’s book by choosing to see this (rather self-evident) point as meaning that shy people have a propensity toward crime. What Zimbardo actually says that shyness in the extreme, can be a contributing factor to the degradation of one’s mental health, which, if unchecked, can in some cases continue to deeper pathologies. And at that level of pathology, should there be no means of healthy release of the internal stresses and tensions of such pathology, in some cases can lead to violence against self or another person. There are a lot of contingencies that one reviewer chose to ignore, resulting in a logic by which getting out of bed in the morning, an act that all killers do, indicates a propensity to murder. Let’s not misread Zimbardo, whose “…main interest is only in helping shy people remove barriers to their greater freedom, to their fuller participation in life, and to their personal sense of worth and mastery” (120).
By Vichiousfishes, Friday @ 11:03 pm
Review by Vichiousfishes for Shyness: What It Is, What To Do About It
Rating:
For the kid’s whose mom is always bringing him books from Oprah or the random person who wants to understand their shyness better; it’s an ok book. As a psychology student I expected better of Zimbardo but this is a consumer text indeed. Yes it is 70’s self help psychobabble that everyone hates, but if you just want to know what shyness is then this might be worthy. Shyness is an overactive fear response, elicited in many different ways. Now you don’t need to buy it!