ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE - A MEDIATOR OF THE SHYNESS DEPRESSION RELATIONSHIP

We propose that the relationship between shyness and depression is mediated by a negative attributional style. To test this, we compared attributional style and level of depression for shy versus non-shy college students. We also examined the relationship between shyness and depression with attributional style held constant. In support of our conceptualization, shy students were more depressed and had a more negative attributional style than non-shy students. Further, as predicted by the mediation hypothesis, there was no difference between the shy and non-shy groups in depression when the effect of attributional style was removed. We discuss the implications of our findings for future work on cognitive aspects of shyness. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.