with others. Shy people tend to be self-conscious during social encoun-
ters, are reluctant to ask others for help, and often interpret feedbackfrom their conversation partners as rejection. Research suggests that so-
cially anxious people suffer from evaluation apprehension. Shy people
avoid negative evaluation from others by limiting their social interactions
or by keeping these interactions short and pleasant. The socially anxious
persons’ lack of confidence makes initiating conversations especially diffi-
cult for them.
4. Although emotions fluctuate considerably over time and across situations,
researchers have identified three ways our emotions can be examined in
terms of relatively stable individual differences. Researchers place ouremotions along two major dimensions, which they identify as positive
affect and negative affect. Personality researchers also look at emotional
intensity and at individual differences in the extent to which people ex-press their emotions.
5. People can be identified along a continuum from dispositionally optimis-
tic to dispositionally pessimistic. Researchers find optimists typically deal
more effectively with adversity, probably because they use more active
and direct coping strategies than pessimists. Researchers have also identi-
fied people they call defensive pessimists. These individuals deliberately
focus on all the things that can go wrong in an effort to motivate them-
selves to do well.
KEY TERMS
achievement
goals (p. 191)
affect
intensity (p. 209)defensive
pessimists (p. 216)
dispositional
optimism (p. 212)emotional
affectivity (p. 205)
emotional
expressiveness (p. 210)evaluation
apprehension (p. 202)
need for
Achievement (p. 184)
social anxiety (p. 199)
MEDIA RESOURCES
Visit our website. Go to www.cengage.com/
psychology/burger to find online resources directly
linked to your book, including quizzing, glossary,
flashcards, and more.220 CHAPTER 8 The Trait Approach