Human Services News

From EurekAlert! - Breaking News:

After performing an analysis of school shootings in the last decade, researchers at the Shyness Research Institute in Indiana say that the perpetrators are likely to suffer from cynical shyness---an extreme form of shyness that predominantly affects males and can lead to violent behavior.

Presenting at the 115th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA), psychologist Bernardo Carducci, PhD, and Kristin Terry Nethery, BA, examined the cases involving eight individuals between 1995 and 2004 who had committed shootings at their high schools.

They examined the news accounts of these shootings for personal and social indicators of cynical shyness---lack of empathy, low tolerance for frustration, anger outbursts, social rejection from peers, bad family relations and access to weapons.

"Our results indicate that the individuals involved in the seven deadly high school shootings within the last decade clearly had characteristics of cynical shyness.

This allows the cynically shy person to distance himself from the hurt but also makes it easier for him to retaliate with violence, as in the case of these school shootings."

To intervene early on and prevent future violence in schools, teachers, parents and mental health professionals need to be on the lookout for those students whose shyness is a source of anger and hostility, said Carducci.

"Most young people who are shy do not experience their shyness as a source of anger and hostility.

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists.

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