Shyness, Boredom, And Grade Point Average Among College Students.pdf

Psychological Repom, 1986, 59, 395-398.

@ Psychological Reports 1986

SHYNESS, BOREDOM, AND GRADE POINT AVERAGE AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS GEORGETTE K. MAROLDO1 T e x a ~Lutheran College Summary.-The relations among shyness, boredom, and grade point average were studied wich 223 college students during an Interim at Texas Lutheran College. A positive relationship berween shyness and boredom was noted for women and an inverse one berween boredom and grade point average for men. However, no correlation was found between shyness and grade point average for women or men. As expected, the multiple correlations (.17, .16) were not significant for either group. Further research seems warranted, and several variables are specified for consideration.

Over the years, several aspects of college students and their grade point averages have been studied. Some of these are personality (7), life events ( l o ) , loneliness ( 14), academic problems ( 9 ) , locus of control (17), selfesteem, and anxiety ( 13), and shyness (18). Boredom in school has been studied (15) but not in relation to GPA. Zimbardo (20) found shyness to be a common problem, often ignored by students, faculty, and administrators alike, as a possible inhibitor of academic success (12). Crozier ( 4 ) observes, "Shyness is a widespread reaction to social situations, characterized by inaction, self-consciousness, and heightened physiological reaction." In other words, shyness must be understood on three levels, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral (6). Boredom has been defined in various ways by several investigators (1, 2, 11, 16, 19). Like shyness, boredom is complex and can be viewed on several levels. Shyness and boredom have been related to the extent that negative feelings like anxiety and loneliness accompany both of them ( 19, 20). How college students might handle these negative feelings caused by boredom or shyness is an important issue. Traub (18) found shy students to have higher GPAs than nonshy students, while Vandewiele (20) found that younger bored students studied more than older ones. The question now emerges to what extent shyness and boredom together correlate with GPA. Thus the purpose of this study was to determine the relationships among shyness, boredom, and GPA for a group of men and women college students.

METHOD Central in a 4-1-4 school year, the Interim at Texas Lutheran College is a threeT h e following students helped in the preparation of this study: Kier Holm, Dana Horton, Suzanne Huber, Melanie Kelly, Angela Landry, Michele Marsh, David Martin, Deborah Rice, Jennifer Thames, and Nikki Windsor. Request reprinrs from the author, Psychology, Texas Lutheran College, Seguin, TX 78 155.

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G. K. MAROLDO

week session (January), required of all students and similar in population and class size to the regular semester. Of those attending, 122 men and 101 women, took part in this study. The men ranged in age from 18 to 42 yr. (average 20.4), and the women from 18 to 38 yr. (average 19.8). Courses across the full range of disciplines were selected at random, and, with permission of the instructors, the students in these courses were given the option to participate or not in the study.

Two self-report attitude surveys, the Shyness Scale ( 3 ) and the College Student Boredom Scale were distributed to test social shyness and academic boredom. Subjects were asked to place their initials, date of birth, sex, and current GPA on the survey. The Shyness Scale contains 11 items, is of the Likert-type, and has a test-retest reliability of .74. The boredom scale has 10 items, also of the Likert-type, and a Spearman-Brown odd-even reliability of .78.

RESULTSAND DISCUSSION Means, standard deviations, Pearson correlations, and multiple correlation coefficients for the total group, men, and women on shyness, boredom, and GPA are presented in Table 1. Shyness was positively correlated with boredom for the total group ( r = .18, p < -01) and for women ( r = .20, p .05), however, no significant relationship was found between shyness and GPA for the total group, men, or women. Small negative correlations were found between boredom and GPA for the total group ( r = -.15, p < .05) and for men ( 7 = -.18, p .05). The inverse relation between boredom and GPA indicates that as boredom increases, there is a corresponding decrease in GPA. The multiple correlation between shyness, boredom, and GPA was .05). significant for the total group ( R = .17, 9

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TABLE 1 MEANS,STANDARD DEVIATIONS,CORRELATIONS, AND MULTIPLE FOR TOTALGROUP,MEN, AND CORRELATION COEFFICIENTS WOMEN ON SHYNESS, BOREDOM, AND GPA

Total

M Shyness Boredom GPA + Shyness/Boredom r Shyness/GPA T

Boredom/GPA

R Shyness/Boredom/GPA * p 4 .05.

Women

Men

SD

27.92 6.06 14.16 3.91 2.69 .68 .18* .01 -.15* .17*

M

SD

28.57 5.86 14.50 4.06 2.61 .71 .15 -.03 -.18* .17

M

SD

27.13 2.79 13.75 3.68 2.80 .61 .20a .12

-.lo .16

Shyness and boredom are related for women but not for men. Zimbardo (20) found women and men to be equally shy. However, boredom in the

SHYNESS, BOREDOM, ACADEMIC GRADES

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present study tends to differentiate shy women and men. Culturally, men may learn more shyness-combatting (8) or masking skills since male-biased societies may expect them to be active and involved in a variety of ways. Women, on the other hand, may learn to accept more easily passive roles predicated by boredom. This study did not slipport the positive correlation between shyness and GPA reported by Traub ( 18). A possible reason for this may be the bias of self-reported GPAs. Self-reports in general are subject to dishonesty or exaggeration on the part of students ( 5 ) . In the present case, since shy people appear more depressed than nonshy people, they could have underestimated or played down their accomplishments, that is, report lower than actual GPAs. This may have resulted in lower correlations. However, it was not deemed necessary to confirm self-reported GPAs or other disclosures during the study since all responses were subject to a modicum of bias consistent with the nature of attitude scales. A further finding was that boredom and GPA are inversely related for men but not for women. Zudcerman ( 2 1 ) found men more susceptible to boredom than women. Studying high school students in Senegal, Vandewiele ( 1 9 ) noted that boys were more bored at school than girls and that to combat boredom, "boys listened to more music and practiced more sports, while girls went visiting friends or smdied at home." As expected, the multiple correlations were nonsignifican: for men and women. The question of sex differences and the likely functions of shyness and boredom in determining GPA need more study. It is important to know what shy people do with their time, e.g., if they ate not interacting socially, what are they doing-studying, obsessing, being bored? What effects do urban or rural surroundings have on such individuals? Shy people in rural areas may study more than shy people in urban areas, perhaps because there is little else to do in rural areas if one is shy (or bored). Further variables to be considered in extending this research are age, dass standing (freshmen to seniors), academic performance ( honor, average, probation), and over-all situation during a given semester or Interim (newness vs sameness plus duration). REFERENCES

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Accepted May 19, 1986.