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Abstract

To investigate the relationship between shyness and egocentricity in both psychiatric (hospitalized) and nonhospitalized groups, 162 adult men and women diagnosed as paranoid or undifferentiated schizophrenic, and a control group of 162 nonhospitalized individuals matched for age and gender were studied. Shyness was assessed on the Social Reticence Scale and egocentricity by the Self-focus Sentence Completion. Analysis indicated that the patients were more shy than nonhospitalized individuals. Paranoid schizophrenics were not different from undifferentiated schizophrenics on egocentricity and the Self-focus Sentence Completion subscales. Nonhospitalized individuals and the mental hospital patients were egocentric on the Self-focus Sentence Completion. For this reason, relationships among shyness, egocentricity, and psychopathology could not be demonstrated.

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Shyness,Egocentricity,and Psychopathology: Their Relationships among Nonhospitalized Individuals and Mental Hospital Patients

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