Effectiveness of Nonverbal Interaction Skills Training in the Decrease of Shyness

Human communication is a process in which the individuals transmit verbal and non-verbal concepts to the others’ mind. These communications can be easily influenced by shyness. Shyness poses various problems for shy individuals and prevents them in pursuing their goals. Therefore, one of the most major problems of shy people is communication. The research aims to investigate the influence of non-verbal communication in decreasing the students’ symptoms of shyness. Hence, a sample of 30 individuals was drawn from among the diagnosed shy students of Shahid Bahonar University and assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent 8 sessions of nonverbal interaction skills training and was subsequently tested for shyness. Results of covariance analysis indicated that nonverbal social interaction skills training can significantly decrease the symptoms of shyness in cognitive, physiological and behavioral aspects. Overall, it seems that nonverbal social interaction skills training merits attention in life style training.