Brief Report: Discriminating Between Problems in Living: An Examination of Measures of Depression, Loneliness, Shyness, and Social Anxiety

The relationships between depression, loneliness, shyness, and social anxiety were examined in a self-report questionnaire study. Standard measures of these constructs were obtained from 302 undergraduates. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to test several different models of these measures. The results indicated that: (1) the shyness and social anxiety scales measured the same construct, (2) the resulting three measures (depression, loneliness, shyness/social anxiety) are moderately interrelated, and (3) several items in the standard scales load too highly on one or more unpredicted factors. The importance of obtaining factorially pure measures of these problems in living, and possible modifications to the scales, are discussed.