There is growing recognition in all of psychology that cognitive processes play important roles in shaping the course and outcome of human behaviour. The ability to think about oneself, to fashion a coherent and pragmatic view of oneself, is the specific slice of this cognitive movement that serves as the impetus for a focus on the role of the self in social interaction. In short, one's human capacity to consider one's own identity, values, social image, personal worth, and the like, is a part of everyday life that influences the entire panorama of one's actions, often in subtle ways.

The purpose of this chapter is to address impression management (or self-presentation) processes and findings as they relate to social anxiety or shyness. This chapter is distinguished from many other approaches to social anxiety in that the locus of the motivational basis for behaviour is expressly social, or interpersonal; that is, the presentation of self in everyday life is one among numerous forms of social influence. This chapter begins with a brief review of the literature on social anxiety and self-presentation. This review is organised within a framework emphasising social anxiety as both an antecedent and consequence of self-presentation. Second, the attributional strategy of self-handicapping is discussed as an illustration of the relationship between the regulation of anxiety and the presentation of “the self” to others. The final section discusses social anxiety in two ways: as a reactive process in which the socially anxious individual responds to anxiety-producing circumstances in the environment, and as an active process in which the anxious individual actively engages in behaviours and seeks out circumstances that will serve to keep anxiety symptoms in check.