Early Maladaptive Schemas

SCHEMAS & SCHEMA DOMAINS

EARLY MALADAPTIVE SCHEMAS

What are Schemas?

Schemas represent the way we relate to ourselves, others and the world we live in.

Schemas are mental representations of how we interpret and make sense of our experiences and the world we live in. Schemas are comprised of memories, emotions, cognitions, and bodily sensations. As children we engage with others and the world around us based on our core psychological needs. A primary need a child has is to feel safe. A child will be looking to have this need met through their relatedness to others and the world. If a child has many experiences of feeling unsafe they may develop a schema that the world is inherently unsafe. The schema of 'the world is unsafe' may play a central part in how they interpret experiences later in life. Schemas mainly form during childhood and adolescence but can strengthen or weaken through experiences later in life. Schemas can also be modified by deliberate interventions or corrective experiences.

WHAT ARE HEALTHY SCHEMAS?

Healthy schemas are those schemas that help us adapt in life and form healthy relationships.

Healthy schemas develop through healthy relationships where our core psychological needs as children are met. Healthy schemas come into existence when we experience a sense of security and predictability in our relationships to others. This may involve feelings of safety, stability, nurturance, and acceptance during our childhood years. As we grow older our psychological needs becomes more complex. We develop the need to be autonomous, competent, and have sense of personal identity. Children also need to be able to express their emotions and to have their feelings validated. Children also need to be able to be spontaneous and play and have fun. Through loving and caring relationships children also learn to accept realistic limits and practice self-control.

WHAT ARE EARLY MALADAPTIVE SCHEMAS?

Early Maladaptive Schemas are those schemas that interfere with forming healthy relationships with oneself and others.

Some schemas develop through negative life experiences we have early in life. These schemas often interfere with healthy psychological development and can be regarded as maladaptive. Early Maladaptive Schemas represent patterns of self-defeating thoughts and feelings that develop early in a child's life and are repeated and elaborated throughout one’s lifetime. Early maladaptive schemas involve an interplay between thoughts or beliefs, memories and images, emotions, and bodily sensations.

What are the main early maladaptive schemas that have been people have?

Here you can find the main early maladaptive schemas that people present with under the different broad schema domains.

Early Maladaptive Schemas

Schema Domain

Disconnection and Rejection

Schemas in this domain centre around feelings of disconnection and rejection.

Abandonment/ Instability (AB)

The perceived instability or unreliability of those available for support and connection. involves the sense that significant others will not be able to continue providing emotional support, connection, strength, or practical protection because they are emotionally unstable and unpredictable (e.g., angry outbursts), unreliable, or erratically present; because they will die imminently; or because they will abandon the patient in favour of someone better.

Core feelings of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core feelings associated with the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Core unmet needs of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core unmet needs underlying the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Mistrust/ Abuse

The expectation that others will hurt, abuse, humiliate, cheat, lie, manipulate, or take advantage. Usually involves the perception that the harm is intentional or the result of unjustified and extreme negligence. May include the sense that one always ends up being cheated relative to others or "getting the short end of the stick."

Core feelings of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core feelings associated with the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Core unmet needs of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core unmet needs underlying the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Emotional Deprivation

Expectation that one's desire for a normal degree of emotional support will not be adequately met by others. The three major forms of deprivation are:

A. Deprivation of Nurturance: Absence of attention, affection, warmth, or companionship. “No one cares.’

B. Deprivation of Empathy: Absence of understanding and attunement, listening, self-disclosure, or mutual sharing of feelings from others. ‘No one really get me.’

C. Deprivation of Protection: Absence of strength, direction, or guidance from others. ‘I am all alone (in facing the world)’.

Core feelings of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core feelings associated with the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Core unmet needs of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core unmet needs underlying the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Defectiveness/ Shame

The feeling that one is defective, bad, unwanted, inferior, or invalid in important respects; or that one would be unlovable to significant others if exposed. May involve hypersensitivity to criticism, rejection, and blame; self-consciousness, comparisons, and insecurity around others; or a sense of shame regarding one's perceived flaws. These flaws may be private (e.g., selfishness, angry impulses, unacceptable sexual desires) or public (e.g., undesirable physical appearance, social awkwardness).

Feelings of inadequacy or shame.

Core feelings of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core feelings associated with the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Core unmet needs of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core unmet needs underlying the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Social Isolation

The feeling that one is socially isolated from the rest of the world, different from other people, and/or not part of any group or community.

Core feelings of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core feelings associated with the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

Core unmet needs of the Abandonment/ Instability schema

The core unmet needs underlying the Abandonment/ Instability schema are

SCHEMA DOMAIN

Impaired Autonomy and Performance

Schemas in this domain centre around impaired autonomy and performance

Dependency/ Incompetence

Belief that one is unable to handle one's everyday responsibilities in a competent manner, without considerable help from others (e.g., take care of oneself, solve daily problems, exercise good judgment, tackle new tasks, make good decisions). Often presents as helplessness.

Vulnerability to Illness/ Harm

Exaggerated fear that imminent catastrophe will strike at any time and that one will be unable to prevent it. Fears focus on one or more of the following: (A) Medical Catastrophes: e.g., heart attacks, AIDS; (B) Emotional Catastrophes: e.g., going crazy; (C): External Catastrophes: e.g., elevators collapsing, victimized by criminals, airplane crashes, earthquakes.

Enmeshment/ Undeveloped Self

Excessive emotional involvement and closeness with one or more significant others (often parents), at the expense of full individuation or normal social development. Often involves the belief that at least one of the enmeshed individuals cannot survive or be happy without the constant support of the other. May also include feelings of being smothered by, or fused with, others or insufficient individual identity. Often experienced as a feeling of emptiness and floundering, having no direction, or in extreme cases questioning one's existence.

Failure to Achieve

The belief that one has failed, will inevitably fail, or is fundamentally inadequate relative to one's peers, in areas of achievement (school, career, sports, etc.). Often involves beliefs that one is stupid, inept, untalented, ignorant, lower in status, less successful than others, etc.

Schema Domain