Cognitive Approach - Schema Theory

Question 1

what are schemas?

Answer 1

• mental representations
• form in which ideas, images or concepts are held in the mind
• can be concrete (house) or abstract (freedom)

Question 2

what are schemas able to do?

Answer 2

• overlap
• accommodate
• assimilate

Question 3

what is assimilation?

Answer 3

using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation

Question 4

what is accommodation?

Answer 4

happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation

Question 5

what is a script schema?

Answer 5

the knowledge we have about events and the consequences of events

Question 6

what is a frame schema?

Answer 6

the knowledge we have about the properties of objects and locations

Question 7

what is the first study?

Answer 7

Bartlett (1932)

Question 8

what is the aim?

Answer 8

To investigate the effect of a culturally-specific schema on a culturally unfamiliar story

Question 9

what is the sample?

Answer 9

male undergraduate students from uni of Cambridge

Question 10

what is the procedure?

Answer 10

1) participants read a native american folk tale called ‘War of the Ghosts’ twice over to themselves and then reproduced the story after 15 minutes
2) serial reproduction. In which, one person would read the story and then write it down, which the second person would then read and write down their own memories of the story which was then read to a third person

Question 11

What are the results?

Answer 11

The story was reconstructed in order to fit the participants cultural schemas, in the following ways;

1) Omission of the irrelevant, unfamiliar and unpleasant - ghosts were soon dropped from the story as they do not fit with the way the men see the world. Details such as contorted faces were omitted as they may have caused unpleasant memories.
2) Transformation of the material - “canoes” became “boats” and “paddling” become “rowing” as it was summerized these references were more familiar to the participants. Puzzling details like the spirit wound were reinterpreted as a flesh wound.
3) Transposition of details from one part of the story to another - which involved swapping roles of the characters in the story (e.g. one of the warriors was presented as begging to be taken home, rather than deciding to go himself, like the original story)

Question 12

What is the conclusion?

Answer 12

Cultural schemas play an active role in the way that information is reconstructed in the memory

Question 13

Strengths of Bartlett (1932)?

Answer 13

• explains the phenomenon of reconstructive memory

- relevant in several branches of psychology (development, depression)

Question 14

Limitations of Bartlett (1932)?

Answer 14

• old, more globalised world

- details about sample and procedure are unknown, hard to replicate

Question 15

What are negative schemas?

Answer 15

• ‘early maladaptive schemas’ (EMS)
• highly stable and enduring beliefs that often formed in childhood
• responsible for the persistence, even after treatment, of a variety of mental disorders.

Question 16

Who proposed EMS?

Answer 16

Young in 1995

Question 17

What is study 2?

Answer 17

Riseo et al (2005)

Question 18

What was the aim of study 2?

Answer 18

to investigate the long-term stability of EMS over a 2.5 to 5 year interval

Question 19

What was the sample of study 2?

Answer 19

• 55 outpatients with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD)
• 90% of the sample was Caucasian
• Majority were women

Question 20

What was the procedure of study 2?

Answer 20

EMS were assessed with the Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) of 16 maladaptive schemas. e.g. of YSQ:

• emotional deprivation
• failure to achieve
• vulnurability to learn
• subjugation

Question 21

What was the result of study 2?

Answer 21

Correlations of EMS at baseline and follow-up were high, with a median of 0.75

Question 22

What was the conclusion of study 2?

Answer 22

Young’s (1995) EMS are stable over the long-term for depressed individuals. Therefore, using EMS in schema-based therapy is justified

Question 23

strengths of study 2?

Answer 23

• triangulation of methods;
• use of multiple questionnaires to measurelevels of depression and depressed mood, EMS, dysfunctional attitudes, attributional style and neuroticism
• increase reliability of data
• recent

Question 24

limitations of study 2?

Answer 24

• clinical questionaire, quantitative data about a subject that is qualitative
• self-report, lack of internal validity or prone to bias
• participants who received therapy during the follow-up period did not receive schema-based therapy, so no comparison of therapies was possible