Schema Domains

Question 1

Domain #1: Disconnection and Rejection

Answer 1

The expectation that one’s needs for love, safety, nurturance, empathy and sharing of feelings, social belonging, spontaneity, praise, and respect, will not be met in a consistent manner.

Question 2

Domain #1: Disconnection and Rejection: ORIGINS

Answer 2

Typical family of origin is emotionally detached and restricted, cold, lacking in empathy, rejecting, critical, withholding, lonely, or abusive.

Typical peer group origin is feeling different, without a sense of belonging.

Question 3

Domain #2: Impaired Autonomy and Performance

Answer 3

Expectations about oneself and the environment that interfere with the perceived ability to:

1. function independently in everyday life,
2. perform successfully in areas of achievement, and
3. express one’s own needs and feelings freely.

Often involves the fear of being abandoned and left alone, and a strong sense that the world is dangerous.

Question 4

Domain #2: Impaired Autonomy and Performance: ORIGINS

Answer 4

Typical family of origin: undermining of the child’s self-confidence,
- overprotective,
- focused inordinately on unrealistic dangers,
- enmeshed,
- failing to reward success,
- invalidating when the child expresses his or her own needs and feelings
- highly controlling

Question 5

Domain #3: Impaired Limits

Answer 5

Deficiency in:

1. internal limits, leading to difficulty controlling one’s impulses and emotions
2. responsibility to others, leading to difficulty respecting the rights of others, cooperating with others, making commitments
3. long-term goal orientation, leading to difficulty setting and meeting realistic personal goals

Some of these individuals are entitled or self-aggrandizing, while others may behave in an impulsive and undisciplined manner.

Question 6

Domain #3: Impaired Limits: ORIGINS

Answer 6

Typical family of origin is characterized by over-permissiveness, lack of boundaries, overindulgence, failure to enforce normal rules, or conveying a sense of superiority relative to other people.

Parents typically do not provide sufficient confrontation, discipline, negative consequences, and limit-setting related to taking responsibility, cooperating in a reciprocal manner, restraining impulses, sticking to tasks, following social rules, and postponing short-term gratification in order to attain long-range goals.

In some cases, the child may not have been expected to tolerate normal levels of discomfort, or may not have received adequate supervision, direction, or guidance.

Question 7

Domain #4: Excessive Responsibility and Standards

Answer 7

Excessive emphasis on meeting strict, internalized rules and expectations about performance across many aspects of life. These may include an excessive focus on responsibility to others, orderliness, duty, or proper behavior—often at the expense of one’s own happiness, self-expression, relaxation, close relationships, or health.

May involve feelings of guilt or selfishness when engaging in positive or enjoyable activities purely for oneself. Exceptional achievement, meeting responsibilities, perfectionism, taking care of other people at the expense of oneself, adhering to rigidly ethical and moral principles, following rules, “stoicism,” and avoiding mistakes predominate over pleasure, joy, and relaxation. Some individuals expect others to meet their own unrealistically demanding sense of responsibility and standards.

Question 8

Domain #4: Excessive Responsibility and Standards: ORIGINS

Answer 8

Typical family of origin is demanding, critical, and sometimes punitive, with very high standards; or the expectation that the child should sacrifice his or her own needs most of the time to take care of others.