Glossary / Lexicon

Deutsch: Schema / Español: esquema / Português: esquema / Français: schéma / Italiano: schema

Schema in psychology refers to a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information. Schemas are essential for understanding the world, predicting outcomes, and guiding behavior based on past experiences.

A Schema is an organized framework for representing knowledge that typically includes characters, plots, and settings, and incorporates both general knowledge about the world and information about particular events.

Description

A schema acts as a mental structure that an individual uses to organize knowledge and guide cognitive processes, including perception, memory, and reasoning. Schemas are formed based on experiences and are continually modified as new information is acquired. These mental structures help simplify the complex amount of information that one encounters through categorization and by drawing inferences from it. In psychology, schemas are often discussed in the context of social cognition, where they affect how we perceive others, and in cognitive development, as described by Jean Piaget, who identified schemas as key components in the process of cognitive development.

Application Areas

Schemas are utilized in various psychological fields:

• Cognitive psychology: Understanding how schemas influence memory, perception, and problem-solving.
• Developmental psychology: Exploring how children develop cognitive schemas that help them understand the world.
• Social psychology: Studying how people form schemas about others that can influence their expectations and interactions.

Well-Known Examples

A well-known application of the schema theory is in understanding stereotypes, which are a type of social schema that involve oversimplified ideas about a group of people. Schemas also play a critical role in education, where instructional strategies are designed to connect new knowledge with existing schemas to facilitate learning and comprehension.

Treatment and Risks

In therapeutic contexts, schemas can sometimes contribute to or exacerbate psychological disorders:

• Maladaptive schemas: These are dysfunctional belief systems that are pervasive and often lead to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
• Schema therapy: A form of therapy that aims to identify and change maladaptive schemas with the goal of reducing self-defeating patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Symptoms, Therapy, and Healing

• Therapy Techniques: Schema therapy integrates elements of cognitive-behavioral, experiential, interpersonal, and psychoanalytic therapies to help individuals change negative patterns and cultivate healthy emotional and cognitive patterns.
• Healing Process: Changing maladaptive schemas involves recognizing and confronting these often long-standing negative patterns, leading to improved mental health outcomes.

Weblinks

• allerwelt-lexikon.de: 'Schema' in the allerwelt-lexikon.de (German)

Articles with 'Schema' in the title

• Gender schema: Gender schema refers to a set of mental associations in which individuals are seen from the point of view of their gender, as opposed to other characteristics
• Gender-schema theory: Gender-schema theory refers to the theory that states that children want to learn more about an activity only after first deciding whether it is masculine or feminine
• Melody schema: Melody schema refers to a representation of a familiar melody that is stored in a person"s memory. Existence of a melody schema makes it more likely that the tones associated with a melody will be perceptually grouped
• Own-sex schema: Own-sex schema refer to detailed knowledge or plans of action that enable a person to perform gender-consistent activities and to enact his/her gender role
• Inactive schemas: Inactive schemas are cognitive schemas that are triggered by special or unusual events.
• Depressive schema: Depressive schema refers to a cognitive structure that allows people to readily make negative associations.
• Early maladaptive schemas: Early maladaptive schemas is defined as long standing schemas that individuals assume to be true about themselves and their world. These schemas are resistant to change and cause difficulties in individuals’ lives
• Pragmatic reasoning schemas: Pragmatic reasoning schemas are general organizing principles or rules related to particular kinds of goals, such as permissions, obligations, or causations

Summary

In psychology, a schema is a cognitive framework that helps individuals process and organize information, influencing everything from daily decisions to social interactions and emotional responses. Understanding and modifying schemas, particularly maladaptive ones, is crucial in psychological therapy to support healthier ways of thinking and behaving.

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