Schema Theory
What is a schema?
- A schema is a mental representation of something i.e. a schema for concrete, tangible things such as ‘cat’, ‘house’, ‘mother’ or for abstract ideas/concepts such as ‘freedom’, ‘jealousy’, ‘love’
- A schema holds all of the information that an individual has assimilated over the course of their life so far, obtained via direct personal experience e.g. going to school or via the media e.g. watching a TV series about school life or via contact with others e.g. parents telling you about their experience of school
- There are frame schemas which include the details and characteristics of an item or person or object e.g. ‘cat’, ‘house’, ‘mother’
- There are script schemas which include the sequences and expectations as to what will be involved in an event or experience e.g. going to school involves taking the bus, chatting with friends at break, being in lessons, hearing the bell sound, being set homework etc.
- A schema can be adapted according to experience e.g. if you meet someone who has been home-schooled then your ‘school’ schema will accommodate this new information i.e. some people don’t actually go to a school for their schooling but instead they learn at home
- A person’s schemas are not right or wrong, they are simply the product of assimilation and thus are subjective – people’s schemas may overlap but they will not be identical as each schema is built on individual experience
What is the relevance of schema and memory?
- A schema is a set of pre-existing ideas, beliefs and concepts an individual has about people, places, events, ideas etc. which means that schemas may give rise to distorted memory
- When you experience an event either directly or indirectly it is usual for schematic activation to guide your understanding/expectation of that event e.g. you plan a holiday to Italy where you expect to see a lot of people waving their arms around in an excitable way and eating pasta (not at the same time of course!) hence schemas also contribute to stereotypes
- The problem with having set and pre-determined schemas is that they can interfere with accurate recall– this happens when someone recalls an event not as it truly happened but as a result of schematic interference i.e. their schemas ‘got in the way’ of 100% accurate recall of the event (generally people are unaware of this happening)
- Schemas are relevant to reconstructive memory (which is dealt with as a separate Revision Note on this site) as they produce biased recall e.g. you are in a pub and there is a fight, the police ask you what you witnessed and you say that one man was bleeding but in fact this is not true – your schema for ‘fight’ added blood at the scene because it fits your schema for ‘fight’
- Cultural schemas may lead to incorrect and faulty recall of material which does not align with or fit into a person’s schema based on their own culture
Schemas are continually forming, being adapted, and are sometimes discarded if they are no longer relevant to us.
What are Early Maladaptive Schemas?
- An Early Maladaptive Schema (EMS) is a type of self-schema in which a person’s early, childhood experience forms the basis for their self-image, self-esteem and general well-being
- An EMS may develop if a child is abused, neglected or placed into situations which are distressing and/or unpredictable
- An EMS is stable – which means it is resistant to change – and consists of long-term beliefs about the self which are very difficult to eradicate, even if the person undergoes years of therapy or counselling
- An EMS may well lead to the development of a mental disorder such as Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) or anxiety disorders
- Types of EMS include:
- Abandonment (which develops if someone feels that their caregivers are unreliable and/or cold and unloving);
- Defectiveness (which develops if someone has been told that they are not worthy of love, that they are bad, that people will reject them) and
- Failure to Achieve (which develops if someone believes that they are doomed to always fail and that others are better than them)
An Early Maladaptive Schema may blight a person’s life…
Which research studies investigate schema theory?
- Bartlett (1932) – cultural schemas produce distorted recall of a culturally unfamiliar story
- Riso et al. (2006) – found that EMS are stable and long-lasting and so should be treated using suitable therapy
Bartlett (1932) and Riso et al. (2006) are available as separate Key Studies – just navigate the Cognitive Processing section of this topic to find it (Two Key Studies of Schema Theory).
Bartlett’s study is also included in Two Key Studies of Reconstructive Memory which can be found in the Reliability of Cognitive Processes section of this site.
Exam Tip
Do be careful NOT to use schema theory research for a question on ‘Thinking and Decision-Making’ or ‘Cognitive Biases’. You will receive ZERO marks if you do – schema theory is a theory in itself and it can also be used to answer questions on reconstructive memory but THAT’S IT!
If you try to ‘shoehorn’ schema theory into any other questions, then you will be wasting your time as the examiner will not award you any marks for trying to do so
Worked example
SAQ - Short Answer Question - 9 marks
Describe one study of schema theory. [9]
The command term ‘Describe’ requires you to go into some study detail. Here are some paragraphs that describe the results of a schema theory study:
Bartlett found that the British participants tended to change the Native American story to suit their own cultural schemas. For example; levelling took place which could be seen in the shortening of the story (the original story was approximately 350 words and the participants’ version was around 180 words). They also tended to omit details which were irregular to their schema e.g. no mention of the supernatural elements of the story, even missing out the key focus of ghosts fighting.
Sharpening also occurred, where participants omitted cultural points e.g. place names were simply ignored, and assimilation occurred when participants changed words to suit their own schema – instead of recalling the word ‘canoe’, the participants would recall the word ‘boat’; ‘paddling’ was recalled as ‘rowing’.
Assimilation also occurred where the story was altered to suit the participants’ schema. For example, the recalled story would follow a more traditionally Western narrative format. Bartlett concluded that people do not record events or stories like a camera but instead they take information in and distort it to fit their schema, omitting details, changing anything that is not consistent with their pre-existing schema.
