Schema Theory
The four main concepts in the Schema Therapy model are: Early Maladaptive Schemas, Core Emotional Needs, Schema Mode, and Maladaptive Coping Styles.
The 18 Early Maladaptive Schemas are self-defeating, core themes or patterns that we keep repeating throughout our lives. Early Schemas relate to the basic emotional needs of a child. When these needs are not met in childhood, schemas develop that lead to unhealthy life patterns. Each of the 18 schemas represent specific emotional needs that were not adequately met in childhood or adolescence. Maladaptive Coping Styles are the ways the child adapts to schemas and to damaging childhood experiences. For example, some children surrender to their schemas; some find ways to block out or avoid pain; while other children fight back or overcompensate. Schema Modes are the moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses that we all experience. Often our schema modes are triggered by life situations that we are oversensitive to (our "emotional buttons"). Many schema modes lead us to overreact to situations, or to act in ways that end up hurting us. The main goals of Schema Therapy are: to help patients strengthen their Healthy Adult mode; weaken their Maladaptive Coping Modes so that they can get back in touch with their core needs and feelings; to heal their early maladaptive schemas; to break schema-driven life patterns; and eventually to get their core emotional needs met in everyday life. To read more about these concepts, click on the links to the right.
Early Maladaptive Schemas
The most basic concept in Schema Therapy is an Early Maladaptive Schema. We define schemas as: “broad, pervasive themes regarding oneself and one's relationship with others, developed during childhood and elaborated throughout one's lifetime, and dysfunctional to a significant degree." We have identified 18 schemas thus far. You can see this listing by clicking on the link to the right. Schemas develop in childhood and adolescence from an interplay between the child's innate temperament, and the child's ongoing damaging experiences with parents, siblings, or peers. Because they begin early in life, schemas become familiar and thus comfortable. We distort our view of the events in our lives in order to maintain the validity of our schemas. Schemas may remain dormant until they are activated by situations relevant to that particular schema.
Coping Styles
Different people cope with their schemas in different ways. This explains why children raised in the same environment can appear to be so different. For example, two children with abusive parents may respond very differently. One becomes a passive, frightened victim, and remains that way throughout life. The other child becomes openly rebellious and defiant, and may even leave home early to survive as a teenager on the streets. Partly this is because we have different temperaments at birth. Temperamentally, we may tend to be more frightened, active, outgoing, or shy. Our temperaments push us in certain directions. Partly this is because we may unconsciously choose different parents to "copy" or model ourselves after. For example, because an "abuser" often marries a "victim," the child in this family could model either the abusive parent, the victimized parent, or have elements of both coping styles. We view coping styles as normal attempts on the part of the child to survive in a difficult childhood environment. Unfortunately, we keep repeating our coping styles throughout adulthood, even when we no longer need them to survive.
Most of the time, as adults, these coping styles lead us to act in ways that end up blocking our development: for example, we may abuse alcohol, become excessively rigid and stubborn, isolate ourselves from other people, stop feeling emotions, or mistreat other people.
According to our model, there are three general ways that we adapt to our schemas:
- Surrender, which means giving in to our schemas and repeating them over and over;
- Avoidance, which means finding ways to escape or block out our schemas; and
- Overcompensation, which means doing the opposite of what our schemas makes us feel.
We have expanded these 3 general ways of adapting into a more detailed list of common coping responses. To see this listing, please click on the link to the right.
Schema Modes
The concept of a Schema Mode is probably the most difficult part of schema theory to explain, because it encompasses many elements. As we mentioned on an earlier page , schema modes are the moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses that we all experience. Often our schema modes are triggered by life situations that we are oversensitive to (our "emotional buttons"). At any given point in time, some of our schemas, coping responses, and emotional states are inactive, or dormant, while others have become activated by life events and predominate our current mood and behavior. The predominant state that we are in at a given point in time is called our schema mode. All of us flip from mode to mode over time. Here is our formal definition: a schema mode represents "those schemas, coping responses, or healthy behaviors that are currently active for an individual". A schema mode is activated when particular schemas or coping responses have erupted into strong emotions or rigid coping styles that take over and control an individual's functioning. An individual may shift from one schema mode into another; as that shift occurs, different schemas or coping responses, previously dormant, become active.
Modes As Dissociated States
Viewed in a slightly different way, a schema mode is: a facet of the self, involving specific schemas or coping responses that has not been fully integrated with other facets. According to this perspective, schema modes can be characterized by the degree to which a particular schema mode state has become dissociated, or cut off, from an individual's other modes. A schema mode, therefore, is a part of the self that is cut off, to some degree, from other aspects of the self. The term Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Multiple Personality Disorder) is used to describe individuals who flip into schema modes that are at the extreme end of the dissociative spectrum. Patients with Dissociative Identity Disorder usually have different names (like John, Susan, or Danny) for each schema mode. At the other extreme of dissociation -- the mildest form of a schema mode -- is a normal mood shift, such as a lonely mood or an angry mood. We have currently identified 10 schema modes. The modes are grouped into four general categories: the Child modes, the Maladaptive Coping modes, the Maladaptive Parent modes, and the Healthy Adult mode. Some modes are healthy for an individual, while others are maladaptive. One important goal of Schema Therapy is to teach patients how to strengthen their Healthy Adult mode, so that they can learn to navigate, negotiate with, nurture, or neutralize their other modes.
To see a listing of schema modes, click on the link to the right.