Comparing Early Maladaptive Schemas and Schema Modes of Individuals with High and Low Scores in Scrupulosity and Normal Religious People

Background: Scrupulosity or religious obsession is a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and is recognized to be treatment-resistant. One of the most common treatments for treatment-resistant disorders is schema therapy. Objectives: This study aimed to compare the early maladaptive schemas and schema modes of individuals with high and low scores in scrupulosity, as well as religious people with no disorder. Methods: The population of this cross-sectional study consisted of all patients with OCD referred to Iran Psychiatric Hospital and the Clinic of Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health in Tehran, Iran, in 2019. The sample included 75 individuals with high score in scrupulosity, 75 individuals with low score in scrupulosity, and 75 religious people with no disorder. At first, all participants were evaluated with the structured clinical interview for DSM-5 disorders-clinical version (SCID-5-CV). Then, they completed the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Penn Inventory of Scrupulosity (PIOS), Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF), and Schema Mode Inventory (SMI). Data were analyzed using the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Individuals with high scores in scrupulosity were significantly different from normal religious people in the "disconnection and rejection" and "impaired autonomy and performance" schema domains. However, there was no significant difference between individuals with high scores in scrupulosity and those with a low score in any of the schema domains. Also, individuals with a high score in scrupulosity scored higher in almost all schema modes compared to normal religious people. Finally, the "punitive and demanding parent modes" of individuals with a high score in scrupulosity was significantly different from that of individuals with a low score. Conclusions: According to our results, it is essential to focus on "disconnection and rejection" and "impaired autonomy and performance" schema domains, as well as child and parent modes, especially the dysfunctional parent mode, to treat individuals with a high scrupulosity score. Due to limited literature, further research is needed to confirm our results.

Mediating Role of Maladaptive Schemas and Schema Modes between Childhood Maltreatment and Pathological Traits in Adults

It was aimed at that maladaptive schemas and schema modes serially mediate between childhood maltreatment and pathological traits. Sample of the present study consisted on university students (N=300).Purposive sampling technique was used to collect the information. Serial Mediation Analysis was conducted using PROCESS 3.0.Four scales were used for data collection The findings indicated that maladaptive schemas and positive schema modes mediated between childhood maltreatment and pathological traits. Maladaptive schemas and negative schema modes mediated between childhood maltreatment and pathological traits.The study supported the schema theory which revealed that early childhood neglect and abuse forms early maladaptive schemas which change into schema modes during the course of development and finally manifested in the form of personality pathologies during adulthood.The study has both theoretical as well as applied significance. The study has supported the theory of Young.

Antecedents and Consequences of Schema Modes among Adults

Personality disorders (PDs) have a long history of understanding the causes and consequences of PDs. The Schema Theory explained a series of psychological processes that led to the genesis of PDs, rather than the antecedents-consequences dichotomy. Bad childhood events, according to Young's Schema Theory, contribute to the formation of childhood negative cognitive schemas, some of which (schemas) survive into adulthood and transform into PDs. The same theoretically proposed strategy was tested in this investigation. Mediating role of schema modes between emotional maltreatment and PDs in adults was investigated. The study was conducted with 1000 adults by using cross-sectional survey design. Mediation analysis explained that schema modes mediated between emotional maltreatments and PDs of adults. Thus, the Schema Theory gained support from the empirical data. Schema modes mediated for all personality clusters including cluster-A, B and C. In line with these empirical insights, the maladaptive personality traits also mediated between emotional maltreatments and PDs of adults

Schema modes and their associations with emotion regulation, mindfulness, and self-compassion among patients with personality disorders

Background The current study's goal was to examine the multivariate patterns of associations between schema modes and emotion regulation mechanisms in personality disorders. Schema modes are either integrated or dissociative states of mind, including intense emotional states, efforts to regulate emotions, or self-reflective evaluative thought processes. Exploring the multivariate patterns of a shared relationship between schema modes and emotion regulation strategies may lead to a better understanding of their associations and a deeper understanding of the latent personality profiles that organize their associations in a mixed personality disorder sample. Methods Patients who have personality disorders (N = 263) filled out five different self-report questionnaires, out of which four measured adaptive and maladaptive emotion-regulation strategies (Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Difficulty of Emotion Regulation Scale, Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire, Self-Compassion Scale), and the fifth one assessed schema modes (Schema Mode Inventory). We conducted canonical correlation analysis in order to measure the multivariate patterns of associations between the 26 emotion regulation and the 14 schema mode subscales. Results We found strong multivariate associations between schema modes and emotion regulation strategies. Collectively, the full model based on all canonical variate pairs was statistically significant using the Wilks’s Λ = .01 criterion, F (364,2804.4) = 3.5, p < .001. The first two canonical variate pairs yielded interpretable squared canonical correlation (Rc2) effect sizes of 74.7% and 55.8%, respectively. The first canonical variate pair represents a general personality pathology variable with a stronger weight on internalization than externalization, and bipolarity in terms of adaptive vs. non-adaptive characteristics. We labeled this variate pair "Adaptive/Non-Adaptive." The second canonical variate pair, labeled "Externalizing", represents externalizing schema modes and emotion regulation strategies. Conclusion Using a multivariate approach (CCA), we identified two independent patterns of multivariate associations between maladaptive schema modes and emotion regulation strategies. The Adaptive/Non-Adaptive general personality pathology profile and the Externalizing personality pathology profile may lead to a deeper understanding of personality disorders and help psychotherapists in their conceptualization in order to design the most appropriate interventions.

Borderline Personality Disorder With Versus Without Alcohol Use Disorder: Comparing Impulsivity and Schema Modes

Substance use disorders (SUDs) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) are highly comorbid. In the present study, an attempt was made to understand the differences between BPD and BPD with comorbid SUD (BPD + alcohol use disorder [AUD]), by studying impulsivity and schema modes (i.e., maladaptive moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses). BPD patients, BPD+AUD patients, and nonpatients (NP) were compared regarding behavioral impulsivity (motor impulsivity, risk taking, delay discounting), and schema modes. The two patient groups displayed greater delay discounting than the NP group. Further, BPD and BPD+AUD groups were different from the NP group regarding all schema modes investigated. However, no differences were found on any of the dependent variables between the two patient groups. It is suggested that although BPD patients are in general more impulsive and have more maladaptive moment-to-moment emotional states and coping responses, BPD patients with and without AUD seem not to be different in this respect.

Maladaptive schema modes as the predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder among trauma survivors

Objectives: To study the relationship between dysfunctional schema modes and post-traumatic stress disorder among trauma survivors. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in public hospital (Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences) Islamabad, Pakistan, from March 2019 to August 2019. Two scales were used, Schema Mode Inventory (SMI) for assessment of maladaptive and adaptive schema, whereas, for PTSD assessment, Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5) was used. Total 281 patients of TBI and orthopedic trauma were studied, of which 137 had been diagnosed with orthopedic trauma, 96 were TBI, and 48 had suffered from multiple injuries that were older than 18 years. Result: Simple linear regression showed that maladaptive schema mode was associated with PTSD. Moreover, the result showed that the prevalence of PTSD severity symptoms were greater in survivors with maladaptive than adaptive schema modes. Further result showed that PTSD Symptoms and dysfunctional schema modes were higher in moderate injured patient’s M (42.14) SD (7.36). In the same way, intentionally injured patient’s M (42.70) SD (6.92) and female trauma survivor’s M (42.05) SD (8.26) had higher PTSD symptoms. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrates that maladaptive schema mode leads to PTSD symptoms among trauma survivors with history of orthopedic injury, TBI and multiple injury patients. Keywords: PTSD Symptoms, Maladaptive Schema Modes, Continuous....

The Network Structure of Schema Modes

A fundamental question in psychotherapy is whether interventions should target client problems (i.e., problem-focused approaches) or client strengths (i.e., strength-focused approaches). In this study, we first propose to address this question from a network perspective on schema modes (i.e., healthy or dysfunctional patterns of co-occurring emotions, cognitions, and behaviors). From this perspective, schema modes mutually influence each other (e.g., healthy modes reduce dysfunctional modes). Recent evidence suggests that changes in modes that are strongly associated to other modes (i.e., central modes) could be associated with greater treatment effects. Therefore, we suggest that research should investigate the relative centrality of healthy and dysfunctional modes. To make an exploratory start, we investigated the cross-sectional network structure of schema modes in a clinical (comprising individuals diagnosed with paranoid, narcissistic, histrionic, and Cluster C personality disorders) and non-clinical sample. Results showed that, in both samples, the Healthy Adult was significantly less central than several dysfunctional modes (e.g., Undisciplined Child and Abandoned and Abused Child). Although our study cannot draw causal conclusions, this finding could suggest that weakening dysfunctional modes (compared to strengthening the Healthy Adult) might be more effective in decreasing other dysfunctional modes. Our study further indicates that several schema modes are negatively associated, which could suggest that decreasing one might increase another. Finally, the Healthy Adult was among the modes that most strongly discriminated between clinical and non-clinical individuals. Longitudinal and experimental research into the network structure of schema modes is required to further clarify the relative influence of schema modes.