ABSTRACT
This study reexamined the organization of Young's 18 early maladaptive schemas and their hypothesized associations with experiences of need-thwarting parental experiences in childhood and the "vulnerable child" mode of emotional distress in adulthood. A large Danish sample (N = 1054) of 658 clinical- and 391 nonclinical adults completed measures of early maladaptive schemas, parenting styles, and the vulnerable child mode. We identified four higher-order schema domains as most appropriate in terms of interpretability and empirical indices ("Disconnection & Rejection", "Impaired Autonomy & Performance", "Excessive Responsibility & Standards", and "Impaired Limits"). All four schema domains were differentially associated with conceptually relevant need-thwarting parental experiences. Apart from "Impaired Limits", the schema domains meaningfully accounted for the association between need-thwarting parental experiences in childhood and emotional states of feeling like a "vulnerable child" in adulthood. We conclude that four domains of early maladaptive schemas are empirically and conceptually consistent with Young's schema therapy model of personality pathology and longstanding emotional disorders. Findings warrant replication using different populations and if possible a prospective multi-method design. A scoring key for computing the four schema domains is provided.
Subject(s)
Parent-Child Relations , Parenting/psychology , Personality Disorders/psychology , Stress, Psychological/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Anxiety/psychology , Case-Control Studies , Denmark , Depression/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Parents , Personal Autonomy , Personality Disorders/therapy , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young AdultABSTRACT
This article presents the Schema Therapy (Young, Klosko, & Weishaar, 2003) approach to the treatment of borderline personality disorder. Schema therapy draws on the cognitive-behavioral, attachment, psychodynamic, and emotion-focused traditions and conceptualizes patients who have borderline personality disorder as being under the sway of five modes or aspects of the self. The goal of the therapy is to reorganize this inner structure. To this end, there are four core mechanisms of change that are used in this therapy: (1) limited reparenting, (2) experiential imagery and dialogue work, (3) cognitive restructuring and education, and (4) behavioral pattern breaking. These interventions are used during the three phases of treatment: (1) bonding and emotional regulation, (2) schema mode change, and (3) development of autonomy.
