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Running Head: Understanding Schemas
Understanding Schemas:
“Their Role in Attachment Insecurities, Disordered Eating, Marketing, Age-Related Reliance
and Perception of Others”
Erica Muse
Georgia Southern University
EDUF 7130
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Understanding Schemas
Abstract
Schemas are pervasive in society and whether constructed accurately or inaccurately,
they impact our viewpoints and actions. In order to gain a greater understanding of their
applicability, this paper is an attempt to represent the role of schemas in several contexts through
assessing published journal articles. Through related research and readings, I was able to gain
knowledge and develop a framework for the role that schemas play in thoughts and decision
making and find ways to apply the information to my daily life.
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Understanding Schemas
In choosing a topic to research for this paper, I reviewed the questions missed on the
midterm exam and realized that I had misunderstood schemas and scripts. The purpose of this
paper was to reframe my understanding by gaining knowledge about the role schemas play in our
daily lives. The question on the exam was: “Schemas and scripts are best described by which of
the following statements…” What I learned from my answer was that they are not “personal
theories used to explain external phenomena”, but rather “a closely connected set of ideas related
to a specific object or event”. Schemas encompass more than external phenomena and cannot be
placed neatly into a box of understanding for they are pervasive in our conscious and
subconscious and impact our daily thoughts and actions. Using the Georgia Southern University
online library, I was able to obtain sources by completing a search within journals with the
search term “schema”. Many articles were related to the topic, but after reviewing several I
realized that I would like to choose five that approached schemas from different viewpoints and
areas of research. The papers that were chosen reflect the concept through research completed on
marketing, personality, attachment insecurities, disordered eating and age-related reliance.
In the research project by Deas, Power, Collin, Yellowlees & Grierson (n.d), the goal
of the authors was to better understand the role that perfectionist schemas and parental bonding
play as related to Anorexia Nervosa. Using three groups, the hypotheses were threefold:
perceptions of the parental bond would be more negative and perfectionist schemas would be
more prevalent among the female Anorexia Nervosa group than two comparison groups --women diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety and women with no known diagnosis.
Additionally, the authors speculated that perfectionist schema would act as a mediating factor
between what they define as “negative parenting” and disordered eating. The 40 participants for
the Anorexia Nervosa group were chosen from those receiving inpatient treatments at The Priory
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Understanding Schemas
Hospital, Glasgow and from an outpatient treatment facility, NHS Tayside’s Psychological
Therapies Service (p.417). The 44 women chosen for the depression/anxiety group were also
chosen from the NHS Tayside’s Psychological Therapies Service and the 78 women chosen for
the “healthy” group were undergraduates pursuing psychology degrees from the University of
Stirling. The quantitative, cross-sectional study examined disordered eating (dependent variable),
perceived parenting (independent variable) and perfectionistic schemas (independent
variable/mediator) (p.418). All participants were given the Eating Disorders Examination (EDE),
The Parental Bonding Instrument-Short Form (PBI-S) and The Young Schema QuestionnaireShort Form (YSQ-S). The results showed that the women in the Anorexia Nervosa group scored
significantly higher on the EDE, reported much less parental care/greater parental control and
had scores that were significant on The Young Schema Questionnaire (relating specifically to
perfectionism) when compared to the comparison groups. The authors found that more research
would be needed with a larger group of Anorexia Nervosa participants before they could
determine if perfectionism was a mediating factor. They did, however, conclude that women
diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa hold more negative views of their parents than the other
comparison groups and more maladaptive schema. The author’s note that: “…the construct of
negative perfectionism should not be overlooked when assessing, formulating and treating those
with AN (p. 422).”
Miesler, Leder & Herrmann (2011) focused their study on “baby schema” (focusing on
baby faced shapes) as related to marketing and affective responses. The authors research was
two-fold: “… to study whether innate affective responses to physical features of the baby schema
were generalized to product designs (p.17)”, and to use facial electromyography (EMG) to
measure affect non-verbally (p.18). The authors hypothesized “…that detecting facial features in
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Understanding Schemas
product designs rapidly triggers the adequate affective responses in consumers (p.19)”. Using
Adobe Photoshop, researcher’s manipulated 16 car fronts (enlarging the headlights by 20%) and
faces (eyes, nose and mouth) to reflect “baby schema” and participants were asked to evaluate
perceived cuteness when given the original versus the adapted as choices. Thirty-five students
participated in a pre-test with 19 rating pictures of cars and 16 rating pictures of faces on a Likert
7-point scale of cuteness (p.20). For the pre-test, there was a significant difference in ratings of
cuteness between photos that were altered and originals; with those altered as baby faced
perceived as cuter. The main study included data from undergraduate students: 28 car group
participants and 21 face group participants. During the computerized rating, the EMG measured
non-verbal affect by assessing two major facial muscles, the zygomaticus major and the
corrugator supercilii (p.22). The results showed the following: the baby faced car fronts and
faces were perceived as cuter than the original and the EMG showed that facial muscle activity
was greater for both baby faced car fronts and faces when compared to the original. The authors
make the suggestion for designers “…to increase the affective value of products by creating cute
designs which can benefit from the human predisposition to feel attracted by baby-schema cues
(p. 27)”.
In their 2009 study, Ebner, Riediger & Lindenberger sought to show expectations of
gains in childhood and early adulthood and losses in middle age and late adulthood. The authors
also wanted to explore whether older adults “ rely on the schema when remembering ageassociated information (p.311)”. The first experiment consisted of individuals chosen from the
Max Planck Institute for Human Development for a total of 48 participants, 24 younger (20-29
years) and 24 older (71-85 years). Each age group participated in one testing session which
included: signing a consent form, completing the Digit Symbol Substitution Test and a socio-
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demographic questionnaire, and finally rating 160 faces taken from the Productive Aging
Laboratory Face Database in terms of attractiveness, likeability, distinctiveness, goal orientation,
energy, mood and age (p.312). The results showed that both age groups classified faces using a
life-span schema and gave younger faces more growth goals and older faces goals of lossprevention. Both age groups were shown to ascribe to the same/similar schema related to agegoal orientation.
For the second part of the experiment, the goal was to examine both groups to see if there
were differences in how much they rely on life-span schema using two testing sessions per group
which were one week apart. There were 59 young participants (19-31 years) and 60 older
participants (69-79 years); all participants were recruited through newspaper ads. Young and old
participants were again tested in separate sessions which included: signing a consent form,
generating three important personal goals, gaining instructions on how to use the computer
programs, and then testing using the Spot-a-Word and Digit Symbol Substitution Test for the
first session (p.314). The second session included the computer tasks and also a Paired-Associate
Learning task. The researchers found that both young and older participant associated loss
prevention with older adults and growth with younger. Additionally, between the first and
second session, young participants recognized more faces and rejected more faces correctly than
did older participants (p.316). The author’s discuss age related changes and their role in false
memories and/or biases as well as episodic memory deficiencies which can cause decreases in
older adult’s ability to create/ retrieve associations (p.320).
Ein-Dor, Mikulincer & Shaver (2011) researched schema formed during interactions with
unavailable/unresponsive attachment figures. The authors hypothesized that such schema
influences the coping strategies employed by insecure people (p.78). The authors speculated that
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insecure people experience sentinel schema: they remain vigilant to possible threats, react
quickly to unclear situations, alert others to danger, seek to gain support of others and to be in
close proximity of others when a threat is presented. They sought to find results supporting their
hypothesis across six studies (p.79). For the first study, 80 Israeli undergraduates were
participants across two sessions. In the first session, participants completed psychological
assessments including the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) scale which assessed
feelings about close relationships on a 1-7 scale. Participants also completed The Big Five
Inventory about their personality on a scale of 1-5 and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability
Scale as well as a verbal measure using a Scholastic Aptitude Test. In the second session,
participants viewed the photo of a threatening situation (a wolf) and were asked to write a story
about what was happening currently and what they personally thought would happen next (p.82).
The researchers found the results to support their predictions in that those participants that scored
high on the measures of attachment anxiety also were more like to generate stories that were
congruent with the sentinel schema. Avoidant participants were likely to generate stories that
were consistent with what researchers deemed “fight-flight” schema (p.83).
For the second study, 69 Israeli undergraduate students participated across two separate
sessions. The first session consisted of participants taking the ECR. The second part consisted of
being shown a video and told that they would be asked to remember the information presented.
The video differed between randomly chosen participants and for some included answers that
showed a person sensitive to danger while the other participants saw a video where the person
interviewed was calm. Then participants had to identify via computer which sentences appeared
in the video. Again, the findings were aligned with the author’s predictions; attachment was
associated with threat related sentences being chosen and schema-biased memories (p.84). In the
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third study, 57 Israeli undergraduates participated across two sessions. In the first session, they
completed the ECR. The second session was similar to the second study, however, for this study
the video varied and the responses of the person interviewed either showed that she “acts alone
and without hesitation in times of danger” or in the control, that she “cooperates with others and
waits to see what they are doing” (p. 85). The results of this study showed that avoidant
attachment was associated with more false memories and faster information recognition
congruent with fight-flight schema (p. 86).
For the fourth study, there were 84 Israeli undergraduate participants that took part in one
session that included: completing the ECR scale (anytime this test was given during the study the
scores showed high levels of anxiety and avoidance), completing an unrelated personality test,
reading a story about a 23-year old person in unfamiliar territory (the woods) and completing a
memory task. The author’s hypotheses were supported; attachment anxiety led to more
inferences related to sentinel schema. For the fifth session, 72 Israeli undergraduates participated
in one session which included: completion of the ECR scale, completing an unrelated personality
test, reading a story similar to the one presented in the fourth study followed by a memory task.
The results showed that “avoidant attachment was associated with generating more inferences
about the rapid fight-flight schema (p.88)”. The final study focused on whether behavior arose
from the schemas and included 138 Israeli undergraduate participants across two sessions. In the
first session, participants completed two scales and in the second session which was held two
weeks later, they were videotaped with hidden cameras after being given an unrelated
questionnaire to complete unsupervised. When the experimenter left the room, it began to fill
with smoke as though there was a fire. The experiment ended when people left the room or tried
to put out the mock fire; all participants believed it was real. The results for this study showed
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that attachment anxiety was directly linked with quick detection---and ultimately, that the
schema did lead to specific behavior (p.89).
In the final research study that I read concerning schemas, in a three part study Kammrath
(2011) sought to explore the relationship between personality and behavior schema. To do this,
two domains for interpersonal interactions were considered; one being communion domain and
the other agency domain. Communion domain refers to people’s preference in their relationships
concerning warm (examples: kindness and friendliness) and cold (examples: distance in
relationships and intimacy avoidance). Agency domain refers to people’s preference concerning
assertive and unassertive behavior. Kammrath hypothesized that there would be associations
between the domains and behavior schemas. The research was conducted across three studies; in
the first there were 188 undergraduate students and the assessment consisted of an online
background survey followed by two scenarios. One scenario was romantic and the other was
academic however, both were related to decision-making. Imagining themselves as the
protagonist, individuals read the scenarios(the orders varied depending on the participant) and
wrote scripts based around what they felt the protagonist might say to the other person in the
scenario if they were responding in four ways: assertively, submissively, warmly or coldly
(p.756). After writing, participants answered questions related to their expectations about that
response. The results of the first study confirmed the hypothesis that trait (agency) and
communion domains were associated with expectations for trait-relevant behavior (p.758).
For the second study, there were 169 undergraduate students that completed background
questionnaires online and read the same scenarios. However, after reading them participants
were asked to read different ways the protagonist could respond. These were unlabeled but
corresponded to the same four as presented in the prior study. Again, participants were asked to
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relate their expectations about the response but also answered questions that were related how
they would feel if they were the person the protagonist was addressing and indicated how they
would respond. The results of this study also showed that “trait communion moderated the
extremity of people’s behavior schemas for warm and cold behavior and the trait agency
moderated people’s behavior for assertive and submissive behavior (p.762)”. Study three focused
on 78 MBA student’s that were asked to do the following: for six class meetings they were to
work in pairs and provide feedback about the negotiation process, complete online personality
surveys including the Good-Me-Bad-Me Questionnaire to assess the two domains. The results
showed that there were correlations between if-then profiles and behavior schemas (p.766). The
author suggests that rather than asking why people behavior certain ways to first consider
viewing their behavior through a different lens.
After reading the articles, it was clear that schemas have much potential to impact our
daily lives both on a conscious and subconscious level. When making decisions, “snap
judgments or bringing information from long-term memory to working memory, it is important
to understand the role that schemas play and to remember that each person creates their own
views of the world and their surroundings based on personal experience. Though I admittedly
have no experience with the assessments used during research or the tools used for analysis, the
overarching themes have much relevance. By recognizing where I may have flawed or inaccurate
schema and choosing to evaluate my thought processes through various lenses, I can work more
effectively to empathetically understand individual perspectives at work, in social settings and at
home. Additionally, as a consumer, it is important to understand the “science of marketing” to be
an informed consumer.
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References
Deas, S., Power, K., Collin, P., Yellowlees, A., & Grierson, D. (n.d). The Relationship between
Disordered Eating, Perceived Parenting, and Perfectionistic Schemas. Cognitive Therapy
And Research, 35(5), 414-424.
Ebner, N. C., Riediger, M., & Lindenberger, U. (2009). Schema reliance for developmental goals
increases from early to late adulthood: Improvement for the young, loss prevention for
the old. Psychology And Aging, 24(2), 310-323. doi:10.1037/a0015430
Ein-Dor, T., Mikulincer, M., & Shaver, P. R. (2011). Attachment insecurities and the processing
of threat-related information: Studying the schemas involved in insecure people's coping
strategies. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 101(1), 78-93.
doi:10.1037/a0022503
Kammrath, L. K. (2011). What we think we do (to each other): How personality can
bias behavior schemas through the projection of if–then profiles. Journal Of Personality
And Social Psychology, 101(4), 754-770. doi:10.1037/a0023639
Miesler, L., Leder, H., & Herrmann, A. (2011). Isn't It Cute: An Evolutionary Perspective
of Baby-Schema Effects in Visual Product Designs. International Journal Of Design,
5(3), 17-30.