The Nature of Early Maladaptive Schemas in the Non-Clinical Orthodox Jewish Population

A sizable body of research suggests that schemas are an important component of personality development and personality disorders. The presence of high levels of early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) has been correlated with personality disorders as well as other psychiatric disorders. EMSs are thought to be the result of an abusive or otherwise difficult childhood; however this understanding of the etiology of EMSs may minimize the importance of race, culture, religion, gender and ethnicity on the formation, understanding and assessment of early maladaptive schemas, personality and personality disorders. This study examined the nature of early maladaptive schemas in one cultural group, the Orthodox Jewish population. Schema theory and theories about culture and personality provided the theoretical framework for this study. Based on the idea that culture is a factor for shaping personality, it was predicted that particular cultural aspects of Orthodox Jews would be reflected in the EMS profile of this population. Participants completed a ninety-item Likert type instrument, which included eighteen subscales of measures of early maladaptive schemas, as well as a demographic questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t tests, ANOVAs and a correlation analysis showed that the nature of EMSs in a non-clinical sample of Orthodox Jews did not have the predicted culture related nature. However, gender and age differences were found in several EMS. The findings suggest that a low to moderately low presence of the eighteen early maladaptive schemas may be universal in non clinical populations, but that gender and age may play a role in their presentation and that norms may vary to some degree, however it is unclear how significant are such differences. Further research is needed with clinical and non-clinical culturally and ethnically diverse populations to examine if there is an impact of culture on EMS presentation.