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The term self-schema refers to the beliefs and ideas people have about themselves. These beliefs are used to guide and organize information processing, especially when the information is significant to the self. Self-schemas are important to a person's overall self-concept.

Once we have developed a schema about ourselves there is a strong tendency for that schema to be maintained by a bias in what we attend to, a bias in what we remember, and a bias in what we are prepared to accept as true about ourselves. In other words our self-schema becomes self-perpetuating. The self-schema is then stored in long-term memory and both facilitates and biases the processing of personally relevant information.

Self-schemas vary from person to person because each individual has very different social and cultural life experiences. A few examples of self-schemas are; exciting/ dull, quiet/ loud, healthy/ sickly, athletic/ nonathletic, lazy/ active, and geek/ jock. If a person has a schema for geek/ jock, for example, he might think of himself as a bit of a computer geek and so he would possess a lot of information about that trait. Because of this he would probably interpret a lot of situations based on their relevance to being a geek.

For another example consider the healthy/ sickly schema. A person with this schema might consider herself a very health conscious person. Her concern with being healthy would then affect every day decisions like what to buy at the grocery store, what restaurant to eat out at, or how much exercise she should get daily. Women who are schematic on appearance exhibited lower body image, lower self-esteem, and more negative mood than did those who are aschematic on appearance.

Multiple Self-Schema

While every schema varies from cultural backgrounds, etc., there are different ways of defining the schemas themselves. First, there is Schematic, which means having a particular schema for a particular dimension. For instance, you could play in a rock band at night, and there you would have your "rocker" schema. However, during the day, you work as a tire salesman, so you have your "tire salesman" schema on during that period of time.

Another good example of this are super heroes, such as the ones in comic books. People like Superman, Spider-Man, The Hulk, etc., all have their schema for when they are just doing their normal job during the day. However, when duty calls, they adorn their superhero schema.

Second, there is Aschematic, which is not having a schema for a particular dimension. This usually occurs when we are not involved with or concerned about a certain attribute. For instance, some of us will never be tire salesmen, so some of us will never have to worry about it. This also includes schoolwork to a particular level. If you plan on being a musician, then having a schema in aeronautics will not attribute to you.

Since it has been defined that most people have multiple schemas does this mean that we all have multiple personalities as well? The answer is no. At least not in the pathological sense. Indeed, for the most part, multiple self-schemas are extremely useful to us in our daily lives. Without our conscious awareness, they help us make rapid decisions and to behave efficiently and appropriately in different situations and with different people. They guide what we attend to, and how we interpret and use incoming information and they activate specific cognitive, verbal, and behavioral action sequences -- which in cognitive psychology are called scripts and action plans -- that help us meet our goals more efficiently.

See also

• Identity
• Self-perception theory

References

1. Wilderdom, (2003 Oct 21). Role of schemas in personality. Retrieved March 4, 2009, from Wilderdom - a project in natural living & transformation Web site: http://wilderdom.com/personality/L11-1RoleOfSchemasInPersonality.html 2. Kristin Valentino, Dante Cicchetti, Fred A Rogosch, Sheree L Toth. (2008). True and false recall and dissociation among maltreated children: The role of self-schema. Development and Psychopathology, 20(1), 213-32. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1601417001). 3. Jahee, J, & Lennon, S.J. (2003). Body Image, Appearance Self-Schema, and Media Images. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 32, Retrieved March 3, 2009, from http://fcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/1/27. 4. Cervone, D., & Pervin, L. (2008) Personality Theory and Research. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 5. Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. (2008). Social Psychology Seventh Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 6. Bartoli, Angela (2008, Jan. 14). Self schema. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from Angela M. Bartolli, Psychology Web site: http://webspace.ship.edu/ambart/PSY_220/selfschemaol.htm 7. 3-S, (2003). What is a self-schema?. Retrieved March 3, 2009, from The Spiritual Self-Schema Development Program Web site: http://info.med.yale.edu/psych/3s/self_schema.html

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