The potency of early maladaptive schemas and personality dimensions in prediction of depression

Early maladaptive schemas are patterns or deep themes، pervasive and inefficient which are formed in childhood or adolescence. They continue in adulthood and they act on the deepest level of cognition in which usually a person is not aware of. The Schemas make people who are prone to depression، anxiety، and dysfunctional interpersonal relationships and psycho-somatic get hurt. The purpose of this study was to determine the ability of personality dimensions and early maladaptive schemas in predicting depression. For this purpose in a descriptive study، correlation type، 384 patients (201 women، 172 men، 11 unknown) were selected based on the available samples from Zanjan and Lorestan University. They were tested regarding the early maladaptive schemas، personality traits and depression. Analysis of the regression indicated that maladaptive schemas are positively correlated with neuroticism factor and they are negatively correlated with four factors of extraversion، openness to experience، agreement and dutifulness. Selective maladaptive schemas were able to explain 27% of the depression variance. Given the current findings it can be said that neurotics is an important factor in formation of the maladaptive schemas.