Study the Relationship Among Early Maladaptive Schemas, Alexithymia and Ego Defensive Styles of Students at Azad and Payame Noor Universities in Shahindej

Ego-defense mechanisms are automated ordering processes to reduce cognitive abnormal and contort perceptions of threatening events. Defense mechanisms are divided into different groups in terms of their relationship with psychosocial maturity. In the psychoanalytic system, each mental disturbance is related to certain incompatible defensive mechanisms. Early maladaptive schemas are emotional and cognitive patterns which are formed since childhood and duplicated across life. Alexithymia is the inability to cognitively process emotional information and emotion regulation. Individuals with alexithymia overexpress normal body massages, misinterpret symptoms of emotional arousal, and show emotional distress through physical complaints. Therefore, alexithymia is a multifaceted structure. To  examined the relationship among early maladaptive schemas, alexithymia and ego-defensive styles of students in two universities of Iran. This correlational study was conducted on students of Azad and Payame Noor universities in Shahindej City, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran in 2017. The study population included all students of Azad and Payame Noor universities in this city. Of them, a total of 306 students were chosen by the multi-stage cluster sampling method. Three questionnaires were used for data collection. These questionnaires were the early maladaptive schemas questionnaire, ego-defensive styles questionnaire, and alexithymia questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS V. 20. There is an inverse relationship between early maladaptive schemas and ego-defensive styles (0.023). There is an inverse relationship between early maladaptive schemas and alexithymia (0.016). Alexithymia of male and female students was different (0.000). But the early maladaptive schemas and the ego defense styles are the same (0.404). Early maladaptive schemas and the defensive styles of university students are different. But the alexithymia was the same (0.753). Our findings indicate that early maladaptive schemas can act as the foundation of emotional and behavioral tendencies and defensive styles in students.