EXAMPLE:

• A young child may first develop a schema fro a

cat. She knows that a cat is cute, has hair, four
legs and a tail. When the little girl encounters a
puppy for the first time, she initially call it a cat.
After all, it fits in with her schema for the
characteristics of a cat; it is a cute animal that
has hair, four legs and a tail. Once she is told that
this is a different animal called a puppy, she will
modify her existing schema for a cat and create a
new schema for a puppy
In our generation today where we have lots of
choices and information, I have a question for you
• How do we make sense of the flood of information that surrounds
us? How do we categorize that information and use it in social
situations?
• Do we really know who we really are?
• Early developments of the idea in psychology
emerged with the gestalt psychologists and Jean
Piaget: the term “schema” was introduced by
Piaget in 1926.
• Schemas refers to a mental framework that
allows you to make sense of aspects of your
environment in an automatic manner without
effortful thought
4 Types of Schemas
• Role Schemas are about proper behaviors in given
situation. Expectations about people in particular roles
and social categories (e.g., the role of a social
psychologist, student, doctor, teachers, janitors, Blacks)

• Self Schemas are about oneself. We also hold idealized or

projected selves or possible selves. Expectations about
the self that organize and guide the processing of self –
relevant information (e.g. If we think were reliable we’ll
try to always live up to that image. If we think we are
sociable we are more likely to seek the company of
others)
• Person Schemas: it’s about individual people.
Expectations based on personality traits. What we
associate with a certain type of person(e.g. introvert,
warm person, outstanding leader, famous foot baller)

• Event Schemas: are also known as Scripts. Are about

what happens in specific situations. Expectations about
sequences of events in social situations. What we
associate with certain situations (e.g., restaurant
schemas, demonstration, first dating)
There are also:
• Social Schemas are about general social knowledge
• Idealized person schemas are called prototypes
• The word is also used for any generalized schema
• Trait schemas about the innate characteristics people
have
• Object schemas about inanimate things and how they
work
Why are schemas important to us?
• They reduce the amount of information to
process
• They reduce ambiguity (something that does not
have a single clear meaning)
• They guide our:
• Attention and Encoding
• How quick we notice
• How we interpret what we notice
• Our memory
• Our Judgments