Narrative Indicators of Adolescents’ Maladaptive Cognitive Schemas

Abstract

Introduction. The article presents the results of a study of adolescents` personal narratives. The general aim of the study was to identify narrative indicators of adolescents’ maladaptive cognitive schemas. This aim was achieved by virtue of realization of such tasks as: to identify the specific text categories (indicators) that indicate the maladaptive schemas and to determine the predictive power of each category (indicator). In the course of theoretical analysis, there were systematized the approaches to the understanding of personal narratives and “self-texts”. There also was generalized the concept of maladaptive cognitive schemas, and were defined textual categories which can be reflected in the narratives of people who have certain maladaptive schemas.
 Methods. The methods of the empirical study were Dusseldorf Illustrated Schema Questionnaire for Children and the content-analysis of personal narratives. Statistical processing of the obtained data and determination of the predictive power of each narrative category were performed with the help of the method of recursive division trees.
 Results. As a result of the empirical study was it was found that certain categories in the personal narratives of adolescents allow us to predict the manifestation of individual maladaptive schemas. There were identified narrative indicators, able to predict fourteen of the eighteen schemas. It was determined that the knowledge of narrative indicators of maladaptive cognitive schemas can be used within the psychological counseling and therapy at the stage of gathering primary information, as well as in the context of purposeful psychological impact.
 Conclusions. There were described the topical prospects for further scientific development of the problem, which were to expand the categorical structure of content analysis, which would allow to find indicators of four schemas that remain unclear, as well as to widen the age range of respondents and to test the hypothesis about the existence of a link between the personal narratives of adults and their maladaptive schemas. There was made an assumption that modification of a personal narrative can accelerate therapeutic work aimed at eliminating the negative impact of maladaptive schemas on a person's life.