Schema

Essay by vdog2College, UndergraduateA-, July 2009

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c schema is a mental structure we use to organize and simplify our knowledge. Every person has a schema within themselves and every person's schema is very different from one another (Adler, n.d.). Some people develop more than one schema based on social situations, personal situations, and environmental situations. An example of a person having more than one schema can be shown by discussing how a baby falls down and gets hurt. That child may react to falling down differently based on the people who are around her and witnessed her fall as well as where she is when she falls down. In laymen terms a schema is how a person perceives something. If a person who owns a German Sheppard dog looks at a German Sheppard dog they may feel comfortable and safe because they know the dog is very protective and usually trained well. Another person who may have had a negative experience with dogs in general or a German Sheppard dog might feel very frightened because their schema tells them that this dog is scary and viscous (Armbruster, 1996).

Schemas are used in social environments every minute of every day and everyone uses a schema, most of the time not even knowing it. A great example of the ways in which people use schemas in their social environment is when a person judges another person based on their appearance whether it be their clothes, shoes, style, hair cut, car they drive, etc. One would agree that if a person is dressed in all black clothing with dark eye makeup and black hair, they would be thought of as a gothic person and possibly even depressed. Another schema within a social environment would be when you see a person get out of a brand new BMW in name...