Investigation of the relationship between early maladaptive schemas, temperament and eating attitude in adults

Individuals begin to organize their experiences with an effort to make sense of the world. They try to establish an order within these complex experiences, objects and stimuli. The regulatory framework and patterns that help create this order are called "schemas". Schemas are formed early in life and continue to take shape throughout life [3]. Three main considerations are factors in the maladaptive formation that occurs as a result of the damage to the needs in childhood. These are the thoughts about the future, the world and the self [4 as cited in 5].

Universally, every human being has needs. Giving individuals too much of these needs is just as damaging [3]. Rafaeli et al. [3] summarized these needs as follows: stability, autonomy, acceptance, safety, competition, sense of self, freedom to express one's feelings and needs, realistic boundaries, spontaneousness, and play. When schemas that enable us to cope with situations are misinterpreted, they lose their functionality and can be disorienting, maladaptive schemas affect the progression of experiences and can cause the individual to lose flexibility as they become more rigid over time.

Four main experiences in childhood are an important factor in the formation of early maladaptive schemas. The four main experiences mentioned are as follows: The child's detrimental inhibition of needs, selective internalization and identification with significant others, traumas that make the child feel and/or experience the presence of danger and threat in a painful way, and finally, excessive giving of good things [3]. Young et al. [6] defined rigid beliefs and patterns consisting of bodily senses, memories, emotions and cognitions that develop in childhood or adolescence, take into account the individual's relationships with herself or others, as "Early Maladaptive Schemas".

Young et al. [6] identified 18 schemas: Abandonment/Instability, Mistrust/Abuse, Emotional Deprivation, Defectiveness/Shame, Social Isolation/Alienation, Dependence/Incompetence, Vulnerability to Harm or Illness, Enmeshment/Undeveloped Self, Failure, Entitlement/Grandiosity, Insufficient Self-Control/Self-Discipline, Subjugation, Self-Sacrifice, Approval-Seeking/Recognition-Seeking, Negativity/Pessimism, Emotional Inhibition, Unrelenting Standards/Hypercriticalness, and Punitiveness and 5 domains: Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, Impaired Limits, Other-Directedness, and Overvigilance and Inhibition. Schemas in Disconnection and Rejection domain occur when the person experiences disconnections and long separations in the family environment, has unstable, rejecting, abusive, unaffectionate and easily angered parents [3] and the child's attachment needs are disappointed [7]. Schemas in Impaired Autonomy and Performance domain are found in individuals who are given too much attention by the caregiver early in life and who do not have space to develop their skills, or who are not cared for or given too little attention. Individuals have difficulty in forming their own identities, establishing their own lives and being self-sufficient. Schemas in Impaired Limits domain originate from the behaviors that are too liberal and tolerant [6]. Schemas in Other-Directedness domain are formed in childhood when individual grow up in an environment of conditional love, respect and acceptance. Lastly, schemas in Overvigilance and Inhibition domain arise due to the harsh approach of caregivers [3].

A person’s activity level, compatibility, modes and thoughts having a variable structure and long-term regular biological essence of the personality are defined as “temperament” [8]. In summary, temperament refers to long-term, generally life-long tendencies that symbolize individual. Temperament may be a harbinger of a mental disorder or may be excessive in a way that can be considered statistically abnormal even in the absence of a mental disorder [9].

Kreapelin, who was the first person to deal with the concept of temperament in clinical psychiatry, defined 4 basic emotions as depressive, cyclothymic, hyperthymic and irritable temperament. Kreapelin suggested a relationship between affective temperament and affective pathology [10]. Akiskal and Mallya added the anxious temperament type to Kreapelin's theorem and created the "Affective Temperament Model" [11]. They defined five temperament categories in the affective temperament model. These are: depressive temperament, irritable temperament, hyperthymic temperament, cyclothymic temperament and anxious temperament [11].

Individuals with cyclothymic temperament are characterized by sudden shifts from one stage to the next, each stage having infrequent euthymia that lasts for days. Decreased sleep versus oversleeping; introversion versus extroversion; talkativeness versus silence, excessive playfulness versus inexplicable crying, drowsiness, and somatic discomfort versus hyperactivity; sharp perceptions against atrophy of the senses; sharp perceptions against slowing understanding, self-esteem oscillating between low self-esteem versus overconfidence; anxiety from pessimism versus anxiety from optimism [12].

Individuals with hyperthymic temperament are generally adaptable, over-optimistic, cheerful, extroverted, over-talkative, over-confident, playful, high-energy, irritable, seeking novelty and stimuli. In addition to this, intermittent sub-threshold hypomanic symptoms are seen with intermittent euthymia in the temperament characteristics of individuals. It is common for these individuals to sleep less than 6 h a day and to use denial defense mechanisms [13].

Individuals with a depressive temperament usually have anxious and pessimistic thoughts. These people sleep more than 9 h a day. They tend to have anhedonia and less psychomotor energy in the morning hours with this they are introverted, incapable and unsuccessful, overly anxious, complaining, often having critical attitudes towards themselves and blaming, and low libido. These individuals are also calm, reliable and self-disciplined characters [9].

Individuals with an irritable temperament are prone to brooding, irritable and rarely euthymic, often characterized by pessimism. These people often have features such as restlessness, expressiveness of intense emotions, sarcasm, dominant, dysphoria, impulsivity and a critical attitude towards others [14].

Individuals with an anxious temperament have worries about daily routines, feelings of insecurity, and premonitions about misfortune. They are usually in a state of alertness and have difficulty in relaxing. Anxious temperament is divided into 3 types as anxious-avoidant, anxious-phobic, anxious-sensitive temperament [9].

Nourishment is a very important need for human existence. “Eating” is an innate human impulse and an indispensable need [15]. Eating, on the other hand, is one of the behaviors that should be experienced by people to continue their lives and that gives people pleasure. Eating begins with birth and is a behavior that interacts with different variables throughout life. Attitudes are part of an individual's feelings, thoughts and psychological behaviors [16] and are the tendency of the individual to constantly react to the situations around him in a similar way [17]. Therefore, eating attitudes are the tendencies that are effective in the formation of similar thoughts, behaviors and feelings that a person shows towards nutrition and eating [16]. Disruption of this tendency towards nutrition and eating can lead to deterioration of eating attitudes. Familial factors, biological-psychological predisposition, interaction of negative social conditions [18], childhood traumas [19], body image, genetic and biological factors [20] are accepted as risk factors in the development of these deteriorated eating attitudes.

The increase in eating disorders in recent years has led to an increase in research and discussions on eating attitudes. However, studies have shown that changes and deterioration in eating behavior can have many causes. Various studies have shown that temperament and early maladaptive schemas may contribute to deterioration in eating attitudes. It is thought that affective temperament also plays an important role in the development and maintenance of eating disorders.

This study aims to examine eating attitudes in the light of Akiskal's affective temperament model and Young's concepts of early maladaptive schemas and to understand the relationship between these three concepts. Some of the studies show that the reason for the deterioration in eating behavior and attitude of people can be developed as a coping strategy with early maladaptive schemas [21]. Therefore, examining the relationship between increasing eating disorders and early maladaptive schemas will contribute to the literature and enable more effective use of schemas in the treatment of eating disorders. In addition, it is thought that determining the mediating factors of the relationship between early maladaptive schemas, temperament and eating attitudes will provide prevention, understanding of the causes of eating disorders and early intervention.

留言 (0)

沒有登入
gif