Schemas are cognitive structures that organise knowledge stored in our memory. They are mental representations of categories (from our knowledge, beliefs and expectations) about particular aspects of the world such as people, objects, events, and situations.
Knowledge that is stored in our memory is organized as a set of schemas (or knowledge structures), which represent the general knowledge about the world, people, events, objects, actions and situations that has been acquired from past experiences.
Types of schemas: SCRIPTS: schemas which provide information about the sequence of events that occur in a more or less unchanging order in particular contexts such as going to a restaurant, visiting the dentist, or attending a class. Order we do things based on previous experience. SELF SCHEMAS: organise information we have about ourselves; for example, information stored in our memory about our strengths and weaknesses and how we feel about them. Set of knowledge and ideas about how we view ourselves. SOCIAL SCHEMAS: (e.g. stereotypes) represent information about groups of people; for example, Americans, Egyptians, women, accountants, etc. set of believes relating to groups of people.
Schema Theory - Bartlett
mental representation of knowledge created over time from previous experiences
suggest schemas help us to organise information make predictions of the world
EVALUATION: STRENGTHS
It is supported by lots of research
insightful information to how people categorise information
Has etic qualities; all humans have schema. But also emic as schemas are culturally dependant.
No ethical issues
Uncovers memory distortion
WEAKNESSES
It is not supported by all research
Out of date
Schema theory does not show how schemas are aquired. It is not clear which develops first, the schema to interpret the experiences or vice versa.
Schema theory explains how new information is categorised according to existing knowledge, but it does not account for completely new information that cannot link with existing knowledge. Therefore, it does not explain how new information is organised in early life e.g. language acquisition.
Only focuses on nurture. It ignores natures which is reductionist.
It is deterministic though can be overridden by strong conscious freewill.