Are early maladaptive schemas, temperament and character dimensions correlated?

Objective: Aim of the study is to examine the relationships between early maladaptive schemas and the character and temperament aspects of personality, which are known as two approaches to the understanding of personality structure. Methods: We conducted the study using the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Form (YSQ-SF) and the Cloninger’s Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) in 122 university students from different schools. Results and Conclusion: Results demonstrated that there are high level of positive as well as negative correlations between most of TCI items and some of the sub-scales of the YSQ, including vulnerability, social isolation and defectiveness. In consistent with the Halvorsen et al.’s findings, our study demonstrated that harm avoidance had a positive relationship with several EMSs, including emotional deprivation, deficiency, dependence, failure, subjugation and self-sacrifice. More importantly, we obtained the results consistent with theirs regarding the negative correlations between self-directedness and almost all of EMSs, with the exception of the schema of subjugation. We concluded that although some of the personality characteristics contained in the YSQ and the TCI are appeared to be related to each other, we need more studies to support the Young et al.’s suggestion that early maladaptive schemas (EMSs) are likely to reflect underlying characterological factors of personality.