A Comparative Examination of Maladaptive Schemas in Sex Addicts and Normal Individuals

Objective: Sexual addiction is a psychiatric disorder with unpleasant personal, inter-personal, legal, social, and physical outcomes for the patients. The cycle of this disorder is based on a false belief system known as early maladaptive schemas. This study aimed to examine and compare maladaptive cognitive schemas in sex addicts and normal people. Methods: In the present study, a causal-comparative research method was undertaken. A total of 30 male sex addicts were selected using a snowball sampling method from the population of sex addicts in Tehran, Iran. Also, 30 normal men form the general population were selected as the control group. Control participants were matched with the patients with regard to demographic characteristics. Participants first completed the sexual addiction screening test-revised form and then the Young schema questionnaire (YSQ). The data were analyzed using the multivariate analysis of variance and stepwise discriminant analysis. All analyses were conducted using SPSS. Results: The results indicated that sex addicts scored on the YSQ significantly higher than participants in the control group (P<0.001). Discriminant analysis revealed that 5 schemas, including dependency, mistrust, subjugation, vulnerability, and emotional deprivation were the best predictors of being a member of sexual addiction or non-sexual addiction groups (P<0.001). Conclusion: Sex addicts have more and stronger early maladaptive schemas than normal people, so they can be distinguished from normal people according to the schemas of dependency, mistrust, subjugation, vulnerability, and emotional deprivation.