Association Between Facial Affect Recognition and Maladaptive Schema in People With Depressive Symptoms

Objective: Depressed patients harbor maladaptive schemas that distort social reality and impaired facial expression recognition. Thus, this study aims at identifying specific associations among depressive symptoms, early maladaptive schemas, and patterns of for recognizing facially expressed emotions. Methods: 100 subjects diagnosed with depressive symptoms were selected from a larger statistical population on the basis of purposive sampling. The Schema Questionnaire - Short Form, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the facial affect recognition test were administered to the subjects. The binomial regression model was used. Results: Statistical analysis indicated that some early maladaptive schemas and depression exerted significant effects on the recognition of fear and neutral emotions. Depression also led to improved recognition of sadness and anger. Conclusion: We concluded that maladaptive schemas and impairments in emotion recognition are interrelated and both domains are likely to contribute to depressive symptoms. The results are expected to improve our understanding of the social cognitive deficits in depressed patients at the schema and emotion recognition levels.