from the moment that we are born we are given a ton of information our parents speak to us in language that we have no pre-programmed understanding of but eventually we are taught the rules that we eventually follow and we witness memories that soon become subconscious lessons so as we grow up the language becomes a way of communicating with people around us we apply the rules that we have learned to similar situations usually without question and our memories shape the way we perceive the world around us but how does our brain organize all of this information how can we easily find the rules for behaving at a country club and then apply them to how we behave in similar situations for the answer we turn to schema theory now this video is all about schema theory how it helps our mind function and how something called schema shape the way that we see the world the more you know about this thing called a schema the easier it will be to understand your mind and make the best judgments around you so let's start off with what are schema or what is a schema it's not the easiest concept to grasp without using a metaphor so think of your mind as a filing cabinet inside of that filing cabinet is everything that you've ever learned ever experienced or witnessed every piece of information is a schema a schema are a framework that we can use whenever we take in new information and seek to make sense of it so think of a schema as little index cards that represent a concept one index card schema could encompass everything you know about alex trebek another schema could encompass everything you know about oxford commas or how to behave at a restaurant schema help us organize our thoughts and make it easier to pull from them whenever we process new information or memories i'll go into a little bit more about how it works later but right now you just need to know that schema help organize the mind so what about the history of schema theory well schema is an abstract concept so there's not exactly one exact psychologist responsible for creating schema theory or one part of the brain that you can remove that destroys your schema creating ability psychologists like frederick bartlett introduced the concept of abstract frameworks in the mind that organized information but at the time no psychologist really had a name for him the term schema is actually credited to john piaget psja was crucial for developing theories on how the mind works and the process of something called cognitive development he is famous for his work with children and i've actually read some of his work he was obsessed with understanding the child's mind and how it grew i think something that's interesting is that children grow the most whenever we become adults we usually stop growing so if we can understand how that growth process happens we can then apply it later in our adult lives to continue growing just as quickly now psja observed as children develop schema and use them like building blocks what starts out as very simple schema eventually become more complex and begin to explain a longer list of concepts in the world schema are comparable to beginning beliefs you have about life the first time a child attends a birthday party for example they may not really have a solid schema for what happens at a birthday party and through their experience at the party and maybe by listening to their parents explaining what is happening they start to build the schema or the idea or belief about what a birthday party is and the next time they hear about a birthday party or they get an invitation as an adult they'll have more of an abstract idea of what a birthday party is and how they should behave now birthday parties actually fall under the category of something called a script schema or a type of schema that comes with a script other types of script schema include the concept of ordering at a restaurant behaving at a sports game or experiencing a breakup and there's many different types of schema like object schema which is information about things social schema which is information about groups of people person schema which is specific information about a single person role schema which is how to behave it's kind of like you can put on a mask in different situations and trait schema which is information about what one trait means so i think it's important to understand that we as humans are meaning making creatures but our mind wants to make that meaning that purpose without a lot of work and effort that's why the mind pulls from schema they allow us to fill in the blanks and paint a picture of an event or a person we don't exactly have to repaint that picture every time we meet a new person or go to a birthday party it's kind of like autofill but for ideas this saves us time and energy but it can also produce inaccurate judgments now this is both a positive and a negative trait of schema because we've all heard of some version of this riddle see if you can guess it a father and a son were in an accident very sadly the father was killed immediately and the son was brought to the hospital for surgery in the operating room a doctor came in looked at the boy and said i can't operate on him he's my son now i'm gonna give you a few seconds to think about that most people if they've never heard this riddle before they cannot answer it correctly and it goes to show how deep biases are in our brains whenever we process information so have you figured out who the doctor is yet the answer is that the doctor is the boy's mother unfortunately due to your typical picture or a schema of what a doctor or a surgeon is most people do not attribute the title to a woman or a mother the picture of a doctor you have in your mind is actually the schema that you have built for a doctor and for most people the picture of a doctor is a man wearing a white lab coat and a stethoscope that is the picture that we bring to mind whenever we hear the word doctor now this is where schema can become problematic by pulling from past schema we may close ourselves off to information or thoughts that contradict what is in our index card of a concept so in short a schema can actually limit us stereotypes limiting beliefs and old ways may be formed by the schema that we have built in the past so you may be asking hmm can you change your schema because we all know someone who's stuck in their old ways for some people it seems impossible to change the schema they have created for different groups of people how the world works and how to behave well the answer is yes and no it's definitely possible to change the way that you look at someone that you might have judged before as you gain more experience and learn more about the world your schema may start to change and you might start to have a more open mind about the people that you meet and the places that you go but this comes with one caveat you have to be open to change you cannot just read a book and alter the way that you see the world adjusting your thinking and opening your mind is a constant process that requires rewriting the story of the world and trying to unlearn harmful stereotypes and it's definitely not easy challenging set beliefs is notoriously difficult and uncomfortable but it is possible and with the right intention you can actually help yourself create a more accurate and unbiased judgment of the world whenever you receive new information so as a review a schema is like an index card of what you know about something schema theory is how your brain organizes information kind of like a filing cabinet and because of this schemas influence your stereotypes and prejudices lastly you can change your schema but first impressions usually stick around i hope you guys enjoyed this video on schemas and i encourage you to watch all of the other videos in my social psychology series to get a full grasp of how the human brain works in conjunction with other people thank you so much for watching you