Young Schema Questionnaire.

Here’s a tool you might like to try for starting to understand yourself a bit better.

Its a 205 item psychological questionnaire called the Young Schema Questionnaire. You’ll need to print it! Here’s the link to view it online, but read the info below first.

Young Schema Questionnaire Online Version

Its best that you complete the test at this point and then read the rest of these instructions. If you’re unsure what number to circle for a particular item on the questionnaire, in general pick the higher number you’re thinking about. Its better to pick up potential issues than miss potential issues.

After you’ve completed it

You’ll notice that the items are grouped together with similarly themed items. There is a * + 2-letter code at the bottom of each group that shows where one group of items stops and the next one starts.

Complete the whole questionnaire first, and then look particularly for any group where you have three or more scores of a 5 or a 6 within the same group. Alternatively you could look for any group where you have three or more scores of a 4 or above.

The 2-letter codes relate to what psychologists call a “schema.”

You can see the schema names/very brief descriptions that correspond to the letter codes on this page*. (Print this too)

Where you had 3 or more scores above a 4/5, circle that schema description on the page above.

These MIGHT be important schema for you. A psychologist can help you understand how particular schema might relate to your current problems and help you address the issues involved.

This is not a perfect tool. For a start, there is a newer version of this test but this is the version the authors make available free. Also, its intended to be used by psychologists who use it in combination with a lot of other information, and have advanced skills/knowledge for interpreting the questionnaire. Nevertheless, I think it could be extremely useful for some people so I’m posting the information.

You’ll see that additional information is available on the Schema Therapy website, and there is a self help book

* If you notice that a schema included on the questionnaire is not on the schema list (or vice versa) its because the psychological model underlying schema therapy has evolved over time, and some of the material that’s available about the model relates to different evolutions of the model. IMO, its still worth taking the time to complete the questionnaire.