We can also define the concept of “schema” as our basic mental structures. They are in our minds and are formed by acquiring information through our experiences. When a human being is born, the information about himself, his environment, the world he lives in, time and existence has not yet been formed in his mind. He does not have any knowledge or belief. In other words, the human mind is inherently similar to "Tabula rasa", that is, a blank slate, a concept introduced by John Locke. Our mind is naturally like a blank slate. As the day goes by and we encounter various experiences, this blank slate begins to take shape, differentiate and fill. From the moment of birth, humans act with their basic instinct, the "instinct to live", and try to survive and continue their generation. There is one very important thing that needs to be done during this process, and that is to "obtain information". People are born almost hungry for knowledge. Because the most important thing he needs to do to survive and continue his life is to acquire knowledge. Man acquires this knowledge through his basic experiences, using his sense organs and brain. Perceiving oneself, one's environment, and the world is the most important need for human survival. Therefore, human beings are born with the potential to acquire knowledge. How to use this potential; In other words, what kind of beliefs and attitudes he will develop about himself, other people and the world are directly related to his basic experiences. In fact, it would be more accurate to say that this process of acquiring knowledge begins in the womb. Because while there, various experiences began to be gained through the sense organs. The experiences we gain as a result of our experiences enable us to create our mental structures, that is, our schemas. Schemas can be developed for anything. Therefore, they are too numerous to be determined by numbers. Mother schema, father schema, food schema, inedible schema, hard schema, soft schema, toy schema, pencil schema, human schema, car schema, chair schema, teacher schema, friend schema, thin schema, fat schema, successful schema, unsuccessful schema , smart scheme, active scheme, clumsy scheme, beautiful scheme, ugly scheme, sweet scheme, sour scheme, rich scheme, money scheme, profession scheme. chart, love chart, marriage chart, etc. These developed schemas then guide us in understanding and interpreting the situations we encounter. Schemes basically make our lives easier; It has functions such as saving us from uncertainty and saving us from the trouble of learning everything from scratch in every situation. A person who develops an edible schema will later realize that he can eat every edible thing he encounters, and will not think long about it. Thanks to the scheme, he/she will understand that laughing can be an expression of happiness and crying can be an expression of sadness, will be able to interpret the meanings of emotional expressions and thus develop social relationships. The mother or father schema can determine what kind of mother or father a person will be. Over time, schemas become rigid, unchangeable, unconditionally accepted evaluations and become internalized. Thanks to these features, schemas become increasingly stronger and difficult to change. Schemas function as filters through which we evaluate the information coming to us. We evaluate events and situations according to the schemes we have and make our decisions according to the schemes. However, the schemes we develop may not always make us happy or work for us; That is, we can also develop negative and maladaptive schemas. A student who develops a failure schema about himself may consider himself a failure even if he gets 90 out of 100 on the exam. Or someone who sees himself as fat may not be able to perceive his body realistically, no matter how much weight he loses. A person who sees himself as worthless may not change his perception of worthlessness no matter how much he is valued. For this reason, it is necessary to know the formation process of schemas and how they are formed, and to recognize our useful schemas and incompatible schemas. Things may go wrong in our lives because of these negative schemas we have created in some ways. Therefore, if something is not going well in our lives, for example, if we cannot lose weight, if we feel inadequate in our relationships, if we think that we are not valued and constantly question this, if we have concerns about separation or abandonment, if we are not successful, etc. We should stop and think first. Do we have positive/negative schemes regarding this issue? It's all alone to think and find Since it is a somewhat difficult subject, we should definitely get support from an expert if necessary, so that we can replace the negative schemes that do not work and hinder us with positive schemes that work and enable us to develop.
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