Role: Visual Designer
Industry: Mental Health / Social / Psychology

Schematic: A Visualization of Maladaptive Schemas is a project created for raising awareness of the concept, 'schema'. The necessity of this research lied within the fact that there are countless number of people that remain uninterested in self-knowledge. As a popular psychology magazine PsychologyToday (est. 1967) states,

“self-knowledge is practically impossible to attain … but you can achieve greater objectivity and insight by tuning into a few tested principles”.

The topic has always hung around me since my interest in philosophy in sophomore year, and popped back up during my thesis research.

Among the sub categories of schema, maladaptive schema stood out to me the most; a study that focuses on how negative early childhood experiences can shape important beliefs and feelings about oneself in adulthood. There are 18 established categories of maladaptive schema:

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01. ABANDONMENT / INSTABILITY
02. MISTRUST / ABUSE
03. EMOTIONAL DEPRIVATION
04. DEFECTIVENESS / SHAME
05. SOCIAL ISOLATION / ALIENATION
06. DEPENDENCE / INCOMPETENCE
07. VULNERABILITY TO HARM OR ILLNESS
08. ENMESHMENT / UNDEVELOPED SELF
09. FAILURE TO ACHIEVE
10. ENTITLEMENT / GRANDIOSITY
11. INSUFFICIENT SELF-CONTROL / SELF-DISCIPLINE
12. SUBJUGATION
13. SELF-SACRIFICE
14. APPROVAL-SEEKING / RECOGNITION-SEEKING
15. NEGATIVITY / PESSIMISM
16. EMOTIONAL INHIBITON
17. UNRELENTING STANDARDS / HYPERCRITICALNESS
18. PUNITIVENESS

These 18 categories were illustrated as an informative website and 24 " x 30 " coloured posters.

"In psychology, Schema describes a pattern of thought or behaviour that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them".

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Logo:

The abstract group of lines in the centre define the complexity of an individual and visually show how multiple personas (circles) and experiences build up to the whole individuality. The typographic masks and symmetrical icons further depict uniqueness.

Initial Research and Visual Exploration:

Promotional Posters:

Due to the lack of exposure in the general public, I intentionally depicted the promotional posters in an eye catching colour and less type. These posters were printed at 24 by 30 inches and the type on the sides were sized at 12px. I was able to post them around our program building and began presenting these concepts to the alumni over the course of few months.

Informational Posters:

Website:

Reflection

This was a very rewarding project to work on, as I have always had my interest in psychology & sociology, and was given the opportunity to research and learn new concepts while applying the learnings to my own life. One of the things I learned was how productive working with a timeline was. This was a 24 week project, 12 weeks for research and rest for deploying the design.
If you have any questions about this project, you can read more about it on my tumblr process blog, or email me for detailed reply! I would love to talk about psychology in self development, especially after learning from this year-long project.