Cognitive Distortions and Early Dysfunctional Schemas in Honduran University Psychology Students

Abstract

The objective of the study was to determine the relationship between cognitive distortions and early dysfunctional schemes in Honduran university students of Psychology. A quantitative approach was used, with a descriptive – correlational scope and a non-experimental cross-sectional correlational design. The sample was made up of 323 psychology students from two universities in San Pedro Sula, to whom the Inventory of Automatic Thoughts and the Young Schema Questionnaire Long Form – Second Edition were applied. The results indicate that the most important cognitive distortion of the participants is the fallacy of divine reward due to the way they interpret the facts of their lives. The most representative early dysfunctional schemes are emotional inhibition and self-sacrifice. In addition, most of the evidence shows significant correlations between the different cognitive distortions and the early dysfunctional schemes. Of those correlations, the strongest ones were between filtering/abandonment and personalization/abandonment.