A Validation Study Regarding Aaron Beck\u27s Hypothesis That Acceptance, Competence, and Control Schemas Function as Core Issues in Social Information Processing

Aaron Beck (Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1985) has proposed that Acceptance, Competence, and Control schemata function as core-issues in mental/emotional disorders. Using Derry and Kuiper\u27s (1981) criterion for the schematic processing of information (the speed at which self-referent personality judgments are made), the study sought to determine whether individuals processed social information related to self concerning acceptance, competence, and control issues schematically. The SPACK Battery (Piper, 1987), which obtains measures of an individual\u27s schema strength for Acceptance, Competence, and Control and records the response delay on each item, was administered by computer to 151 Fort Hays State University undergraduates. The correlations between schema strength and response delay on the related items indicated that Acceptance and Competence issues (but not Control issues) were processed schematically in conformity with Beck\u27s hypothesis. The Revised SPACK Inventory, a subtest of the SPACK Battery consisting of items giving a significant score/response delay correlation, produced a score/response delay correlation of -.179 on the Acceptance schema, -.159 on the Competence schema, and no significant correlation on the Control schema