Negative Cognitive Schemata, Low Self-Esteem and Anxiety:A Theoretical View

Cognition plays a critical role in the occurrence of neurotic disorders and affects individual self-esteem (Salama,1989). Individuals' beliefs about themselves, other people and the world are formed during childhood. One of the deepest beliefs are core beliefs which are basic, fixed and mostly generalized concepts viewed by the individual as absolute fact. Moreover, core beliefs affect the intermediate layer consisting of hypothesis, attitudes and rules thus affecting individuals' view of the situation which in turn affects their way of thinking, feelings and behaviors (Beck & Beck, 2007). Accordingly, these cognitive levels are the cognitive structure by which individuals interpret the coming information and perceive and appraise situations. Therefore, they affect individuals' self-esteem as self esteem includes both positive and negative attitudes toward the self as an assessment for the self based on the individuals' attitudes and beliefs. Accordingly, if the individuals have negative cognitive structure (beliefs and attitudes), they will have low self-esteem and become more vulnerable to neurotic disorders such as anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder characterized with cognitive structures representing negative subjects towards the self. (Basha & Abd El-Satar, 2015) This research aims to clarify the theoretical relationship between negative cognitive schemata, self-esteem and some neurotic disorders ( e.g., anxiety).