Disentangling beliefs about emotions from emotion schemas

Objective The current study sought to empirically evaluate a new clinical tool, the Individual Beliefs about Emotion (IBAE) which assesses nine beliefs about emotion. The goal was to examine the overlap of the IBAE with the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS), indices of psychopathology, and emotion dysregulation. Method Participants (n = 513) completed the IBAE, the LESS, and measures of affective distress, borderline personality features, and emotion dysregulation. Results Results indicated that both emotion beliefs (IBAE) and schemas (LESS) were influenced by age and gender. Both measures significantly predicted variance in affective distress, borderline symptoms, and emotion dysregulation, although the LESS was a stronger predictor. Conclusion We conclude that the LESS total score is a particularly useful measure of maladaptive schematic attitudes toward emotion, with additional evidence that the IBAE is a clinical tool that can be useful in psychotherapy to quickly assess a variety of emotion beliefs.