THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY IN SHAPING PERSONALITY AND SCHEMA DEVELOPMENT: A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study examines the role of community in shaping personality traits and cognitive schema development among young adults in India, adopting a social-cognitive theoretical perspective. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, Young’s Early Maladaptive Schema Framework, and the Five Factor Model of Personality, the study proposes that community attachment and social support function as primary environmental mechanisms through which both personality and schema are formed, reinforced, and sustained across the lifespan. A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed on a sample of 100 participants (50 males, 50 females) aged 18–25 years from urban and semi-urban communities in India. Participants completed three self-report questionnaires: the Big Five Personality Inventory (BFI), the Young Schema Questionnaire–Short Form (YSQ-S2), and the Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ). Findings revealed significant positive correlations between community attachment, social support, positive schema development, and agreeableness. Positive schemas significantly mediated the relationship between community attachment and agreeableness, providing empirical support for a community-schema-personality pathway. Semi-urban participants exhibited higher positive schema scores and lower maladaptive schema scores compared to urban participants. Female participants scored significantly higher on agreeableness than males. This study offers valuable insight into the psychological and cognitive influence of community on individual development and highlights the need for an integrated, social-cognitive framework in understanding personality and schema formation.