Pronunciation: SKEE'-muh
Definition: A schema is a package of information that is used to make sense of experiences, events, and information; and guide responses. For the technology-minded, a schema is like a macro or a mini-program that is invoked by a situation to help us deal with that situation. All schemas are learned.
We begin learning schemas during infancy, and they get progressively more complex as we age. For example, we learn that if we throw our spoon of food on the floor, it makes a great splat, the dog runs over and mommy or daddy pays attention to us. (Now you know why that's so much fun for little kids. They're still developing If...then... schemas.)
Later, we learn schemas for how to behave in a restaurant, how to drive on the highway, how to behave when we're angry, and so on. If you've ever had to drive in a strange city and had trouble merging, finding the traffic lights, or understanding how the roads are organized, you've felt yourself struggling to use a schema that's not working. Fortunately, we can assimilate new information into old schemas by expanding them, or accomdate new information by creating new schemas.
Schemas are also responsible for prejudices and automatic behaviors. They help us make sense of the world by categorizing things; unfortunately, that can keep us from getting to know individuals because all we see is the category.
This isn't a word you hear bandied about a lot outside of explanations of development and social psychology, but you will hear it from time to time. Some possible examples for your fiction:
Example: Since you have trouble expressing anger, we're going to practice here in the office. It will help you develop a new schema, or approach to anger.
Example: I hate those creativity "tests," because it's so much easier to just use old schemas that work than to try to come up with something new and "creative." (This is, by the way, why "creativity exercises" are difficult -- we automatically try to apply old schemas to the situation.)
Example: He's color blind, so when the traffic lights are sideways instead of vertical, he has no schema to tell him which light is "go" and which is "stop!"