The influence of early
attachment
,The role of internal working model
● Bowlby
● IWM is similar to a schema
● Infant learns about a relationship from experience:
- Infant learns what relationships are AND how partners in a relationship
behave towards each other
● An ‘operable’ model of self and attachment partner, based on their joint
attachment history (Bretherton and Mulholland, 1999)
- Operable = used to predict behaviour of OTHER people in future
,The role of internal working model
● Bowlby explained early attachment using the internal working model,
suggesting that an infant's first attachment figure provides a template for
understanding future relationships e.g.
- 'I am worthy of love'
- 'I am unworthy of love'
- 'I am seeking a romantic partner who will appreciate me in the way that my
parent(s) appreciated me'
, The role of internal working model
● An infant whose first experience of a relationship is loving and nurturing will
likely form healthy attachment relationships later on in life as this is their
assumption of relationships and attachment
- They are likely to show secure attachment behaviours
attachment
,The role of internal working model
● Bowlby
● IWM is similar to a schema
● Infant learns about a relationship from experience:
- Infant learns what relationships are AND how partners in a relationship
behave towards each other
● An ‘operable’ model of self and attachment partner, based on their joint
attachment history (Bretherton and Mulholland, 1999)
- Operable = used to predict behaviour of OTHER people in future
,The role of internal working model
● Bowlby explained early attachment using the internal working model,
suggesting that an infant's first attachment figure provides a template for
understanding future relationships e.g.
- 'I am worthy of love'
- 'I am unworthy of love'
- 'I am seeking a romantic partner who will appreciate me in the way that my
parent(s) appreciated me'
, The role of internal working model
● An infant whose first experience of a relationship is loving and nurturing will
likely form healthy attachment relationships later on in life as this is their
assumption of relationships and attachment
- They are likely to show secure attachment behaviours
