Internal Working Model
{"Image DocumentName": "Internal Working Model", "Image ImageDescription": "Attachment relationships create an \u2018Internal working model\u2019 Guides our behaviour in all future relationships. Largely unconscious (memories, expectations) but demonstrated by child through behaviours. Our attachment style is re-enacted in relationships with others \u2013 we \u2018normalise\u2019 our own parental relationship. Internal Working Model. Bowlby (1969) proposed that the organisation of the attachment involves a cognitive component in the shape of \u2018mental representations of the attachment figure, the self and the environment (e.g. the cognitive representations of the attachment). He referred to these representations as the \u2018internal working model\u2019 and suggested that this (unconscious mechanism) was the foundations for all subsequent relationships. Our attachments are formed very early on in our lives and it is those primary attachments which enable us to form subsequent relationships. Children who have warm, satisfying early relationships internalise this experience and use it to regulate their feelings and guide their subsequent behaviours. Internal working models are the cognitive representations of early attachment relationships. It is now widely accepted that these are memories and expectations that children carry into new interactions with others. These models serve as a basis for understanding current and future interactions and help the child evaluate, predict and choose (what they think are) appropriate behaviours. The internal working model affects how the child interprets events, stores information in memory and perceives social situations. These internal models are not consciously available to the child i.e. they don\u2019t know they feel this way about themselves, carers and the world. But they demonstrate this experience through their behaviours. In essence we \u2018normalise\u2019 our own parental relationship into our relationships with others. Activity. Recap. Children\u2019s later relationships with others are significantly influenced by the nature of early attachment patterns with caregivers. References. Dodge, Bates & Petti, Further Reading. Video Clips.", "Image XResolution": "37", "Image YResolution": "37", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Centimeter", "Image Software": "SlidePlayer", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered"}