In their work they have integrated their complementary cognitive and experiential treatment approaches with
social learning and developmental psychology
theory to develop a group treatment model for
Schema Therapy (ST).
[10] Common to
social cognition
theories is the idea that information is represented in the brain as «cognitive elements» such as
schemas, attributions, or stereotypes.
In fact, Bowlby always underlined the primary role of beliefs and cognitive
schemata in orienting attachment behaviors and expectations, but it is only after the reconceptualization of attachment
theory in representational terms that
social cognitive models and methods have effectively been implemented in this field (Bartholomew and Horowitz, 1991; Brennan et al., 1998; Brennan and Shaver, 2002; Mikulincer et al., 2005; Shaver and Mikulincer, 2013).