Infants' reactions to unfamiliar adults varying in novelty.

Two Methods of Studying Stranger Reactivity in Infants: A Review

“…In either of the two stranger-encounter conditions that have been distinguished, gaze aversion and the use of looking, then looking away, the turning for another look are means by which infants may control their affective reactions so as not to be overwhelmed by them, Bronson (1972) as well as Eckerman and Whatley (1975) have discussed such behaviors as possible composure maintaining devices that keep the infant from falling into extreme affect states. Such an interpretation would parallel interpretations made by Stechler and Latz (1966) and Stern (1974b) in their observations of peek-a-boo activity in younger inf"ants.…”

“…Moreover, in contrast with Stranger-Controlled studies, Infant-Controlled studies have generally permitted infants unhindered physical access to their mothers as well as substantial space for acquainting themselves with the stranger. For example, in studies by Rheingold and Eckerman (1963;Eckerman and Rheingold, 1974;Eckerman and Whatley, 1975) strangers sat either at a table across from the infant or on the floor some six or seven feet away, sometimes engaging the infant gradually and unobtrusively, other times sitting silendy. In a slighdy different Infant-Controlled situation, Corter (1973) set his infant subjects some 20 feet away from both their mothers as well as the stranger (each of whom then remained stationary).…”

“…Considering together the data of Infant-Controlled studies it seems that in the presence of unfamiliar adults who for a brief period of time maintain their distance 8-and/or 12-month-old infants: ' (1) Frequendy display positive and curious behaviors toward the stranger (including some smiling as well as active visual exploration of the stranger) and occasionally approach the stranger spontaneously, rarely making physical contact however (Corter 1973;Eckerman and Rheingold, 1974;Eckerman andWhatley 1975-Harmon etal, 1977;Ross, 1975;Ross and Goldman, 1977);…”

“…Along with others, Rheingold has noted that complex conceptual and empirical issues have caused the term stranger fear to become rather meaningless if not misleading (Lewis and Rosenblum, 1974, panel discussion). Several published studies have reported findings that infants do, in fact, manifest responses to strangers which are not uniformly fearful in nature (Bretherton, 1978;Bretherton and Ainsworth, 1974;Corter, 1973;Eckerman and Rheingold, 1974;Eckerman and Whatley, 1975;Morgan and Ricciuti, 1969;Rheingold and Eckerman, 1973;Ross, 1975;Ross and Goldman, 1977), However, while there has been broad acceptance of the fact that infants' reactions to strangers contain multiple behavioral and motivational components including smiling and expressions of curiosity as well as cautiousness, the view that infants invariably undergo a specific phase of fear in the face of an unfamiliar adult's appearance and approach has not been widely abandoned (Emde etal, 1976;Fraiberg, 1975;Gaensbauer e<a/., 1977;. Thus a point of debate exists.…”

Wariness of Strangers: Reality or Artifact?

“…A search ofthe literature turned up 31 published reports of studies in which home reared infants were approached by or placed close to a stranger and an aspect of wariness was assessed (Ainsworth and Bell, 1970;Ainsworth and Wittig, 1969;Bretherton and Ainsworth, 1974;Brody and Axelrad, 1971;Bronson, 1972;Brookhart and Hock, 1976;Brooks and Lewis, 1976;Brossard, 1974;Campos, Emde, Gaensbauer and Henderson, 1975;Collard, 1968;Corter, 1973;Eckerman and Whatley, 1975;Emde, Gaensbauer and Harmon, 1976;Goulet, 1974;Greenberg, Hillman and Grice, 1973;Harmon, Morgan and Klein, 1977;Lewis and Brooks, 1974;Morgan and Ricciuti, 1969;Moss, Robson and Pedersen, 1969;Paradise and Curcio, 1974;Rafman, 1974;Rheingold and Eckerman, 1973;Ricciuti, 1974;Robson, Pedersen and Moss, 1969;Scarr and Salapatek, 1970;Schaffer, 1966;Schaffer and Emerson, 1964;Skarin, 1977;Sroufe, Waters and Matas, 1974;Tennes and Lampl, 1964;Waters, Matas and Sroufe, 1975). Several pairs of these reports utilized common data- Brossard (1974) and Goulet (1974), Moss et al (1969) and Robson et al (1969), andSchaffer (1966) and Schaffer and Emerson (1964).…”