According to Piaget's theory, stranger anxiety is a fear response that results from a child's inability to assimilate an unfamiliar person into an existing schema. This failure to categorize the stranger makes their behavior unpredictable to the child.

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According to Piaget, stranger anxiety is a fear of unfamiliar people that typically emerges in infants around the same time they develop object permanence.

Stranger Anxiety

Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020, April 22). Psychology (2nd ed.). OpenStax. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/1-introduction

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

Infants may demonstrate stranger anxiety through various behaviors, such as crying, turning their body away from an unfamiliar person, clinging tightly to a caregiver, or attempting to reach for a familiar face like a parent.

Examples of Stranger Anxiety

Cause of Stranger Anxiety (Piaget's View)

An 8-month-old infant is contentedly playing with their mother. When a family friend they have never met before enters the room, the infant cries, hides their face, and clings to their mother. Which developmental phenomenon does this scenario best illustrate?

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