As a child psychologist, with interests in the etiology of anxiety, I always talk to parents about the utility of stranger anxiety, and other anxieties and when they emerge. Babies younger than 7 months never show stranger anxiety, you can pass them around in a group, and they usually find it interesting, not distressing. However, once they become mobile, and have the capacity to crawl or toddle away (9 months and up ), that is when you see stranger anxiety emerge and the need to stay close to parents, particularly the mother. Its a protective mechanism that behaviorally keeps the baby close. The other, well researched and documented years ago, behavior you see starting at about a year is 'emotional referencing', that is the baby looks to the mother to read her emotional response when the baby is in a new or unusual place. If mom looks worried or scared the baby bursts into tears, if the mom is smiling, the baby enjoys the new thing or place. That behavior lasts for about the next 50 years in most kids - we used to see it all the time in any medical clinic. When I would be called about a 'needle phobia' the first thing I ask the adults present is 'who really cant stand shots?", sometimes all I had to do is ask them to leave and the child would tolerate the injection just fine. Anxiety can be part of one's tempermental condition at birth, but there is a lot of learning.
Anxiety, of all emotions, is the most contagious, will sweep through a group quickly.
Less helpfully, our predilection for discriminating between "bad" and "good" gets turned inward, and for many of us the alarm goes off too easily for the bad things we notice about ourselves.
As a child psychologist, with interests in the etiology of anxiety, I always talk to parents about the utility of stranger anxiety, and other anxieties and when they emerge. Babies younger than 7 months never show stranger anxiety, you can pass them around in a group, and they usually find it interesting, not distressing. However, once they become mobile, and have the capacity to crawl or toddle away (9 months and up ), that is when you see stranger anxiety emerge and the need to stay close to parents, particularly the mother. Its a protective mechanism that behaviorally keeps the baby close. The other, well researched and documented years ago, behavior you see starting at about a year is 'emotional referencing', that is the baby looks to the mother to read her emotional response when the baby is in a new or unusual place. If mom looks worried or scared the baby bursts into tears, if the mom is smiling, the baby enjoys the new thing or place. That behavior lasts for about the next 50 years in most kids - we used to see it all the time in any medical clinic. When I would be called about a 'needle phobia' the first thing I ask the adults present is 'who really cant stand shots?", sometimes all I had to do is ask them to leave and the child would tolerate the injection just fine. Anxiety can be part of one's tempermental condition at birth, but there is a lot of learning.
Anxiety, of all emotions, is the most contagious, will sweep through a group quickly.
Less helpfully, our predilection for discriminating between "bad" and "good" gets turned inward, and for many of us the alarm goes off too easily for the bad things we notice about ourselves.