Attachment Disorders: The Still Face Experiment

Read more about this experiment when trying to understand depression-related attachment disorders and insecure attachments in adulthood. https://www.gottman.com/blog/research-still-face-experiment/

The Gottman Institute: In 1975, Edward Tronick and colleagues first presented the “Still Face Experiment” to colleagues at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. He described a phenomenon in which an infant, after three minutes of “interaction” with a non-responsive expressionless mother, “rapidly sobers and grows wary. He makes repeated attempts to get the interaction into its usual reciprocal pattern. When these attempts fail, the infant withdraws [and] orients his face and body away from his mother with a withdrawn, hopeless facial expression.” It remains one of the most replicated findings in developmental and attachment related psychology.