Faculty Profile

BIO

Robin Edelstein is a social/personality psychologist with expertise in close relationships, parent-infant and adult romantic attachment, and social neuroendocrinology. Her work is motivated by a desire to understand how important emotional and interpersonal processes, which are typically assumed to apply to all people, may instead differ across people in meaningful ways.

Dr. Edelstein is particularly interested in understanding how close relationship experiences (e.g., interactions with romantic partners, major relationship transitions) get “under the skin” to influence people’s physiology, as well as how people’s physiology can influence their relationship outcomes. She also studies individual differences in people’s approaches to and experiences in close relationships; how these differences develop and change over time and across the lifespan; and the implications of these differences for interpersonal and physiological outcomes.

Dr. Edelstein received her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology from the University of California, Davis. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Irvine, she joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, where she is currently a Professor of Psychology in the Personality and Social Contexts area, and an affiliate of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Institute for Social Research.