Assistant Professor of Psychology
Ph.D. University of California, Davis
Area: Personality & Social Contexts

Contact Information

Email: redelste@umich.edu
Psychology Office: 3255 East Hall
Psychology Phone: 734-764-0693

Research and Teaching Interests

My research examines how people differ in their responses to emotional experiences and information, and the implications of these differences for cognition, behavior, and well-being. I have focused primarily on two interrelated areas of research:

1. adult attachment, particularly attachment avoidance and the defensive regulation of emotion, cognition and behavior, and
2. emotional memory, particularly individual differences in memory for stressful and traumatic experiences.

I am also interested in the forensic application of these issues, including eyewitness memory for emotional experiences and the emotional effects of legal involvement.

Representative Publications

• Edelstein, R.S. & Gillath, O. (2008). Avoiding interference: Adult attachment and emotional processing biases. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 171-181.
• Edelstein, R.S. (2006). Attachment and emotional memory: Investigating the source and extent of avoidant memory deficits. Emotion, 6, 340-345.
• Edelstein, R.S., Ghetti, S., Quas, J.A., Goodman, G.S., Alexander, K.W., Redlich, A.D., & Cordon, I.M. (2005). Individual differences in emotional memory: Adult attachment and long-term memory for child sexual abuse. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1537-1548.
• Edelstein, R.S., Alexander, K.W., Goodman, G.S., & Newton, J.W. (2004). Emotion and eyewitness memory. In D. Reisberg & P. Hertel (Eds.), Memory and emotion, (pp.308-346). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Edelstein, R.S., & Shaver, P.R. (2004). Avoidant attachment: Exploration of an oxymoron. In D. Mashek & A. Aron (Eds.), Handbook of closeness and intimacy, (pp.397-412). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

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