Psychology Colloquium Series

Date/Time: October 14th, 2026, at 2pm
Location: Brantl Lecture Hall (Dickson 177)
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Join us for Montclair State University’s Psychology Colloquium Series, bringing regional scholars to campus to share their research with faculty and students.

Talk title: Social Pathways to Everyday Health and Well-Being: Thriving in and out of Romantic Relationships

Talk description: Romantic relationships profoundly shape health and well-being, both through their presence and their absence. In this talk, I will discuss the social and emotional dynamics that support well-being within and beyond romantic partnerships. The first part focuses on emotional exchanges between romantic partners, highlighting my work on gratitude—when it arises, how it promotes well-being, and how it can be most effectively expressed. The second part turns to singlehood, exploring the types of social connections that contribute to satisfying singlehood and the factors that predict whether singlehood persists over time. I will conclude by discussing how everyday relational experiences contribute to human thriving and how conceptual and methodological advances in relationship science can deepen our understanding of these processes.

Information about the speaker: Yoobin Park is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University, where she directs the Relationships, Emotion, and Health Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research program seeks to understand how close relationships function, how they shape health and well-being, and how people can make the most of their relational lives.