Kristin Buss

Kristin Buss serves as Department Head of Psychology and the Tracy Winfree and Ted H. McCourtney Professor in Children, Work, and Families at Pennsylvania State University. She holds a joint appointment as Professor of Psychology and Human Development and Family Studies and is an SSRI Co-Funded Faculty member.

She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2000. Her research centers on emotional development, temperament, and psychobiological processes from infancy through adolescence, utilizing interdisciplinary methods to identify anxiety risk mechanisms. Prior work established links between situational fear responses, attentional patterns, and physiological profiles in childhood social anxiety development, with current research extending to adolescence.

Dr. Buss directs the Emotion Development Laboratory, affiliated with the Developmental Program Area, Child Study Center (CSC), and Pennsylvania Child and Adolescent Twin Study (PACT). Her work examines how environmental risk and protective factors interact with biological processes to shape emotional outcomes.