Mehmet Eskin, Professor of Psychology (Program Coordinator)
Primary Area of Focus: Clinical Psychology
Research Summary: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Eskin is a clinical psychologist who specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapies with a deep focus in problem-solving therapy. His research interests include suicidal behavior, problem-solving therapy, sexual orientation, personality disorders and cultural factors in mental health.
Ceren Acartürk, Accociate Professor of Psychology
Primary Area of Focus: Clinical Psychology
Research Summary: Dr. Acartürk’s work focuses on the prevention and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder and other common mental disorders resulting from trauma and adversities. In particular, Dr. Acarturk has expertise in mental health issues of Syrian refugees residing in Türkiye. She is currently the country Principal Investigator of two European Union funded projects. In these 2 projects, they are performing randomized controlled trials on the implementation of the scalable psychosocial interventions developed by the World Health Organization for Syrian refugees in collaboration with other researchers from Europe and the Middle East.
Gizem Erdem, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Research Summary:Dr. Erdem’s research and clinical work focus on addressing the needs of at-risk youth and their families, particularly those struggling with issues pertaining to substance misuse, crime, and mental health issues. Specifically, she is interested in a) understanding resilience, and capabilities among at-risk youth with particular focus on the impact of family and community resources on positive youth development; b) developing, testing, and evaluating prevention and treatment interventions targeting those youth and their families, and c) disseminating evidence-based practices in the field. Her current research examines the efficacy of evidence-based life skills program in promotion of mental well-being among incarcerated youth as well as youth mentoring program evaluation for adolescents in poverty. In addition, she supervises thesis projects on emerging adults’ close relationships with peers, family members, and romantic partners and their links to well-being.
Ayşe Altan, Lecturer
Primary area of focus: Clinical psychology, anxiety disorders, cognitive vulnerability to anxiety disorders, and transdiagnostic factors.
Research summary: Dr. Ayşe Altan is a clinical psychologist. Her research is focused on the mechanisms that are responsible for development and maintenance of psychological disorders. Dr. Altan is specifically interested in the interaction between transdiagnostic risk factors such as emotion regulation, attentional control, perfectionism, and repetitive negative thinking patterns. She also conducts research on looming cognitive style (LCS) which is a cognitive vulnerability factor that is specific for anxiety.
Zeynep Aycan, Professor of Psychology
Zeynep Aycan, Professor of Psychology
Primary Area of Focus: Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Research Summary: Aycan’s primary research areas include leadership, work-life balance and human resource management practices. She investigates these topics from cross-cultural perspectives. Aycan utilizes different methodologies in her research ranging from qualitative methods to experimental ones.
Lab: Leadership Lab
Ayşe Bilge Selçuk, Professor of Psychology
Primary Area of Focus: Social-Cognitive Development, Emotional Development, Parenting, Temperament
Research Summary: Prof. Ayşe Bilge Selçuk is adevelopmental psychologist with research interests focusing on the mechanisms underlying individual differences in children’s social behavior. Part of her current work investigates the interplay of intrinsic child characteristics (temperament, sociocognitive abilities), parenting, and contextual factors in the development of competent and maladaptive functioning in preschool children. Another area concerns studies designed to explore parental belief systems and child-rearing practices among mothers in Türkiye and Turkish mothers who live in Western cultural contexts.
Lab: Child and Family Studies Laboratory
Yasemin Kisbu Sakarya, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Primary Area of Focus: Quantitative methodology and program evaluation
Research Summary: Dr. YAsemin Kisbu Sakarya is a Quantitative Psychologist. Her research focus on quantitative methodology, particularly as applied in program and policy evaluation. Dr. Kisbu-Sakarya’s current research interests are statistical mediation analysis, causal inference methodology and quasi-experimental designs, and evaluation of health and education related policies and programs. Examples of her current projects are development of a new variant of regression discontinuity design, statistical power and bias when there is measurement non-invariance in the mediator, a doubly-robust propensity score weighting method to achieve causal inference in mediation, and evaluation of intervention programs implemented by leading education NGOs in Türkiye.
