Team
Principal Investigator
Dr. Aylin Koçak
Aylin Koçak Şen is the founder and director of FAMILY-Lab at İzmir University of Economics and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Her research focuses on parenting, interparental relationships, and adolescent development, with particular attention to how everyday family processes such as conflict, triangulation, autonomy support, and emotion regulation shape young people’s psychological, social, and academic well-being. Drawing on theoretical frameworks including Self-Determination Theory, Family Systems Theory, and developmental and ecological approaches, her work integrates longitudinal, daily-diary, and person-centered methods. Through FAMILY-Lab, she aims to produce research that is not only scientifically rigorous but also socially meaningful, contributing to evidence-based practices that support healthy family relationships and promote well-being across generations.
Graduate Students
Senay Adile Şahin
Senay Adile Şahin graduated from the Department of Psychology at İzmir University of Economics in 2025 and also completed a double major in Sociology. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at İzmir University of Economics. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as a researcher on a TÜBİTAK 2209-A funded research project examining the roles of expressive suppression and anger rumination in the relationship between gender roles and dating violence. Her broader research interests focus on family dynamics, parent–adolescent relationships, psychological flexibility, and adolescent psychological development and well-being. In her current research, she examines the role of parent–adolescent relationship quality in the association between mothers’ and fathers’ psychological flexibility and adolescents’ basic psychological need satisfaction, using a longitudinal and multi-informant design. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory and Family Systems Theory, her work focuses on the role of relational processes within the family in adolescent development.
Aybüke Balı
Aybüke Balı received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Dokuz Eylül University in 2023.She is currently a Master’s student in Clinical Psychology at Izmir University of Economics. During her undergraduate internships, she gained experience working with adolescents and parents. Since graduating, she has worked as a psychologist at a special education and rehabilitation center and educational institutions. These experiences have strengthened her interest in parent–adolescent relationships and informed her academic focus. Her research interests include parenting behaviors, parent–adolescent relationships, psychological flexibility, and psychological well-being. She is particularly interested in examining the roles of psychological flexibility and inflexibility in the associations between maternal and paternal parenting behaviors and adolescent well-being. She approaches family relationships from developmental and clinical perspectives to understand the processes that support adolescents’ emotional development and psychological adjustment. In the future, she aims to support the psychological well-being of adolescents and families through her clinical work and research.
Özgenur Kısa
Özgenur Kısa received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Çağ University in 2025, graduating with high honors. Following her undergraduate studies, she began the thesis-based Master’s Program in Clinical Psychology at İzmir University of Economics. During her undergraduate education, she studied in Poland for one semester through the Erasmus+ Student Exchange Program, where she also contributed to a research project examining psychological processes from a cross-cultural perspective. Her research interests include romantic relationships, interparental relationship dynamics, parent–adolescent relationships, and adolescent mental health. She aims to conduct research that integrates clinical and family psychology perspectives, with a particular focus on understanding how family relationships influence individuals’ psychological processes. In her academic work, she seeks to employ rigorous scientific research methods to produce findings that can contribute to clinical practice as well as preventive and early intervention efforts in mental health.
Undergraduate Students
Ece Sönmez
Ece Sönmez is a third-year undergraduate student in the Department of Psychology at Izmir University of Economics. Throughout her undergraduate education, she has taken an active role in international projects and has gained experience in equality, human rights, and intercultural interaction through Erasmus+ and youth exchange programs. She is particularly interested in the role of parent–adolescent interactions in emotion regulation, identity formation, and well-being. She focuses on understanding how parenting styles, communication patterns, and family climate function as protective or risk factors during adolescence.
Bedri Hatipoğlu
Bedri Hatipoğlu is a fourth-year undergraduate student in the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at İzmir University of Economics. Throughout his undergraduate education, he has worked with children and adolescents during his internships, focusing on the determining role of family interactions in developmental processes. He is interested in understanding individuals’ emotional and cognitive processes within their relational context. He is particularly oriented toward studies examining the role of relationships with parents during adolescence in shaping self-perception and emotion regulation processes. He focuses on the structuring role of early life experiences and family dynamics in individuals’ later psychological functioning, approaching these processes as a reciprocal and dynamic system of interaction.
Our Graduate Alumni
Sezgi Gedik Izmir University of Economics, Clinical Psychology, 2026.
Berfin Kurşun Izmir University of Economics, Clinical Psychology, 2026.
Elif Çalışır Izmir University of Economics, Clinical Psychology, 2026.
Our Undergraduate Alumni
Tuğçe Çetin Izmir University of Economics, Deparment of Psychology, 2026.
