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Meet the GrouPsy
Team

Prof. ÇiÄŸdem BaÄŸcı

I am a Professor of social psychology at Sabancı University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. After completing my BSc degree in psychology at Bogaziçi University, I continued my academic career at the University of Surrey (MSc in Research Methods) and at Goldsmiths, University of London (PhD) in United Kingdom.

 

I like to conduct both theoretical and applied research in the field of intragroup and intergroup relationships. I am interested in exploring relationships between various intergroup processes among both majority and minority group status children and adults. My main research areas include intergroup contact and cross-group friendships, prejudice and discrimination, social identity, and psychological well-being.

 

Recently, I have been working on various projects with international collaborators, including collective narcissism among minority group members, collective ownership threat, and social identity processes in vegetarianism.

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İpek Güvensoy

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Sabanci University

4th year PSY PhD student

Ipek Guvensoy is a social psychologist with a specific focus on intergroup contact, prejudice, polarization and collective action. She got her first degree in Psychology from Uskudar University in 2019. During her undergraduate studies, she went on an overseas internship in Northern Ireland, Belfast. As a visiting researcher at Queen’s University Belfast, she studied intergroup contact under the supervision of Prof. Rhiannon Turner. After that, she received her master’s degree at Koc University in the department of Social/Organizational Psychology in 2021. Ipek is now a senior PhD student at Sabanci University. She studies meta-accuracy and meta-perceptions in her doctoral studies. During her doctoral studies she also went on an overseas internship in Lisbon, Portugal. As a visiting researcher at ISCTE, she studied all-inclusive identities under the supervision of Rita Guerra. Ipek actively executes 5 projects as a part of Groupsy Lab. Her research appeared in the journal of Group Process & Intergroup Relations and Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

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İrem Kuyucu

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Sabanci University

3rd year PSY MS student

İrem received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Bilkent University in 2021. As a Master’s student, she is working on projects related to accent stigma and human-robot interaction. Her research interests include social cognition, applied linguistics, and intergroup communication. Besides her academic interests, she enjoys solo sports like kick-boxing and yoga; reading fiction books and traveling.

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BüÅŸra Kaplan

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Sabanci University

2nd year PSY MS student

BüÅŸra is a master’s student in psychology at Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey. She graduated from BoÄŸaziçi University's Psychology program. Her research interests mainly focus on social identity, acculturation, intergroup relations, political action, and social media studies. She currently works in projects about sexist humor on social media, attitudes towards veganism and vegetarianism, environmental attitudes, collective action tendencies among and towards sexual minorities in Turkey, and the impact of incompatible identities on collective action tendencies. She enjoys cooking, traveling, learning languages, and spending time with her friends. Besides, she is a big fan of Geoguessr!

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GüneÅŸ SaÄŸnak

    Sabanci University

    1st year PSY MS student

    GüneÅŸ completed her bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2023. Her research interests focus on the psychological factors influencing environmental behavior, with a particular focus on the role of identification. She aims to examine how social identity, intergroup relations, social influence, and experiences of stigma and discrimination shape environmental attitudes and behaviors. Besides her academic interests, she enjoys exploring nature and trying out outdoor activities.

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    Handan Çetinkaya

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    ÖzyeÄŸin University

    4th year PSY Undergraduate student

    Handan is a senior undergraduate student in Psychology at ÖzyeÄŸin University, and she is minoring in Communication Design. Her research interests include cooperation, intergroup discrimination, implicit and explicit biases, prejudice, and threat perceptions. She is currently working on projects related to board games, cooperation, and attitudes and behaviors toward outgroups. In addition to her academic interests, she enjoys drawing, reading, and visiting art museums.

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    Ayberk Kaan GüneÅŸ

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    Sabanci University

    4th year PSY & PSIR Undergraduate student

    Ayberk is a senior year psychology and political science/international relations student at Sabanci University. His research interests focus on the interdisciplinary studies of social sciences, including political psychology, conflict analysis and resolution, and anthropological approach to social psychology. He writes poems, thought essays and short stories, and loves competitive strategy games. Oh - he also is a vocalist in several death metal bands.

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    Duygu Yurt

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    Sabanci University

    3rd year PSY MS student

    Duygu received her bachelor’s degrees in Guidance and Psychological Counseling (2021) and Psychology (2022) from MEF University. During her undergraduate education, she took part in MEF’s social psychology laboratory as a research assistant and discovered her passion for intergroup relations. Her current research interests include collective action and threat perceptions, she is also working on a project focusing on understanding tolerance. Besides her academic interests, she enjoys watching movies and catching up with film festivals whenever possible.

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    Selen Akay

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    Sabanci University

    3rd year PSY MS student

    Selen Akay is a Master’s student in psychology at Sabancı University in Istanbul, Turkey. She received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Bilkent University, Turkey. Her research interests include but are not limited to  intergroup discrimination, human-computer interactions, and blame attributions to artificial agents. Her academic goal is to promote healthy intergroup relationships through technology. She enjoys trying out new restaurants and likes to play board games with her friends in her free time.

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    İrem Sakarya

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    Sabanci University

    2nd year PSY MS student

    İrem Sakarya is pursuing a master's degree in Social Psychology at Sabancı University. She received her Bachelor's degree in psychology from Bahcesehir University in 2022. Before starting her master’s program, she worked on various research projects, including studies on fat stigma, the role of emotions in the effectiveness of collective action, and speciesism. Her primary research interests include discrimination, intergroup relations, attitude change, and human-robot interactions. Besides her academic interests, she enjoys traditional and digital drawing.

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    Mina Sude Topuz

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    Sabanci University

    1st year Turkish Studies MA student

    Mina received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology (2023) from TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Turkish Studies Program at Sabancı University, Istanbul. Before starting her master’s program, she studied as TUBITAK STAR assistant in a project about psychosocial resilience and earthquake preparedness. Besides her clinical internships, she also contributed to TEAM (Toplumsal Etki AraÅŸtırmaları Merkezi) as a research assistant for a year. Her primary research interests include political psychology,  group behavior, religious-political attitudes, voting behavior and social-political identities. Along with her academic interests, she enjoys cinema, travelling and modeling.

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    Yasemin TopaloÄŸlu

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    Sabanci University

    4th year PSY Undergraduate student

    Yasemin is a senior year psychology undergraduate student at Sabanci University. Her research interests include but are not limited to pro-social behavior, social development, social policy, and  political psychology. Outside of her academic interests, she enjoys cooking, music and nature.

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