Lab Members
Principal Investigator
Hilal H. Şen. Ph. D.
Hilal is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Akureyri (Akureyri, Iceland). She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology (track: Developmental Psychology) from Koç University in 2019. Hilal is currently interested in individual differences in babies’ moral evaluations of others’ actions and preschooler’s exploration of their environment. In her non-academic life, Hilal enjoys reading novels, engaging in visual arts, and being together with her husband and daughter.
Email: hilal@unak.is
Office: A118 Sólborg – University of Akureyri
CV | ORCID I Google Scholar I IRIS I UNAK
Gamze Buyurucu
Gamze graduated from MEF University’s Psychology Department in 2025. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant on various projects across different subfields of psychology, including social, experimental, and developmental psychology. She enjoys interdisciplinary research and has independently conducted experiments using EEG systems. Her research interests include, but are not limited to, infant prosociality, prosocial disobedience, and loneliness in the elderly population. She will continue her studies at KU Leuven in the Master of Psychology: Theory and Research program. Outside of academia, she loves exploring new recipes in the kitchen and traveling with friends. Passionate about research, she aspires to build a career in academia.
Sigurbjörg Þorleifsdóttir
Sigurbjörg is a psychology graduate student from the University of Akureyri. Sigurbjörg previously obtained a bachelor degree in psychology from UNAK. Sigurbjörg’s research interests focus on children’s moral development and parenting behaviors.
Melda Karaoğlu
Melda is a first-year research Master’s student in Development and Socialisation in Childhood and Adolescence at Utrecht University. She completed her Bachelor’s in Psychology at MEF University, Istanbul, in 2024. Melda’s research interests focus on the impact of socialization agents on moral development in early childhood, as well as cultural, ethnic, and national identity in immigrant adolescents. Outside of academia, she enjoys Utrecht’s sunny weather, bouldering, playing volleyball, listening to house music, and reading literary fiction.
Þórunn Edda Þorbergsdóttir
Þórunn Edda is a second-year undergraduate psychology student at the University of Akureyri. She is interested in children’s development and has been teaching dance to 5-9-year-olds for two years, which has further increased that interest. Þórunn enjoys dancing, reading, writing, and gardening in her free time.
If you are interested in joining our lab as a research assistant, please apply through this link.