Berna Güroğlu is full professor in the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit of the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University.

More information about Berna Güroglu

“Social interactions form the cornerstone of relationships which are among the most significant social developmental contexts across the life span.”

Berna Güroğlu is full professor in the Developmental and Educational Psychology unit of the Leiden University – Institute for Psychological Research. She received her BA in mathematics at Koç University and MA in developmental psychology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2008 she received her PhD cum laude in developmental psychology at Radboud University Nijmegen. Güroğlu’s research examines social and cognitive development from a neuroscience perspective, with a special focus on adolescence and young adulthood. She incorporates measures of dyadic peer relationships and social networks (e.g., sociometrics) with neuroimaging methods to investigate the neural correlates of functioning in the context of peer relationships in adolescence. With the aid of  a VENI grant from the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO) she investigated the neural mechanisms of social interactions with peers. She was a leading investigator for her project within the starting impulse grant of the National Research Agenda (NWA) where she examined the anti-bullying programs in the Netherlands and the neural and physiological underpinnings of chronic victimization. Currently she is working on a Gravitation grant GUTS where she examines how social networks of young adults relate to their motivation and goals, also in relation to brain development.

Between 2018-2022 Güroğlu has served as the chair of the Dutch Society for Developmental Psychology (VNOP) that unites developmental psychologists from the Netherlands and Belgium.

For CV, publication list and full details of her research program, see Brain and Development Lab.

Publications