Ceyda Kiyak

Biography

Ceyda Kiyak is a PhD candidate in the School of Psychology at the University of East Anglia supervised by Dr Sara Bengtsson and Dr Gareth Edwards. She is currently working as a visiting researcher at Virtual Reality Lab at Behavioral Science Institute of Radboud University in the Netherlands for collaboration.

Prior to UEA, she completed two master’s degrees:  MRes in Computing and Informatics at Bournemouth University in England (2022), and MSc in Experimental Psychology at University of Milan Bicocca in Italy (2021). She did BSc (Hons) in Psychology at Izmir University of Economics in Turkiye (2010). During her bachelor’s degree, she attended the Department of Psychology at Maynooth University in Ireland as an exchange student through the Erasmus Exchange Programme.

Before her academic career, she worked as a certified Psychotherapist specialised in addiction, trauma, and sex therapy at the Turkish Ministry of Health (2010–2020). She also worked as an Academic Visitor at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (Addictions Department) at King's College London (2017-2018) with a research grant awarded by the Turkish Ministry of Health.

Research

Ceyda Kiyak has an interdisciplinary background in Psychology, Neuroscience and Computing. She is interested in integrating technology into psychology practice, such as VR therapy, smart-phone applications and serious video games for the treatment and prevention of mental health problems.

Her PhD project focuses on facial emotion processing, cognitive biases and avoiadance behavior among lonely individuals, and designing game-based cognitive behavioral virtual reality intervention. 

Areas of interest: Loneliness and mental health, addiction (alcohol, gambling, sex, cybersex, and digital addiction), human attachment and sexuality, gender differences in brain and behaviour, intersectionality, and academic freedom.