Güldehan Durman started her PhD in the Amsterdam Emotional Memory Lab at the Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam. She will test the function of emotional memory in psychopathology, more specifically, whether emotional memory is a valid construct that underlies the development and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms, or whether its link with symptoms of psychopathology can be better understood within a network perspective.
Güldehan obtained her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Philosophy at Emory University in 2019. After working as a research specialist in cognitive psychology in the Dilks Lab, she decided to gain a clinical focus and to pursue a Research Master’s degree in Clinical and Developmental Psychopathology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In her studies, she became deeply intrigued by the weight emotional memories, or our mental representations of affective events, has in our narrative of mental disorders. “It is not surprising that most psychological interventions target emotional memory, at least implicitly, to promote symptom relief in patients. However, I was curious to investigate whether these interventions bring about symptomatic change through their suggested working mechanisms (through emotional memory). I am very excited to start my PhD on this translational topic and utilize novel critical approaches, such as the network theory, in my investigation.”
She will join the Emotional Memory Team, supervised by Merel Kindt, Arnoud Arntz, Tessa Blanken and Renée Visser.