Özge Kantaş

Özge Kantaş, Ph.D. is a social and personality psychologist, and a psychodramatist. She loves researching human motivation that goes beyond lab settings and teaching motivation science for its sustainable well-being outcomes in real life. As an assistant professor of Psychology at St. John Fisher University, she is teaching variety of classes in the intersection of trauma, psychopathology, social psychology, and law/policy and psychology.

She got her degrees at Middle East Technical University/Turkey and completed her dissertation and postdoc at the University of Rochester/New York, Self-Determination Theory Human Motivation Lab. She blends this motivation-based approach for trauma-informed leadership development and organizational healing practices for better workplaces that empower employee well-being and mental health. Also, she helps companies to design their services, workplaces, and products with a human-centered focus putting emphasis on employee experience, user experience and customer experience.

Being passionate about community service, Özge voluntarily serves as one of the international field coordinators at World Human Relief, Community Outreach Committee member at American Group Psychotherapy Association, and Research Committee member at American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. In these roles, she is responsible for raising awareness about community mental health and well-being, training other professionals for trauma-informed leadership, collaborating on social interventions and prevention projects, and promoting group psychotherapy for public visibility and evidence based research on psychodrama.

Publications:

• The Role Played by Self-Compassion in the Link between a Balanced Self-Construal and Well-Being, Turkish Psychology Journal, 2023. Co-authored with E.O. Imamoglu.
• `The association between commuting, mood, and job performance: The Structural Equation Modeling, International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2022. Co-authored with G. S. Atis, A. B. Ozic, T. Bukruk, and E. Ozkaya.
• Self Determination Theory as a Suitable Theoretical Basis and Measurement Approach for Psychodrama Interventions. The Journal of Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy, 2021. Co-authored with A. Mavili. 
• Fulfilling basic psychological needs through action motivation: treating ADHD with psychodrama (Temel psikolojik ihtiyaçların eylem motivasyonu ile karşılanması: DEHB ve psikodrama). In S. Sosyal (Ed.) Handbook of Attention Deficiency and Hyperactivity Disorder in Turkey, 2019. Co-authored with B. Uzun. 
• The psychometric evaluation of the Maternal Employment Guilt Scale: A development and validation study. Is, Guc: The Journal of Industrial Relations & Human Resources, 2019, 21(1), 23-52. Co-authored Ü. Yüce-Selvi. 
• Career Locus and Career Adaptabilities: A Self-determination Perspective for Turkish University Students' Case, Journal of Social Security, 2018, 8(1), 215-234. Co-authored with M.E. Kart, & Ö Güldü.
• The psychological process and the human aspect of public administration reform (Kamu yönetimi reformunun psikolojik süreci ve insan unsuru), Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 2017, 26(1), 313-326. Co-authored with B. Ovgun. 
• Crosscultural psychology approach to union density: The impact of national culture beyond unemployment rate and national income (Sendikalaşmayı kültürlerarası psikoloji çerçevesinden ele almak: İşsizlik ve milli gelirin ötesinde kültürün etkisi), Çalışma ve Toplum (Labour and Society), 2017, 53(2), 721-740.
• Portrait values of undergraduate students as prospective employees and their corresponding attitudes toward career and union. In B. Ceylan-Ataman & R. Lieberwitz (Eds.), Employment and Equity (pp. 119-131). ILO Office for Turkey-Ankara: International Labour Organization, 2015.
• Kronik: "Madenin altı ölüm; üstü zulüm...". (Chronicle: Trauma Survivors: “under the mine field there is death, where above is persecution”). Ankara Üniversitesi SBF Dergisi, 2015, 70(2), 485-497.