Research interests

My research focuses on two psychological mechanisms that are known to be key motivators of social behaviours: emotions and social cognition. The two aims of my research are: (1) to understand when, why, and how these emotions and cognitions occur and (2) to identifyindividuals who are more or less likely to display certain emotions and cognitions in social situations.

I investigate social behaviors and the underlying emotions and cognitions across human development, spanning infancy, early and late childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. My research encompasses both typical development—including typically developing children, adolescents, and healthy adults—and atypical development, such as individuals with mental disorders like social anxiety disorder or neurodevelopmental conditions like autism.

I use ecologically valid, naturalistic tasks that reflect everyday social situations. For example, I might give compliments to children and observe their reactions, lead them to believe they have broken someone’s favorite toy, ask them to perform in front of an audience, or have them solve a puzzle together with their parents. My research employs a multi-method approach, including precise micro-coding of behaviours and neuro-physiological measures, to capture children's emotions and social understanding.  

Short biography 

I obtained my Ph.D. in 2017 under the supervision of Professor Susan Bögels at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam. My Ph.D. thesis investigated whether heightened self-conscious emotions and disturbances in social cognition contribute to the development of children's social anxiety disorder symptoms. As a post-doc, I worked with Dr Disa Sauter, Dr Christian Keysers, and Dr Valeria Gazzola at Amsterdam Brain and Cognition as well as with Dr Mariska Kret at the Comparative Psychology and Affective Neuroscience Lab at Leiden University. Since then, I have supervised PhD candidates Julia Folz, Iliana Samara, Chris Riddell, and Ruya Akdag, whose research focuses on emotional synchrony, emotion perception and expression, and cooperation. Since 2021, I have been appointed as an assistant professor in the developmental psychopathology group at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam where I continue to examine emotion and cognition in the social contexts throughout human development, with my current work supported by a Dutch Research Council Veni grant.

Academic service

I am a PhD Development and Education Coordinator and the Diversity and Inclusion workgroup member at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education. I also serve on the Board of the International Society for Research on Emotion.