Ulas is a faculty member in the PhD in Educational Studies program. He is a developmental scientist exploring a broad range of motivational and educational phenomena from the perspective of complex dynamic systems. According to this perspective, human motivation, learning and development can be understood in terms of temporal relationships between multiple psychological, organismic and environmental factors, which are intertwined. Ulas's work in moral psychology connects cognitive-developmental ideas with an affective and dynamic understanding of the moral mind.
Ulas's work in human well-being examines psychological and physiological factors in relation to the therapeutic practice of mental imagery (intentional use of imagination). Similar to his exploration of moral judgment and motivation (to be subject to short-term changes), he examines well-being as an experience that is dynamically variable in a short time (microdevelopment of daily well-being).
In a book he recently published in his native language (Turkish) on violence and education, Ulas proposed a dynamic developmental update and revision of Dewey's and Kohlberg's progressive educational vision. That is, he proposed that development and well-being can be universally valuable and inclusive aims of education if both development and well-being are understood dynamically with an appreciation of complexity.
Education: BSc, Istanbul Technical University; MA, Boğaziçi University; EdM, Harvard University; EdD, Harvard University