Prof. Dr.
Tarık Totan
Guidance and Psychological Counseling
Faculty of Education · Aydın Adnan Menderes University · Aydın
I study the difficulties children and adolescents encounter in school life: internet and gaming addiction, peer bullying, test anxiety, disengagement from school, and difficulties in career decision-making. Alongside these I examine students' strengths — recognising and regulating emotions, building peer relationships, making responsible decisions, hope and life satisfaction.
The question running through all of it: what determines whether a student engages with school or drifts away from it, and where can a school counselor intervene in that process?
Totan® Psychological Counseling Training Simulation
Evaluate your professional decisions, theoretical orientation and ethical boundaries in a ten-session psychological counseling process with a fictional client. Observe how each choice affects the working alliance, client engagement, self-awareness, ethical risk and counselor self-care. The simulation has no single correct answer or single “most effective” path.
Open the sessions → Note: Totan® is a trademark registered with the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. The simulation is currently in alpha; its content, operation and visual design may change as development continues. It is intended for educational purposes and does not replace psychological counseling education, supervision or professional qualification.
Approach
I have worked in guidance and psychological counseling for over twenty years. One question sits at the centre of that work: which processes carry a school-age child or adolescent toward well-being, and which pull them away from it?
I approach it from two directions. On one side are risk behaviours — internet and gaming addiction, substance use, peer bullying, test anxiety, disengagement from school. On the other are protective processes — recognising and regulating emotions, empathy, responsible decision-making, hope, self-esteem, and the support provided by family and school. Most of my work examines how these two sides balance one another.
Understanding what reduces a student's test anxiety, which students are more exposed to bullying, or whether loneliness or unhappiness weighs more heavily behind a turn toward the internet, also determines where and when a school counselor should intervene. The map below shows where my work concentrates and where those areas intersect.
Research map
Research themes
Headings are taken from Google Scholar research interests. Line thickness reflects the number of publications classified under both areas. Dashed frame: measurement studies outside the four headings.
Selected publications
All publications- 2025
Relationships between problem-solving, resilience, self-efficacy, and perceived social support in nursing students: a serial mediation model
BMC NURSING · DOI
Positive psychology
- 2025
Mediator Roles of Emotion Regulation Strategies in the Effect of Positive Schemas on Harmony in Life
Acta Educationis Generalis, 15(3), 83-96
Socioemotional functioningPositive psychology
- 2024
The Effect of School Culture on School Engagement: The Mediating Role of Social and Emotional Learning
Educational Academic Research, 55, 46-56
School counselingSocioemotional functioning
- 2024
Development of the Cryptocurrency Addiction Scale: A methodological study
International Journal of Caring Sciences, 17(1), 492-504
Addictions
- 2023
Duygu düzenleme stratejilerinin karar verme stilleri üzerindeki etkilerinin incelenmesi
Uluslararası Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey Eğitim Araştırmaları Dergisi, 5(2), 86-93
Socioemotional functioning
Projects
- 2017
Argumentation Education in Nature
- 2014
Examining social and emotional learning on the basis of self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship skills and responsible decision-making
- 2013
Technical Assistance Project for the Prevention of Violence against Children
Academic background
- 2020-
Professor
- 2015-2020
Associate Professor
- 2012-2015
Assistant Professor
- 2006-2012
Research Assistant