Psychology

Profile

MSc Clinical Psychology

BSc Psychology 

Background

In 2006 I obtained my first Degree in Psychological Science and Techniques of Clinical Counseling and Assessment from La Sapienza, University of Rome. The title of my dissertation was: Comparing Cultures in Childhood. The aim of my dissertation was to investigate children’s emotional reactions to specific environmental events in two different cultures, Basotho and Italian. My supervisor was Dr. Viridiana Mazzola who has allowed me to conduct my research project and my training in South Africa.

In Lesotho South Africa, I collaborated with the community centre in Maputsoe, working with pre-school, primary-school and high school teachers; I taught classes in the local high school. The principal tasks for my training were to observe the behaviours of children in deprived areas, assist children and adolescents, organise groups of discussion with teenagers. I was also a fundraiser for scholarships for young people.

In 2008 I obtained a Masters in Dynamic and Clinical Psychology of Childhood, Adolescence and Family with summa cum laude from La Sapienza, University of Rome. I specialised in the assessment and the intervention of the psychopathology of children and adolescents. The title of my dissertation was: Psychopathological Profiles in Learning Disabilities. The aim of my dissertation was to detect emotional difficulties caused by learning disabilities and to assess potential gender differences. During this period I collaborated with Prof. Roberta Penge, Department of Neuropsychiatry La Sapienza, who has been my supervisor for my Masters’ thesis.

At the University of Rome I was trained in Clinical Psychology as an assistant student psychologist at the Department of Child Neuropsychiatry where my job was to administer questionnaires, assist children and their mothers, and psychological counselling. I also participated in psychotherapy groups for children with ADHD, Down syndrome, language disabilities and pervasive developmental disorder, and in support groups for parents who needed help in management and education of their children. 

In 2009 I won a scholarship from La Sapienza, University of Rome to gain research experience abroad. This scholarship gave me the opportunity to work at the University of Portsmouth to study emotional development in collaboration with Prof. Vasudevi Reddy and to assist in further research programs such as a comparative study of emotional expressions in apes with Dr. Marina Davila-Ross. 

In 2010 I became a member of the Italian Psychological Association. 

Research Interests

I am currently a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth under the supervision of Prof. Vasudevi Reddy, Dr. Alessandra Fasulo and Dr. Clare Wilson. My research project focuses on the introduction of solid foods in babies aged between 3 and 7 months in different cultures, with particular interest in the caregiver’s perceptions and emotions concerning the baby’s feeding and in different social engagement processes during feeding. The main aims of my research are: to investigate weaning in three different cultures, British, Italian and Indian, and to collect information regarding the advice that the caregivers receive from the community, to describe similarities and differences of practice in different cultures.
My research interests concern child development, in particular emotions and culture, mother-infant interaction, children psychopathology, feeding in early childhood. 

Publications

Reddy, V., Williams, E., Costantini, C., Lang, B. (2010). Engaging with the self: mirror behaviour in Autism, Down Syndrome and Typical Development. Autism, 14, pp. 531-546.