Psychology

Profile

Background

After completing my Bachelors degree in Psychology, English Literature and Political Science (1975) and Masters in Psychology (1977) in Hyderabad India, I did my PhD at Edinburgh University (between 1977 and 1983). Returning to India I taught Psychology at the University College for Women in Hyderabad for three years. I have been teaching at British universities from 1986. I am a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society (of the Developmental Section and the History and Philosophy Section).

Teaching responsibilities

I currently teach on the Year 2 unit Developmental Psychology and contribute to other teaching. 

Research Interests

I am interested in the origins and development of social cognition, mainly in young infants. For twenty years now I have been exploring the role of emotional engagement in social understanding, focusing on the everyday, ordinary engagements (such as teasing and joking and showing-off or feeling shy) which often tend to get ignored in mainstream theories. I am a member of the Centre for the Study of Emotion. This interest in engagement as the route to understanding has led me to questions about the nature and influence of cultural engagements on social understanding. I am also a member of the Centre for Human Ecology, Culture and Communication. I am currently intrigued – in relation to infants, in relation to adults and indeed in relation to psychologists – how engagement must constantly either alternate or somehow integrate with dis-engagement. Current research projects:
    EU 6th framework project on the origins and development of compliance with directives (conducted in Hyderabad and in Portsmouth).

New Book

Reddy, V. (April 2008). How Infants Know Minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press ISBN 978-0-674-02666-7

Indicative Publications

• Drahota, A., Costall, A., & REDDY, V. (2008) Hearing smiles in the voice. Speech Communication, 50 (4), 278-287.
• REDDY, V. (2007).  Getting back to the Rough Ground: Deception and Social Living, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2006.1999).
• REDDY, V., Chisholm, V., Forrester, D., Conforti, M., & Maniatopoulou, D. (2007). Facing the perfect contingency: Interactions with the self in 2- and 3-month-olds.  Infant Behaviour and Development, 30, 195-212. (doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2007.02.009)
• Draghi-Lorenz, R., REDDY, V., & Morris, P. (2005). Young infants can be perceived as shy, coy, bashful and embarrassed. Infant and Child Development, 14 (1), 63-83.  (doi: 10.1002/icd.379)
• REDDY, V., & Morris P. (2004). Participants don’t need theories: Knowing minds in engagement. Theory and Psychology, 14 (5), 647-665. (doi: 10.1177/0959354304046177)
• Simons, G., Smith-Pasqualini, M., REDDY, V., & Wood, J. (2004). Emotional facial expressivity in people with Parkinson’s disease. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10, 521-535. (doi: 10.1017/S135561770410413X)
• REDDY, V., & Trevarthen, C. (2004). What we can learn about babies from engaging with their emotions.  Zero to Three, 24 (3), 9 – 15. (pdf)
• REDDY, V. (2003). On Being an Object of Attention: Implications for self-other-consciousness.  Trends in Cognitive Science, 7 (9), 397-402. (doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(03)00191-8)
• Nag-Arulmani, S., REDDY, V., & Buckley, S. (2003). Targeting phonological representations can help in the early stages of reading in a non-dominant language.  Journal of Research in Reading, 26 (1) 49-68. (doi: 10.1111/1467-9817.261005)
• REDDY, V., Williams, E., & Vaughan, A. (2002). Sharing humour and laughter in autism and Down’s Syndrome. British Journal of Psychology,  93, 219-242.
• REDDY, V. (2001). Infant clowning: the interpersonal creation of humour in infancy.  Enfance, 3, 247-256.
• Draghi-Lorenz, R., REDDY, V., & Costall, A.  (2001). Rethinking the development of 'non-basic emotions’: a critical review of existing theories.   Developmental Review, 21, 263-304.
• REDDY, V. (2000). Coyness in Early Infancy. Developmental Science, 3 (2), 186-192.
• Newton, P., REDDY, V., & Bull, R. (2000). Children’s everyday deception and performance on false-belief tasks. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 18, 297-317.
• REDDY, V. (1991). Teasing, joking and mucking about: Playing with others’ expectations. In A. Whiten (ed.) Natural Theories of Mind. Oxford: Blackwell.
  

Recent and upcoming presentations/ talks

• “A Gaze at Grips with Me”: The Origins of the Awareness of Attention. Paper to be presented at Workshop on Joint Attention: perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology and Social Neuroscience, Ruhr-Universitaet, Bochum Germany, 15-16 August 2008.
  
  
• On Feeling and Being Felt: Infants and Other Minds. Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, 1.15- 3.00, lecture room 25-5-11, Njalsgade 140-142, 5th floor. 14 February 2008.
  
  
• On Feeling and Being Felt: A second-person approach to social understanding. Affective Neuroscience Seminars, Institute of Psychiatry, 18 October 2007.
  
  
• Culture, Other Minds and Du. Department of Kultur und Entwicklung, University of Osnabrueck, 19 September 2007