Psychology

Vasudevi Reddy

Prof. Vasudevi Reddy

Professor of Developmental and Cultural Psychology

Psychology

vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk

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 Director of the Centre for Situated Action and Communicationwhich explores ideas of context and situation on different kinds of psychological phenomena. My 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 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.

Recent research projects: 

  • EU 6th framework project on the origins and development of compliance with directives (conducted in Hyderabad and in Portsmouth).
  • Marie Curie Initial Training Network TESIS (Towards an Embodied Science of Intersubjectivity)  with the Universities of Heidelberg, San Sebastian, Parma, Copenhagen, Munich, Hertfordshire, Arhus, Chieti, and with Lego Learning Institute, and Springer Science.

Recent Publications

 

More recent publications

 

Recent and upcoming keynotes

  • Keynote: If engagement matters: (Re-)Opening development. Workshop on Emerging Paradigms in Social Cognition: Toward New Scientific Theories. Centre for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen, 6-7 October 2011.
  • Keynote: Engaging babies: Mutuality and the development of understanding. Conference on Play, Pen Green Centre, Corby, 14 May 2011
  • Inaugural: Feeling Minds: Engagement and the roots of awareness in Infancy: University of Portsmouth, 4 May 2011 http://compass.port.ac.uk/UoP/items/27f98b1c-8633-4f11-7ad1-513bba89a01a/1/
  • Keynote: Come I bambini sperimentano le menti degli altri. Launch of Cosa passa per la testa di un bambino, University of Pavia, 15 April, 2011.
  • Keynote: Conference on Expression and expressive communication, University College London, 24-26 March 2011.
  • Public Lecture: Genuine Dialogue: Why it (also) matters to babies. Saturday Evening Lecture Series, Dundee, 5 March 2011
  • Keynote: Engaging with others and with self in a mirror: in typical development and in Autism. Conference on communicative and symbolic behaviours in Autism, Paris, 4 - 5 February 2011. 
  • Keynote: Falling in your eyes: the possibility of shame in early infancy, Conference on Shame, Centre for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen, December 2010.
  • Keynote: Engagement, Narrative and early Development. Annual Conference of the Early Years Education, Portsmouth, November 2010. 
  • Keynote: Moving others Matters. Conference on Enactive approaches to Cognition, University of Heidelberg, October 2010. 
  • Keynote: How Infants Know Minds. Annual Conference of the Association of Cognitive Analytic Therapists, July 2010. 
  • Keynote: Engagement and Awareness in infancy. Conference on ‘Baby Brains’ - Parent-Infant Mental Health, London, June 2010. 
  • Keynote: Engagement, feelings and the awareness of minds in infancy. Conference on Empathy and Intersubjectivity, University College Dublin, May 2010. 

Books and Special Issues

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

Legerstee, M & REDDY, V. (2007). What does it mean to communicate? Special issue of Infant Behavior and Development, 30 (2). Editorial, REDDY, V. & Legerstee, M.

REDDY, V. & Bundell, K. (1983). The Little Hills of South India. London: Macmillan

Published Papers

(please email vasu.reddy@port.ac.uk for copies of the papers)

Peer-reviewed journals  

  • Liebal, K., REDDY, V., Hicks, K., Jonnalagadda, S., Chintalapuri, B. (2011). Socialisation goals and parental directives in infancy: The theory and the practice. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 10 (1), 113-131.
  • Reddy, V., Williams, E., Costantini, C., & Lang, B. (2010). Engaging with the self: Mirror behaviour in autism, Down syndrome and typical development. Autism, 14(5), 531-546.
  • Drahota, A., Costall, A., & REDDY, V. (2008). Hearing smiles in the voice. Speech Communication.
  • 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
  • Costall, A., Leudar, I., & REDDY, V. (2006). Failing to see the irony in ‘mind-reading’. Theory and Psychology, 15 (1), 163-167.
  • 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
  • REDDY, V., & Morris P. (2004). Participants don’t need theories: Knowing minds in engagement. Theory and Psychology, 14 (5), 647-665.
  • 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.
  • REDDY, V., & Trevarthen, C. (2004). What you can learn from engaging with babies. Zero to Three, 24 (3), 9 – 15.
  • REDDY, V. (2003). On Being an Object of Attention: Implications for self-other-consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Science, 7 (9), 397-402.
  • 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.
  • 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., Williams, E., & Vaughan, A. (2001). Sharing laughter: the humour of pre-school children with Down Syndrome. Down syndrome: Research and Practice, 7 (3), 125-128.
  • 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.
  • Williams, E., & REDDY, V., & Costall, A. (2001). Taking a closer look at functional play in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31 (1), 67-77.
  • 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.
  • Williams, E., Costall, A., & REDDY, V. (1999). Children with autism experience problems with both objects and people. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29 (5), 367-378.
  • Appleton, M., & REDDY, V. (1996). Teaching three-year-olds to pass false belief tests: a conversational approach, Social Development , 5 (3), 275-291.
  • REDDY, V. (1996). Omitting the second person in social understanding Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19 (1), 140 -141.
  • REDDY, V.  (1995). Psychologists’ problems with infant communication First Language,  16 (1), 115-128.
  • Morris, P.H., REDDY, V. & Bunting, R. C. (1995). Survival of the cutest: who’s responsible for the evolution of the teddy bear? Animal Behaviour , 50, 1697-1700.
  • Newton, P., & REDDY, V. (1995). The Basis for Understanding Belief, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 25 (4), 343-362.
  • REDDY, V. (1994). Understanding Others and the Magical Number Two (and Four and Seven), Social Development, Vol. 3 (2), 177-80, 1994.
  • Joseph, G.V., REDDY, V., & Searle-Chatterjee, M. (1991) Eurocentrism in the Social Sciences, Race and Class, 31 (4), 1-26.

 
Peer Reviewed Chapters in Books and Handbooks

  • REDDY, V. (2010). Cultures and Minds. In M. Payne and J. R. Barbera (EDs.) A dictionary of cultural and critical theory. 2nd Edition. (pp. 172-176). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • REDDY, V. (2010). Engaging Minds in the first year: The developing awareness of attention and intention. In G. Bremner and T. Wachs (Eds). Handbook of Infant Development. 2nd Edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • REDDY, V. (2010). Green eyes in bio-cultural frames. In S. Hart and M. Legerstee (Eds.) Handbook of Jealousy: Theory, Research and Multidisciplinary Approaches. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • REDDY, V. (2009). Experiencing the Social: A Second Person Approach. In U. Muller, J. Carpendale, N. Budwig & B. Sokol (Eds.), Social Life and Social Knowledge: Toward a Process Account of Development. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum.
  • Book Review: REDDY, V. (2008) On good and evil and other impossible questions. Book review of De Waal’s Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved. In Current Anthropology, 49 (4). 697-699.
  • REDDY, V. (2008). Getting back to the rough ground. In N. Emery & N. Clayton (Eds.) Social Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • REDDY, V. & Morris, P. (2008). Participants don’t need theories. In A. Costall & I. Leudar (Eds). Against theory of mind. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Trevarthen, C. & REDDY, V. (2007). Consciousness in Infancy. In M. Velmans (Ed.), Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. Oxford: Blackwell
  • REDDY, V. (2005). Feeling shy and showing-off: self-consciousness regulates intimacy. In J. Nadel & D. Muir (Eds.), Emotional Development (pp. 181-202). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • REDDY, V. (2005). Before the third element: Understanding attention to self in infancy. In N. Eilan, C. Hoerl, T. McCormack, & J. Roessler, (Eds.), Joint Attention: Communication and Other Minds (pp. 85-109).Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • REDDY, V. (2001). Mind Knowledge in Infancy: Understanding Attention and Intention in the first year.  In G.J. Bremner & A. Fogel (Eds.), Blackwell Handbook of Infancy Research (pp.241-264) Oxford: Blackwell.
  • REDDY, V. (2001). Positively shy! Developmental continuities in the expression of shyness, coyness and embarrassment. In W. R. Crozier & L.E. Alden (Eds.), International Handbook of Social Anxiety: Concepts, Research and Interventions relating to the Self and Shyness (pp. 77-99). Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
  • REDDY, V. (1999). Prelinguistic Communication.  In M.Barrett (Ed.), Language Development  (pp. 25-50) Hove: Psychology Press.
  • REDDY, V. (1998). Doing Psychology: Educating Apprentices.  In D. Van Laar, J. Radford, & D. Rose (Eds.), Innovations in Teaching Psychology, Edgebaston: SEDA Publishers.
  • REDDY, V., Hay, D., Murray, L. & Trevarthen, C. (1997).  Communication in Infancy: Mutual Regulation of Affect and Attention.  In G. Bremner, A. Slater, & G. Butterworth (Eds.), Infant Development: Recent Advances (pp. 247-273)  Erlbaum: Hove.
  • REDDY, V. (1995). Everyday Theory for Practitioners.  In Methods of Curriculum Assessment: recipes for Success, Academic Development Centre, University of Portsmouth.
  • REDDY, V. (1991). Playing with others' expectations: teasing and mucking about in the first year.  In A. Whiten (Ed.), Natural Theories of Mind (pp. 143-158) Oxford: Blackwell.