Staff profile

My PhD focuses on the development of empathy and prosocial behaviour in the first two years of life and the influence of the socio-cultural learning environment across a diverse, longitudinal sample in Uganda and the UK. 

I use a variety of measures to investigate empathy and prosociality such as eye tracking and behavioural experiments. Furthermore, I carried out focus groups with mothers in Uganda and the UK to study the effect of the socio-cultural learning environment on key components of empathy namely gender roles, emotion socialisation, emotion regulation and cultural expecations for prosocial behaviour. 

Research Interests

• empathy
• emotional development and socialisation
• gender roles
• globalised, inclusive developmental science

 

Contact: georgia.tuohy@durham.ac.uk

Supervisors: Professor Zanna Clay, Professor Lynda Boothroyd

Journal Article

• Helping Infants to Help: Cultural Variation in Maternal Scaffolding and the Development of Prosocial Behavior
  
  Vreden, C., Köster, M., Abbit, L., Ainembabazi, P., Cook, A., Kakai, B., Katusiime, P., Landstedt, J., Mazari, S., Ndyareeba, E., Renner, E., Tuohy, G., & Clay, Z. (2026). Helping Infants to Help: Cultural Variation in Maternal Scaffolding and the Development of Prosocial Behavior. Developmental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0002159
• The Impact of Maternal Experience of Gender Roles on Children's Socio‐Emotional Development in Uganda: A Qualitative Study
  
  Tuohy, G., Ainamani, H., Kakai, B., Nydareeba, E., Paricia, J., Sajabi, J., Vreden, C., Boothroyd, L., & Clay, Z. (2025). The Impact of Maternal Experience of Gender Roles on Children’s Socio‐Emotional Development in Uganda: A Qualitative Study. Infant and Child Development, 34(4), Article e70048. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.70048