Background B.A.(Hons), M.Sc., PhD., PGC (TLHE), C.Psychol. Karen is a senior lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln. Her teaching and research interests are in cross-cultural and developmental psychology. She was a lecturer in the School of Psychology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria between 1980 and 1989. She has been teaching at the University of Lincoln since leaving Nigeria and has maintained good professional and research links with colleagues in West Africa. Karen’s current research interests include the prevention of unintentional injuries to children, the driving performance of young drivers, and cross-cultural studies of safety and risk. Karen served as an international mentor for the World Health Organization Mentor-VIP (Violence and Injury Prevention) programme. She was one of fifteen mentors appointed worldwide in the first year of the Mentor-VIP programme.

Research

Research interests in social development, cross-cultural psychology, child and youth safety research, injury prevention, children’s drawings.

Current projects:
    • Child safety and risk perception
    • Cross-cultural studies of safety interventions
    • Factors affecting the driving performance of young drivers
    • Evaluation of the ‘2fast 2soon’ intervention for young drivers for the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership

Teaching

Cross-cultural psychology, developmental psychology and social psychology to undergraduate and postgraduate students. 

Other academic/ professional interests

Consulting Editor for The Journal of Social Psychology

Associate Editor for Ife Psychologia

Member, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology

Member, International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention

Member, The British Psychological Society

Member of the University of Lincoln Traffic Medicine Research Group

Reviewer for peer-reviewed journals and funding bodies

Pediatrics

The Journal of Social Psychology

British Journal of Psychology

ESRC

A selection of publications (for a full list see here)

Pfeffer, K. and Orum, J. (2009) Risk and injury portrayal in boys and girls’ favourite television programmes. Injury Prevention (in press).

Fagbemi, S.O. and Pfeffer, K. (2008). The use of a driving simulator to study eyewitness accuracy for three different types of collision. Advances in Transportation Studies. (In press)

Tabibi, Z. and Pfeffer, K. (2007). Finding a safe place to cross the road: the effect of distractors and the role of attention in children’s identification of safe and dangerous road-crossing sites. Infant and Child Development, 16(2), 193-206. [abstract]

Fagbemi, O.S. and Pfeffer, K. (2006). The relationship between sleep patterns and the experience of simulator sickness and motion sickness. Advances in Transportation Studies, 4, 5-13. [pdf]

Pfeffer, K. (2005). Rural and urban children’s understanding of safety and danger on the road. In G. Underwood (Ed.), Traffic and transport psychology: theory and application. (pp. 27–36). Amsterdam: Elsevier. [pdf]

Pfeffer. K. and Wilson, B. (2004). Children's perceptions of dangerous substances. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 98 , 700-710. [abstract]

Tabibi, Z. and Pfeffer, K. (2003). Choosing a safe place to cross the road: the relationship between attention and identification of safe and dangerous road crossing sites. Child: Care, Health and Development, 29 (4), 237-244. [abstract]

Pfeffer, K . and Cole, B. (2002). ‘The Crime of Your Life’: Evaluation of crime prevention through drama. Research report for Lincolnshire Youth Offending Service, Lincoln, UK.

A selection of recent research presentations (for a full list see here)

Pfeffer, K. and Orum, J. (2008). The portrayal of unintentional injury in British children’s favourite television programmes. Poster presentation, Bi-annual Conference of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, Merida, Mexico.

Fagbemi, O.S. and Pfeffer, K. (2006). The relationship between sleep patterns and the experience of simulator sickness and motion sickness. Paper presented at the 4th Annual STISM Drive User Group Meeting, MIT Agelab & New England University Transportation Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Boston, U.S.A.

Pfeffer, K. (2004). Rural and urban children’s understanding of safety and danger on the road. Paper presented at the 3rd International Conference for Traffic and Transport Psychology, Nottingham, UK.

Pfeffer, K. (2001). Children’s drawings in cultural context. Invited talk to the Child Research Working Group, University of Cambridge, UK. January 2001.

Current research grants and funding

Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership – Evaluation of the 2fast 2soon road safety programme for young drivers (2008-2010)

University of Lincoln BEGINS bursary – Are risky behaviours and injury portrayed in British children’s television programmes related to children’s risk-perceptions?
(2009)