Birgitta Falk
PhD, Lic Psychologist
Since 2002 I have been at the department as PhD Student and researcher. After almost 20 years as a market research consultant, doing qualitative studies on behalf of clients in the private as well as the public sector, curiosity drove me to get deeper into the psychological background to various projects and phenomena I had come in contact with. Before becoming market researcher, I worked as a school psychologist, mainly with teenagers. Both these experiences contributed to my research area; methods for influencing young drivers to take less risk in traffic.
In private life some of my interests are animals and nature, travelling, sailing and just simply to relax. Good wines are also one of the joys of my life.
Pictures of the boat we sail can be found at www.rival22.com. She is specially adapted for sailing in the Stockholm Archipelago, a beautiful and unique place on earth, highly recommended for a visit. www.skargardsstiftelsen.se
Research
My research project / thesis consist of developing and testing interventions that can make young drivers less risk-prone. Especially young male drivers are overrepresented in traffic accidents, and this to some extent is due to overconfidence, i.e. believing yourself to be a safer and better driver than you actually are. The interventions tested are based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and on the concept of Anticipated Regret.
A first article has been submitted and a second is well under way. Results have been presented at ICTTP 2004 (3rd International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology, Nottingham 2004), TRA 2006 (Transport Research Arena Europe 2006) and ICAP 2006 (International Congress of Applied Psychology, Athen 2006).
Want to find out more? Please do not hesitate to contact me!
