Kathryn Lafreniere

Dr. Lafreniere is a Professor in the Applied Social Psychology area of the Psychology Department, University of Windsor, Canada, where she has been employed since 1991. She received her MA and PhD in Social/Personality Psychology from York University, Toronto, Canada. She is interested in both individual and societal influences on health and well-being, and these interests have shaped her teaching and research. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of community psychology, health psychology, research methods, diversity issues, and ethical issues in applied psychology. She is currently coordinator of the Psychology honours thesis program and enjoys supervising a number of undergraduate theses, as well as graduate theses and dissertations in the Applied Social Psychology graduate program. Not a morning person, Dr. Lafreniere does her best work late at night and has investigated consequences of individual differences in morningness vs. eveningness.

Much of Dr. Lafreniere's published work has employed the theoretical framework of reversal theory, a theory of motivation and personality that has been widely applied to studies of health, as well as diverse other areas. Her current research examines personality predictors of risk-taking, with a specific emphasis on risky driving behaviour. She has also conducted research on gender influences in the workplace, including studies of women in the legal profession and men in the nursing profession, in collaboration with University of Windsor faculty members in Law and Nursing.