Report 2
Parker Johnson
Psych 409 Road Rage
Instructions for this report can be found at:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy30/409a-g30-report2.htm
Introduction:
In the previous report the class
was assigned to explain experiences of road rage in the real world and in the
virtual world. The online virtual world
that we used is called second life and you create an avatar and can live a
second life through this game. The
previous report was spent talking about road rage and explaining the fun and
happiness in games that people experience.
We also reported on virtual driving and how it made us feel when driving
in the virtual world. The main point was
to make a ling between virtual driving and actual driving. We were trying to reenact the experiences
that we go through in real life and try to experience road rage when no
physical situation is present.
For report #2 we are to analyze
driving personality makeovers on the web as well as use a driving personality
makeover on ourselves and create an intervention for ourselves. After we evaluate ourselves, and our driving
personalities, we are to create a conclusion to summarize the evaluation.
Part A:
The first personality makeover test that I am analyzing is a
Driving personality makeover technique from our teacher, Dr Driving’s, website.
This is the link: http://drdriving.org/articles/testimony.htm
There are links to makeover tests
and the symptoms of road rage are one of them.
In the makeover test that Dr. driving analyzes the driver who let a car
go in front of him. When the car did not
show any sign of gratitude the driver immediately became angry and felt like
tailgating the person who he let cut in.
The anger that the driver experienced turned into road rage, as he
wanted the person to cut in front of him to crash or run out of gas. The driver then proceeded to tailgate the car
that she let cut in. This is obviously
road rage and very dangerous as this attitude could cause an accident if the
person in front was to brake.
Another website that I checked out
was done by a student for PSYCH 409. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/eguchi/report2.html
this was the website. The author of the
article was eguchi which was the UH username.
In this website the author described their personality traits with driving
which were organized and safe. The
author hated when people told them how to drive and when they reminded them to
fill up the gas in the car. The author’s
reaction to other drivers was that their mood affected their driving attitude
and this is a very important aspect to understand.
The third website that I analyzed
was Denise Tanaka’s report for her PSYCH 409 class. The website that she created was http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/LEONJ/student2/p35/report2.html
The student analyzed her driving and she noticed that when
she tailgated it was more of a reaction than an action. She didn’t drive on the road and tail
someone, it happened when she was provoked and she recognized that this was a
problem. Tailgating is very important
issue to understand because everyone does it.
Sometimes people do it as an accident or in this example, when she was
provoked.
Another website that I looked at
was Hiroko Kikuchi’s article for PSYCH 409.
The website for this article was:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/kikuchi/report%202.htm
In Hiroko’s article when she encountered the road hugging
pedestrians he felt like pushing them away.
When bikers took up the whole lane Hiroko felt like driving past them so
fast that they might fall off their bike.
The behavior
that Hiroko was showing was very violent and if he decided to act on these
impulses he could have cause a very dangerous accident. When a driver feels these kinds of impulses
they need to try and find a way to diffuse the anger. These impulses if pushed could become a
action and this could be dangerous.
The last
website that I analyzed was Glen Wada’s report for his PSYCH 409 class. The website for this analysis was:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/wada/report%202.htm
After the driver analyzed his driving behavior he noticed
that he was verbally aggressive to other drivers. Glen’s behavior became less aggressive
as he analyzed his behavior and he noticed that his bad
language decreased. This is important
because after Glen took these tests he noticed that his bad behavior was
reduced. If drivers could take these
tests and change their behaviors then there would be a lot less road rage
around the roads. I think that would be
interesting to see if most drivers reduced their road rage if they analyzed
their behavior.
I will now
use a quote from our class’s textbook. A
definition of a driving personality is in the Text, “Road Rage.”
The goal of
self-assessment is to identify problematic tendencies and habits that either
promote emotional rage in the self or provoke it or others. (pg 134)
This definition is a perfect definition; this is because the
makeover is supposed to identify the problems that you have and help you
realize that you need to fix these problems in order to become a better driver
on the road.
Part B: My Driving Personality Makeover Project
For part B we
are supposed to do a self-witnessing analysis of a before and after
project. This will hopefully let me know
the problems that I have when I drive and in the end I hope to reach an
intervention and to change my driving habits.
(i) Select just one
specific sensorimotor driving behavior that you would like to modify. E.g.:
· not going over the
speed limit by more than x mph
· not following too
close
· not showing an
unpleasant face to other motorists
· not doing any
multi-tasking
· not doing late merging
all the way to the cones
· not using as much gas
(due to acceleration, brakes, and lane changes)
The sensorimotor that I am going to analyze is not doing any
multitasking because this is something that I do often when I drive. I feel that if I can change this part of my
driving, I will perform better and be a better driver on the road. I think that when I multitask I am not focusing
on the road, which needs to be my main focus.
Accidents happen on the road everyday and this is because people are not
paying attention to what is going on in front of them. If you can change the way that you drive it
will affect everyone on the road and change the way that other people drive and
feel as well.
(ii) In this part of
the paper I will now gather data on several trips that I took when I tried to
reduce the amount of multi tasking that I did.
On Monday
December 7 I noticed that when I was driving I continued to think about the
text message that I received on my phone.
I wanted to check the text message because I figured that it was
important and I wanted to respond to the message. I also wanted to change the music on my ipod
because the song I was listening to I had heard to many times and I figured
that I could just find another song.
When I changed the song I felt better because I was listening to a
better song and this made my driving more interesting. I get annoyed when I listen to music that I
am sick of and it makes my driving more difficult.
On Wednesday
December 9 I was driving to school and I was trying to find my wallet in my
backpack. I couldn’t remember where it
was and I needed to find it to use it at school. But while I was doing this I was taking my
eyes off the road. This was dangerous as
I was in heavy traffic where stopping and going is constant. When I came to a stop I would search my bag
for my wallet and then when I looked up the car in front of me was already
driving and kind of far from me. Im sure
that the drivers behind me were getting annoyed and I was causing them to get
distressed and angry.
Then on
Thursday December 10 I was driving back from work. I was again texting on my phone because I
wanted to know what my friend was trying to tell me. I was meeting up with him and he was
constantly texting me to try and get a hold of me. I also have a Bluetooth because I think that
it helps with driving and talking. But I
recently got a new phone and now I have to call the number from my phone and
then start to talk. This forces me to
stare at my phone and therefore I am again not paying attention to my
phone. This is something that I am aware
of but I feel as if I need to make calls and check my text messages when I am
driving. I also observed that I was
changing my radio station to try and find a specific channel. When I am engaging in these activities I know
that I am doing it but I still feel that I should continue to do them because I
have never gotten into an accident. My
friend, that was in the car with me, asked to use the ipod so that I was not
trying to find music on it. I think that
he felt uncomfortable when I was not focusing on the road.
(iii) The cognitive self operates my thinking assessing,
judging and predictions. Basically when
I am thinking about using a cell phone or changing my ipod I am operating my
cognitive self. The actual changing of
my ipod or checking my phone is the sensorimotor aspect and therefore if you
can change your cognitive thinking it will affect the sensorimotor response.
(iv) For my
intervention I drove on Friday December 11.
On this day I drove to north shore and I made sure that I would not
check my phone or change my ipod unless I was parked on the side of the
street. My affective reasoning was as I
explained before the emotion that I felt when listening to an irritating
song. So when I was listening to music
in my car that I did not like I would change it but while I was changing it I
was multitasking. For my phone example
my affective reasoning behind that was that I felt that I needed to respond
back to the person who was trying to contact me.
On Friday
December 11 I made sure that I did not multitask as I was driving to north
shore. This was difficult because it was
a very long drive and I knew that I would get phone calls and text messages
along the way. But I also felt that this
was a good test because of the amount of time that I would be in the car. Overall the trip was good because I did not
check my phone. I actually left my phone
in my backpack so that I would not try to check it if it vibrated. This eliminated my affective feelings because
I knew that the phone was out of reach.
I also used my ipod and left the music on a playlist that I
enjoyed. This allowed me to have a
driving trip where I was not thinking about the music.
(v) So overall I think that I realized that
driving without multitasking is very important because you are focused on the
road and not something that is going on in your car. This allows you to pay attention to what is
happening outside and this is where your attention should be. I felt better because I was safer and I knew
what was going on around me. I did not
have any problems while driving and it was a good feeling. Although I still get the urge to change the
radio or look at my phone I tell myself that I don’t need to and that my safety
is more important. And not only my
safety but the safety of other drivers on the road. Just because I may not be directly aggressive
my passive aggressiveness can cause other drivers to experience road rage or
anger.
Part C-
Conclusion
The conclusion of this
paper is supposed to be an evaluation of this approach to driver
modification. As I have stated before I
learned a large amount from the make-over that I performed on myself. I learned that safety is an issue that should
always be put before yourself. If you
can change your cognitive thinking about a situation, then your affective
behavior can be fixed slowly. When the
affective behavior is fixed your sensorimotor will reflect the change. When drivers let their affective behavior
take over the sensorimotor behavior can be affected. This is the case when a driver tailgates
somebody or cuts a person off. The
reason the driver did this is because they let their mood or emotions take
control of the wheel.
When driving
you need to realize that this is a very dangerous activity to participate
in. Accidents happen everyday and if you
can learn to change your behavior then you can prevent accidents from
occurring. When you are a safer driver
then you create a safer environment on the road.
I think that
in the future of driving personality makeovers, there will be tests that
drivers can take to analyze their behavior.
I think that if all drivers know how they act then they can decide to
change that behavior. If a driver takes
a test that allows them to realize some of their behaviors then they can change
and become a better driver. The only way
to make roads safer for people is to make safer drivers. I think that this could be achieved if people
learned from their behavior and changed.
For example
in my makeover I realized that I was a multitasker in the car. I eat when I’m driving and I constantly
texted or was changing the radio stations or my iPod. These behaviors were a distraction to me
because my full attention was not on the road.
My attention was in my car and then on the road. I learned of this behavior and now I do not
check my phone when I drive because I know how much of a distraction it
is. I try not to eat in the car and I
usually will eat when I reach my destination.
This was an important revelation to me because I did not think that this
could be achieved by such a simple test.
But as you can see for me it did help and this is just one problem that
I have. I could eventually start working
on my emotions that I feel when driving.
For example when somebody cuts me off or doesn’t wave when I let them in
I get angry. I don’t feel like ramming
them or tailgating them like some people do, but I do feel emotions. Sometimes I will drive past them at a fast
speed to let them know how I feel.
Overall I
learned what I am capable of fixing and I learned that a self assessment of
your driving can change the way that you drive everyday. I think that everyone should try to change
their behavior and the only way is to realize what your problems are.
Advice to
Future Generations
This is my advice to the
future generations. I think that these
reports are important because they provide a legacy in what driving analysis
can do to your behavior on the road. If
you decided to read the reports that the students of PSYC 409 wrote, you would
realize that many people have bad driving behavior. But just because we have bad driving behavior
does not mean that we do not want to fix it.
I think that each student dealt with a different issue that they face on
the road everyday and it was interesting to see how they tried to fix the
problem. I think that if you can
realize that you have a problem then that in itself is an accomplishment. Many drivers think that they are perfect and
have no problems on the road. They may
drive slow and stay within the speed limit but chances are that they have
angered other drivers before. Everyone
makes mistakes and they can be changed if they are behavior related.
For my advice
to the future students I would say that you should try and find reports of
behaviors other than the students that I analyzed. It is interesting to see the behaviors of
teachers and doctors etc that drive in other states. They have similar feelings but they do not
know of the driving make-over. They
could utilize this make-over and change the way that they drive or feel towards
other drivers.
I also would
say that it is important to read the text, “Road Rage and aggressive
driving.” This text has a lot of
information relating to road rage and it explains how you can fix these
problems. Each chapter has important
issues relating to road rage and much of the information was new to me. For example there was a chapter explaining
that the way your parents are on the road can affect how you drive. In this perspective my parents were overall
good drivers. My mom and dad never cut
anyone off when I was in the car and they rarely became angry. I think that this behavior was similar to my
behavior that I exhibit today. So that
is just one of the chapters that was very interesting to me.
Overall I
think that this class was enjoyable and fun because driving in a virtual world
is very interesting. The virtual world
allows you to really drive like you actually want to on the road without any
consequences. You feel that you have no
limits so it is interesting to see how you do drive. I was much more aggressive on the virtual
world then I am in real life. If you
think that you would enjoy a class where you get to analyze your driving
behavior then this class would work for you.
Good luck and have fun
My home page:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af009/johnsonp/johnsonp-home.htm
Class home page:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy30/classhome-g30.htm