Report 2:

Report 2:

My Understanding of Driving Psychology

By Gemma Clayson

Instructions for this report are found at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-report2.htm

I am answering Questions 2, 3, 4, 7, and 10

My Report On The Previous Generation

1. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/decaires/409a-g22-report2.htm

Constantine wrote a very thorough and complete report. She listed many personal examples for the three domains and levels of a driver and for the exercises from the Road Rage book, which were all very informative. From the six student reports, Constantine learned new driving terms and found that reading two different reports from each section was useful because it gave her a broader idea and better understanding of the concepts involved.

2. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/golder/409a-g22-report2.htm

Justin's second report covers his understanding of driving psychology. He reports on the three behavioral domains, and then summarizes six other student’s reports from a previous generation. Justin was able to complete and reflect on some exercises from one of the textbooks, complete a chart of driver behaviors and compare two websites. The report also contains summaries of previous reports and advice for future generations.

3. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/lacy/409a-g22-report2.htm

Jessica's report was not as colorful or easy to read as the previous ones from her generation. Her second report consisted of five questions, a report on her fellow classmates’ oral presentations, and her advice to future generations. Some of her answers to her questions were unclear and difficult to understand what she was trying to say. Jessica believed that driving psychology is important and we can improve our driving in our society. She puts emphasis on safe behaviors and being polite to other drivers, which is part of being a supportive driver.

The Question I am answering is Question 2

Question 2:

(a) Give a brief review of our two textbooks: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving (James and Nahl), and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer (Peter Rothe, Editor). The reviews should be between 3 and 6 paragraphs for each text.

(b) Select one Chapter from each text and give a summary of it.

(d) Any other comments you wish to make.

Answer:

(a) A brief review of our two textbooks: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer

In 1998, the Traffic Safety Summit held a conference with hopes in building new knowledge surrounding traffic safety and in developing a new traffic safety action plan. After sorting through numerous submitted articles related to their topic, this journal was created.

The textbook written by Peter Rothe, Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer, contains articles that reflect upon newer systems and theories that have been devoted to traffic safety. The textbook is separated into three design sub-systems: Personal, Institutional, and Technical.

The sections of this textbook inspire a greater understanding of all that is involved in traffic safety; the individual person, the community, and the society. The Driving Lessons textbook is an excellent compilation of recent actions and potential theories for creating a safer driving community. It motivates the reader to think "outside the box" and opens eyes to greater possibilities for safer driving conditions.

The Road Rage and Aggressive Driving textbook is an extremely helpful and informational book. It tackles aggressive driving in many different aspects: socially, culturally, emotionally, psychologically, biologically, and physically. The text provides a background of how aggressive driving has come about, how it can be psychologically and physically harmful, ways to recognize yours and others acts of aggression on the road, and how you can change your driving habits.

The Road Rage and Aggressive Driving text explains how analyzing the act of driving has become a new form of psychology and that when you drive, you involve your three-fold-self. The three-fold-self contains your affective (feeling), cognitive (thinking), and sensorimotor (acting) behaviors. This means that any living human being can be influenced by road rage and aggressive driving.

The important concept to grasp from this textbook is that aggressive driving is everywhere and continues to affect our society. So we need to be conscious of our driving and whenever necessary, we need to change our usual driving habits. As Dr. James says, "Don't express it. Don't repress it. Confess it".

(b) Select one Chapter from each text and give a summary of it

Chapter three from the Driving Lessons textbook, "Dealing With Stress, Aggression, and Pressure In The Vehicle", covers routine events and/or incidents that occur while driving. All driving events are a source of psychological power that produce feelings and thoughts. Throughout routine driving experiences a driver may come across traffic restrictions, preventing them from reaching their destinations. This type of driving restriction and other unpredictable driving situations create pressure, danger, and sometimes accidents.

This chapter discusses fifteen known aspects of driving that act as stressors and pose emotional challenges that lead to aggression on the road. Once these stressors are identified by a driver, it is important for the driver to train themselves in emotional intelligence in order to gain a knowledgeable advantage over other drivers on the road. It is this lack of training that creates highly stressful conditions for most drivers.

It is important to recognize that there are individual differences, due to societal factors (e.g. gender, age, personality) when expressing driver hostility. Due to a changing society, there are more women in the working world and female driving aggression is increasing. Throughout routine morning driving events and restrictive road conditions, drivers face a constant time pressure. There has been an approach designed to obtain data on individual driver's reports to measure different behavioral domains and levels of a driver.

The self-witnessing approach allows for data on a driver's emotions (affective), thoughts (cognitive), and actions (sensorimotor). The data is then applied to a three step program (acknowledge, witness, modify) to help modify a driver's aggressive behaviors. When drivers become aware of their driving behaviors, they are more likely to change their behaviors and yield a safer driving environment.

Chapter seven from the Road Rage and Aggressive Driving textbook, "Children and Road Rage", discusses society's driving issues that are extremely impacting our children. Children are prone to witnessing aggressive behaviors from the moment they are strapped into the back seat as a newborn. This chapter emphasizes the importance of modeling and imitation. Parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, siblings, and other peers are influencing children as they drive. It is important for the older driving generations to recognize that their driving behaviors are constantly being observed by children and will eventually be imitated when they get behind the wheel.

Chapter seven also focuses on ways to improve children's behaviors as passengers in driving situations. It highlights the significance of using positive reinforcement to increase a child's good passenger behavior. An example of positive reinforcement from the chapter was to use verbal praise such as: "I value when you wear your seat-belt. I am very proud that you kept it on the whole car ride". This is an important concept because it is promoting safety awareness for the children.

Society's driving problems are in our own hands. Focusing on a younger generation is important in reducing the number of injuries and fatalities due to aggression behind the wheel. If we follow the three step method when we drive, we will become more aware of our aggressive behaviors and should be able to model good driving behavior for the younger driving generation. This is an excellent way to curb our society's driving problem, but it is still just as important to spread awareness throughout the society regarding the surprising prevalence of road rage and aggressive driving behaviors.

Focusing on our younger driving generation is helpful, but focusing on where the aggression comes from and how to treat it is just as important. Everyday driving conditions have the possibility of creating stress and hostility from behind the wheel. It is important to be aware of your own stressors and educate yourself in reducing your driving hostility. Following the three step driver improvement plan is an excellent concept in reducing road rage and aggressive driving behaviors. Hopefully our entire society will eventually be able to recognize how important the topic of "Road Rage" is and will contribute their part in becoming a safer driver.

The Question I am answering is Question 3

Question 3:

(a) Discuss these two Web sites: www.drivers.com vs. www.drdriving.org by first describing their overall appearance and purpose.

(b) What are their main differences? Be sure to consider at least these areas:

(i) content of articles

(ii) content and tone of newsletters, when present

(iii) style of the site

(iv) probable audience

(v) public relations or policy, etc.

(vi) advertising (if any)

(vii) size (number of files or links)

(vii) ranking (see Google or Alexa)

(viii) Other sites that link to each

Answer:

(a) Discuss these two Web sites: www.drivers.com vs. www.drdriving.org by first describing their overall appearance and purpose.

Drivers.com is a very professional looking website. It is loaded with advertisements related to driving from beating a speeding ticket in court to finding a trucking job. This website offers internet users help in solving a computer device error and lists only four related driving articles that have been recently published. Drdriving.org homepage is not as professional looking as drivers.com. The homepage is very lengthy, but is very easy to navigate. The purpose of the website is to offer internet users information and articles related to road rage, as well as ways to modify aggressive driving behavior.

(b) What are their main differences?

(i) The drdriving.org website contains numerous articles related to driving aggression and road rage. The articles are very informational because they are written by driving professionals and/or researchers. The drivers.com website is very different from the drdriving.org website because it contains various types of articles that relate to the driving topic, not the driving aggression topic. The articles are also written by staff members from the drivers.com website.

(iii) The styles of these two websites are very different. The font used and the plain white background support the notion that the drdriving.org site is very simple and does not seem as professional. Halfway down and at the end of the homepage are different links related to the website. The drivers.com website appears to much more flamboyant. There are different font sizes and flashy colors throughout the site. Many of the related links to the site are listed to the right of the page and are easier to find.

(iv) The intended audience for both sites is anyone interested in the driving topic, but each site has their differences. The drdriving.org website is attempting to attract an audience that is particularly interested in the psychology of driving. The probable audience would most likely be made of parties interested in the research of driving aggression and road rage. The audience would probably be attempting to modify their own or someone else's driving behavior. The drivers.com website has the potential to attract a wider audience because of the variety of driving topics that are discussed. Although the website contains many links, it seems to be trying to advertise a bit more than the drdriving.com site.

(vii) Alexa had rankings for both websites. The drdriving.org website had an average of a little less than a million hits per day and is ranked at the 350,903 spot. The drivers.com website is a bit more popular according to Alexa. It averages about thirty million hits per day and is ranked at the 81,135th spot. (viii) Other information provided by Alexa was the number of links connected to each website. The drdriving.org site has only eighteen web links and the drivers.com site has one hundred thirty.

The Question I am answering is Question 4

Question 4:

(a) Select three of the following student reports from Generation 15:

1. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/ahsing/report2.htm

2. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/chun/report2.htm

3. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/lukey/report2.htm

4. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/morreira/Report2.htm

5. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/shellgirl/report2.htm

6. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/reaves/report2.html

7. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/sophie/report2.htm

(b) Summarize each of the three reports. Be sure you put a link to the report you are referring to.

(i) their ideas,

(ii) their method,

(iii) their explanations.

(d) What did they gain from doing their reports?

(e) How do their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues?

(e) Any other comments you wish to make.

Answer:

(a) Select three reports.

The reports I have selected are:

(1) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/shellgirl/report2.htm

(2) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/sophie/report2.htm

(3) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/morreira/Report2.htm

(b) Summarize each of the three reports. Be sure you put a link to the report you are referring to.

(1) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/shellgirl/report2.htm

The first report I have selected was by a former student of Dr. James who used an alias called, Shell87. This report focuses on emotional spin cycles and what they are. In the introduction, the author explains how she collected data three times a week over a two week period. Each day she collected day, she was recording her affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor behaviors. At the end of the first week she analyzed her data as an attempt to modify her behavior over the second week. She was also making attempts to avoid her negative emotional spin cycles. In the discussion and conclusion sections of her report, the author believed that at the end of the two weeks she was successfully able to become more aware of her negative emotions.

(2) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/sophie/report2.htm

The second report that I have selected was also by a former student of Dr. James with an alias known as Sophie. Similar to the previous report, this author was also writing about her personal emotional spin cycles. In the beginning of the report the author discusses what an emotional spin cycle is, as well as the threefold self. In her personal opinion, she felt she was a positive person. After a week of data collection on her affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor levels, she was able to recognize things that made her feel negative. Her report was a bit more detailed than the previous and included supporting information on the relationship of the emotional spin cycle data collection technique, self witnessing and society.

(3) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/morreira/Report2.htm

The last report that I have selected was written by a former student of Dr. James, Tracey Morreira. Tracey was also reporting on emotional spin cycles and further discusses a possible societal or cultural adoption of your emotions. This report impressed me the most out of all three because the author provides a lot of information regarding the involvement that society has on our negative thinking and our thoughts. Similar to the other two reports, she discusses the threefold self and experiments with a data collection system over a two week period. The author believed that at the end of the two weeks, she did not feel that she experienced negative emotions or thoughts everyday. If she had experienced negative feelings, she attempted to modify her thoughts, feelings, and actions.

(i) After reading the three reports, I felt as if their presentation styles were very similar. All three authors of the reports had felt that the data collection experiment was helpful for them to witness and modify their negative thoughts and emotions.

(ii) The author of the first report recorded her emotions three times a day for one week, analyzed her data, and finally attempted to modify her feelings of boredom by trying to stay productive. The author of the second report also recorded data three times a day when she felt she was experiencing very strong emotions. Instead of analyzing all her data at the end of the week, she looked over her results from each day and tried to pinpoint what situation was happening for her to feel the way that she did. The author of the third report that I had selected had used the same methods as the first author. She followed a data collection experiment and recorded her results three times a day. At the end of the week she attempted to modify her behavior throughout the second week.

(iii) The author of the first report did the greatest job in explaining the steps of the experiment and showed the most influential data. The second report contained very detailed and organized information of her actual feelings and emotions. She explains how she used the blue and red bridges to modify her behaviors over the second week. The author of the third report also had followed the same methods as the previous two authors in an effort to record and modify her negative thoughts, feelings, and actions. The author was able to assign Global Ratings to her detailed chart of her threefold self behaviors and was able to modify her behaviors in the second week.

(d) What did they gain from doing their reports?

All three authors, students of the reports, were able to gain the knowledge and practice of self witnessing and modification of their emotional cycle. The second and third authors felt that it was helpful for them to observe their own emotional, cognitive, and sensorimotor levels and in doing so, they were able to make attempts to flip their negative attitudes into positive ones. The first author was the only student that believed that she was forcing herself to change her thoughts and would not attempt to modify her threefold self again.

(e) How do their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues?

After reading all three reports I had very mixed feelings. The concept of witnessing your behaviors in order to modify them is an excellent concept. However, I feel that this process is very time consuming and tedious. I think I would attempt this experiment myself, but I doubt I would follow the exact same technique. Sometimes I find myself in a lull at some point in the day or have felt negative emotions for a reason I have not attempted to discover. By following a self witnessing and modifying approach, I would be able to pinpoint the reasons surrounding my emotions and could attempt to flip them into positive emotions.

The Question I am answering is Question 7

Question 7:

(a) Our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has checklist exercises in several chapters. Do the following four exercises:

(i) Exercise on How Passenger-Friendly Are You on p.184-5

(ii) Exercise on Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving on p. 140-3

(iii) Exercise on Your Road Rage Tendency on p. 40-42

(iv) Exercise on Your Verbal Road Rage Tendency on p. 91

(b) What were your reactions to each exercise?

(d) Do some of the exercises with another driver you know. How do they help you understand some principles of driving psychology mentioned in the book? Discuss and illustrate.

(e) Any other comments you wish to make.

Answer:

(a)

Chart (i):

CHECKLIST: HOW PASSENGER FRIENDLY ARE YOU?

1. ____ I always consider my passenger's feelings

2. ____ I adjust my driving to accommodate to my passengers' comfort

3. ____ I let my passengers influence my driving for the better

4. ____ I want my passengers to think of me as a good and safe driver

5. ____ I try to avoid making driving mistakes even more when I have passengers

6. ____ I think that passengers should just sit back, relax, and leave the driving for me. But if they feel more comfortable participating, I let them if it's safe.

7. ____ My passengers can control the air conditioning and windows.

8. ____ Passengers have the right to criticize the driver's behavior.

9. ____ I want my passengers to be grateful and show appreciation, but if they don't I won't resent it or hold it against them.

10.____ My passengers can select the music

Chart(ii):

CHECKLIST: WITNESSING YOUR AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

Witnessing Your Emotions:

1. ____Getting angry when forced to brake by another motorist

2. ____ Feeling insulted and furious when a driver revs the engine in passing

3. ____ Feeling hostile when your progress is impeded by congestion

4. ____ Being suspicious when a driver doesn't let you change lanes

5. ____ Feeling justified in retaliating when another driver insults you

6. ____ Enjoying thoughts of revenge or torture

7. ____ Enjoying the role of being mean behind the wheel

8. ____ Feeling satisfaction when expressing hostility against other drivers

9. ____ Fantasizing racing other road warriors

10. ___ Enjoying stereotyping and ridiculing certain drivers

11. ___ Constantly feeling like rushing, even when you're not late

12. ___ Striving to get ahead of every car

13. ___ Being pleased when getting away with breaking traffic laws

14. ___ Enjoying the feeling of risk or danger when moving fast

15. ___ Other:________________________________________

Witnessing Your Thoughts:

1. ____ Justifying rejection of the law that every lane change must be signaled

2. ____ Thinking that it's up to you to choose which stop signs should be obeyed

3. ____ Thinking that there is no need for speed limits

4. ____ Being ignorant of safety rules and principles

5. ____ Thinking that it's not necessary to figure out the route before leaving, when it is

6. ____ Not leaving early enough; thinking you can make up time on the road

7. ____ Thinking that some drivers are fools, airheads, rejects, etc.

8. ____ Thinking that other drivers are out to get you

9. ____ Believing that passengers have fewer rights than drivers

10. ___ Thinking you can handle drinking and driving due to your special ability to hold your liquor

11. ___ Thinking that you can use your in-car communication systems safely without training yourself

12. ___ Believing that pedestrians shouldn't have the right of way when jaywalking

13. ___ Believing it's OK not to wear a seatbelt since you probably won't need it

14. ___ Thinking it's best to get ahead of others even if you cause them to slow down

15. ___ Other:___________________________________________

Witnessing Your Actions:

1. ____ Not signaling when required by law

2. ____ Lane hopping to get ahead rather than going with the flow

3. ____ Following too close for the speed

4. ____ Gap closing to prevent someone from entering into your lane

5. ____ Turning right from the middle or left lane

6. ____ Blocking the passing lane, not moving over as soon as possible

7. ____ Speeding faster than the flow of traffic

8. ____ Shining high beams to annoy a driver

9. ____ Honking to protest something when it's not an emergency

10. ___ Gesturing insultingly at another driver

11. ___ Speeding up suddenly to make it through a yellow light

12. ___ Making rolling stops when a full stop is required

(b) What were your reactions to each exercise?

The first exercise was a little difficult for me in identifying my perspective on my passenger friendliness. When I am driving my mood is not always the same. For this exercise, it was hard for me to check off the first statement because I am not always considerate of my passenger's feelings. I think if it were a tally system charted over a week it may have been easier for me to identify with the items listed.

I felt that the third exercise was very broad. Simply answering yes or no was not as easy as I thought it would be. The statements were very open ended because a few of them contained words like, "normally" or "sometimes". If the statement means a yes or no answer then it should be read as though the statement means that you always felt, thought, or acted aggressively.

The last exercise was easy for me to complete because it was possible to for me to read a statement and picture myself in a certain driving situation. I was or was not able to imagine myself saying one of those statements and checked it off when it applied.

In my opinion, the only exercise that was extremely helpful for me to become more aware of myself as a driver was the second exercise, "Witnessing Yourself As An Aggressive Driver". This exercised allowed me to actually step outside of myself when I was driving and witness my driving habits on an emotional, cognitive, and sensorimotor level.

All of the exercises helped me become more aware of how prevalent my aggressive driving behaviors are. According to the exercise, I scored nine road rage points with typical scores ranging from 5-20 (mean=12). I was a little shocked to find out that I scored just below the average driver. The exercises allowed me to gain insight about my level of emotional intelligence.

These exercises made it easier for me to record my driving data and later analyze my results. If the book did not contain example exercises, I would have never involved myself in recognizing my road rage as a personal driving problem. Most likely, I would have read through the text in complete denial of my own driving behaviors. After much practice of driving with a conscious awareness of my behaviors, there is a high probability that I would decrease my habitual road rage.

(d) Do some of the exercises with another driver you know. How do they help you understand some principles of driving psychology mentioned in the book? Discuss and illustrate.

I did the previous exercises with my father, a person who I always admired as a very passive and non-aggressive driver. According to his answers to the exercises, I determined that he too contains some aggressive driving behaviors. He had many checks marked off for the "Passenger-Friendly" checklist. According to the results, he is not so passenger friendly. In my opinion I believe that it is because of some of his controlling and stubborn personality characteristics that he tended to ignore complaints from his passengers. My father was in complete shock when he found out that he displayed some aggression on the road. This supports the notion that not everyone knows their driving behaviors and it is becoming increasingly important for our society to recognize our actions and take responsibility for them.

The Question I am answering is Question 10

Question 10:

(a) Explain the "supportive driving" orientation in relation to the driver's threefold self. Refer to our book on Road Rage and Aggressive Driving where this concept is discussed.

(b) Describe any resistance you experience regarding this orientation, including

(i) the idea that how you drive is a moral issue of human rights

(ii) the idea of lifelong driver education and the idea of mandatory participation in QDC support groups

(d) Anything else you have to say.

Answer:

(a) Explain the "supportive driving" orientation in relation to the driver's threefold self. Refer to our book on Road Rage and Aggressive Driving where this concept is discussed.

The supportive driving style is important in reducing stress, danger to yourself and others, reduces road rage incidents, and has a positive effect in the reduction of road rage incidents. Supportive driving involves all aspects of a driver's threefold self (affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor). On a cognitive level, adaptive thinking involves accommodating all drivers by thinking in a way that differentiates between all kinds of personalities on the road and adapting a better way of thinking. A good example of a supportive driver would be to think that everyone has a place to go and a different technique on getting there.

On an emotional level, a supportive driver would put themselves in another driver's position and would empathize for that driver. A prosocial attitude is development and the supportive driver attempts to reduce their negative emotions and flip them into positive ones.

The last level of the threefold self is the sensorimotor level. The sensorimotor level of driving involves all the actions that a driver performs when behind the wheel. As a supportive driver, your thoughts and feelings are applied through your actions. The most common form of sensorimotor supportive driving is when a driver performs a random act of kindness. A very simple act of kindness is a friendly wave or a smile, or opening up a gap to allow another driver to move into the lane you are in.

(b) Describe any resistance you experience regarding this orientation, including

(i) the idea that how you drive is a moral issue of human rights

(ii) the idea of lifelong driver education and the idea of mandatory participation in QDC support groups

In regards to "supportive driving", I believe that it is an important part of our driving psychology. With the drastic increase in road rage incidents, traffic injuries, and driving fatalities it is absolutely necessary for something to be done. The self-witnessing and modifying techniques have been very helpful for me. I have always known that I have dangerous driving behaviors, but have never thought of them as aggressive. It is important for me to maintain a positive attitude behind the wheel and focus on spreading the awareness of the driving psychology topic.

(i) Everyone is human and every human has rights. When you drive, your actions have an effect on other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, etc. Therefore, your rights have the potential of being violated. As an example: when a driver is in their vehicle and are riding too close to the car in front of them, that driver is infringing upon the other driver's personal space. This violation of the other driver's personal space is in fact an issue of human rights.

(ii) The concept of lifelong driver education is an important one. Driving habits, along with behaviors are constantly changing. When a driver's habits begin to become negative, it is pertinent for a driver to continue to modify these behaviors and habits. QDC groups are an excellent way of keeping drivers educated and responsible. I do support the notion that the QDC groups should be mandatory because our lives are in danger every time an aggressive driver is behind the wheel.

Advice To Future Generations

As a student in Dr. James' driving psychology course, I have learned much about the issue of road rage and aggressive driving. My solid piece of advice to the future generations of this course is to keep on top of your work. Do your assignments as soon as possible and stay calm. When you encounter a problem, step outside of yourself for a brief moment and take deep breaths. If you follow the assignments EXACTLY, then you should not have a problem. Good luck!

Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/classhome-g23.htm

My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/clayson/409a-g23-home.htm