Psychology 409a,
My Fourth Outline of Assigned
By Julia Dailey
Children and Road Rage
Leon
James and Diane Nahl (2000). Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering
Clear of Highway Warfare .
Instructions for this
activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-oral.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon
James
Concept One: Road Rage Nursery
A. Our behavior during and attitudes about driving are very influential on children as our passengers.
B.
When we are driving every comment we make and action we take is
absorbed by our children, they then model our behaviors when they become
drivers, if a parent is verbally abusive to other drivers their child will also
be a verbally abusive driver.
C.
It is interesting to me that parents pay so little attention to the
impact they are having on their children while driving, I have witnessed many
parents driving recklessly and felt bad for the lack of safety, now I also fear
what sort of drivers are being created.
Concept Two: Verbal Rewards for Good Passengers
A.
Offering rewards to children when they are good passengers is a way
to encourage good behavior in the car.
B.
This method encourages talking positively of the good things that
happened in the car, such as telling the child that they were very quiet which
helped you focus and made for a safe trip.
C. I like this idea because by teaching children the importance of being good passengers adults will drive better and those children will eventually become good drivers in term because they have had good driving role-models.
Concept Three: Children’s Road Rage
A. Children are modeling the bad behaviors of adults and also creating some of their own.
B. Kids are not only copying adults by yelling at and flipping off other drivers they are also exhibiting road rage by throwing stones at cars and crossing roads illegally.
C. I think that this is very disturbing as I my self have been victim to kids throwing snowballs at my car on an icy road, I was terrified and my first instinct was to throttle the kids, it is unsafe for kids and adults.
Class Links:
Related Links:
http://starbulletin.com/1999/02/12/news/story5.html
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/hampton/02042005/news/62836.htm
http://www.quiet.org/quiet-list/msg00152.html