Report
2:
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By Ashley Hooks
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-report2.htm
I am answering Questions 2, 4, 5, 7, 10
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.
(c) Discuss in what way will these ideas
contribute to solving society's driving problems.
(d) Any other comments you wish to make.
Response:
(a)
Reviews of Road Rage and
Aggressive Driving and Driving
Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer
One
of the textbooks we read in this class was Road
Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare by Dr. Leon
James and Dr. Diane Nahl. The authors
are married, and they tell a little about their background in the
beginning.
Also
in part one of this text, anger is further explored by explaining how men and
women are different when it comes to this emotion, and studies show that men do
have more anger and aggression. However,
women, especially those who work, have a lot of anger and aggression as well,
and this can be seen on the roadways.
Driving while impaired is also a huge issue in our society, and this is
an aggressive act, because you are putting others in danger. Other factors that may contribute to
aggressive driving are stressful congestion the peer pressure to drive fast,
race other cars, or drive under the influence.
Finally, this part describes three types of drivers. The first is the vigilante driver, who
purposely commits acts of aggression, such as driving slow on purpose, because
they think they are enforcing the laws of the road on other drivers. The second type is the rushing maniac, who
always tries to get somewhere in the least amount of time possible. The third type is the scofflaw who just
doesn’t abide in the law, such as speeding all the time. The main point of this first part of the
textbook is to present the cause of the problems on the road.
The
second section of this textbook is called “Driving Psychology.” The purpose of this section is to educate the
reader on the approach psychology uses to identifying the problems we have on
the road and how we can fix these problems.
Emotional intelligence is a huge factor because it helps a person to
recognize what emotions they have. If a
driver can realize that he is angry most of the time while he is driving, then
he can fix that by changing his emotions while he is driving. This section offers ways to curb your anger,
solutions such as reframing your negative thoughts into good thoughts, or
transforming your symptoms into remedies.
A way to improve your driving skills, the authors offer the three-step
driver improvement program, which includes acknowledging that you have faults
while you are driving, witnessing these faults and recognizing them while you
are in the car, and finally modifying your behaviors in tiny steps so that
eventually you will become a supportive driver.
Another
important part of the second part of this text is the section on children and
road rage. It offers ways for children
to observe their parents or other drivers, and shows that children really can
be affected by what their parents do on the road. Supportive driving is the opposite of
aggressive driving, and this part of the book shows ways that one can become a
supportive driving and why this is important to work on while you are
driving. For example, offering positive
gestures to other motorists such as flashing lights when there is a slow down
ahead is supportive, and showing someone your middle finger while driving is
aggressive. There are statistics given to
show how teenagers are at a very high risk of accidents, and the solution is
offered to start educating children all throughout school from kindergarten and
on up; this could significantly lower the risk that teenage drivers have,
because they have been exposed to the safe way of driving since they started
school. The last part of this section
shows how older drivers can be at risk, but also how they have some positive
qualities such as many years of experience on the road.
The third and final
section of this textbook is called “The Future of Driving.” It shows how aggressive driving is being
addressed in congressional hearings as well as how it is being enforced on the
level of police enforcement, bills, and through education. This enforcement is needed the author points
out because more people are killed on the road annually than
The second textbook
we studied in this course was called Driving
Lessons-Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer, which is edited by J.
Peter Rothe. This textbook is different
from the first because it is not written by just two authors, but it includes
articles from many different authors on the subject of driving. However, it is
similarly broken into three different sections.
The first section is called “Personal Subsystems” which include the
health subsystem, the social subsystem, and the cultural subsystem, which are
ways to view why we do things that we do on the road. Topics discussed in this
first section include human fallible behavior that highly contributes to
accidents, a list of stressors that can contribute to our road rage, ways we
can control injury by studying how crashes happen, how our social life can
actually contribute to risky driving, and also how the vehicles we drive
actually contribute to our risk while driving.
The next section in
this textbook is called institutional subsystems, and it discusses ways in
which institutions such as the economy, the legal system, the media, and
educational system affect the way we drive.
One problem discussed in this part is between truck drivers and their
dispatchers. This relationship is seldom
exposed, but can contain problems such as pressure to meet deadlines and the
drivers driving long hours without any sleep, which is all a result of the
pressure to make more money. Court
monitoring is also discussed, which is the act of a certain group of people,
such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), simply being present in a court
when a case like one for a drunk driver is going on. This monitoring is proven to influence the
judge/jury to present a harder sentencing against the person under
question. Another important issue
presented is the language used when discussing driving and how driving is a
ways of communicating. Certain language
can make an accident seem as though it was not a person’s fault, or vice versa;
also, driving can be a ways of communicating between drivers, not just a way of
transportation.
Yet another point
made in the second section is the fact that driver skill can be categorized
many ways, depending on how that individual driver handles situations and their
daily driving habits, good or bad. This
also plays into driving knowledge, which can contribute to the way a person
drives. The third and final section of
this textbook is entitled “Technical Subsystems,” which includes things like
technology in vehicles, the roadways, and policing. One technology that is being developed is the
Geographic Information System (GIS) that can be out into vehicles to help them
to see where they are at while driving.
Another area of research uses police crash data to discover what causes
crashes and how we can improve the roadways to accommodate the imperfect
driver, because no one is perfect and increasing road safety can help to reduce
crash rates. Other things discussed in
this section include how much talking on the phone in the car affects your
ability to drive, how effective red-light cameras are, and a conclusion by the
editor, J. Peter Rothe that sums up the points of the book and discusses the
future of driving.
(b)Summary of one chapter from each
textbook
Chapter
7 in Road Rage and Aggressive Driving
by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl is entitled “Children and Road Rage.” This chapter describes how children are
affected by everyone around them and how this carries into the subject of
driving. Children are exposed to driving
at an early age as passengers and this can have an influence on how they later
act on the road while driving. If the
parents or other guardians are aggressive and frequently use harsh language and
express their anger while driving, this can show the children that this is the
way to act while we are driving, and therefore they may use the same language
or expression of anger. The authors show
ways that you can positively reinforce a child as a passenger, such as small
rewards for wearing their seatbelt and other good behaviors in the car like not
making loud noise that distracts the driver.
Children can have road rage as pedestrians and passengers even before they
start driving, by purposely walking slow across a crosswalk or provoking
motorists in other ways. This can be
prevented by teaching the children or teenagers at an early age that this type
of behavior should not be going on.
Children
Against Road Rage (CARR) is a proposed program by the authors that includes a
workbook that raises awareness of good driving skills for children. The chapter presents four activities that
children can do while riding as passengers.
The first activity is “Recognizing Aggression on the Road” and includes
questions on where children have seen aggression in society and asks how they
would handle these situations. The
second activity is called “Appropriate and Inappropriate Passenger Behaviors,”
which has a form that the child fills out while riding with another passenger,
and they identify specific habits that passenger exhibits, whether good or
bad. The third activity is entitled
“Observing Driving” where the child fills out a form while riding with a parent
or another older person, observing their behavior. The fourth and final activity is called
“Drivers Behaving Badly Ratings,” and requires the child to watch certain TV.
shows or movies, and identify if and when the characters are showing bad
behaviors and discussing them. This
chapter shows the importance of educating children in a positive way about how
to behave as passengers and eventually as drivers.
Chapter
5 in Driving Lessons, edited by J.
Peter Rothe, is written by Jeffrey Nash and Gary Brinker and called “Family and
Friends-How Intimate Social Life Contributes to Risky Driving.” These authors explore hour our social life
can affect our driving. The cause of
this is the result of the act of operating a vehicle and the meanings of our
social relationships colliding while driving.
A person who follows the rules of driving, such as obeying speed limits
and slowing down for red lights may be influenced by their close friends or
relatives who might be riding with them, causing them to be less careful or to
break laws. This is especially evident
in teenagers who have less experience balancing their friends who are riding
with them with the challenges of being consciously aware of speed limits and
other drivers. The solution to this
influence could be to learn over time how to balance your social interactions
with operating a car safely.
A study was
presented in this chapter that asked certain questions about a population’s
opinion on different driving behaviors to random people over the phone; the
sample was people of different ages and genders. The results show overwhelmingly that the
younger drivers tend to show more defiance against things such as roadblocks to
check for drunk driving, requiring their passengers to wear seatbelts, and they
were more supportive using a cell phone while driving. This is significant, because teenagers tend
to engage in social interactions more frequently while they are driving, which
influences their defiance against certain laws, and that can increase the
likelihood of having an accident and being aggressive towards other
drivers. A much more accurate support of
this data would be to study what goes on inside a car with a bunch of
teenagers. Therefore, social
interactions have a huge influence on the way a person drives.
(c) How the previous chapters present ideas
that contribute to solving society’s driving problems
The
chapter in Road Rage and Aggressive
Driving about children and road rage is very important in the research
about ways to improve driving in our society.
If we can begin teaching small children the importance of driving safely
and not being aggressive, then we can definitely influence the next generation
of drivers. If you think about things
that you learn in school from an early age, such as the importance of avoiding
drugs in the D.A.R.E. program, you can remember how it influenced your thinking
about the subject in the present.
Children look up to their elders and others around them, and tend to
copy what they do on a daily basis. If
you are constantly exhibiting positive behavior on the road, then the child
will definitely be less likely to become and aggressive driver when they reach
the driving age. Increased driver
education as well as parental influence can have a positive influence on the
next generation of drivers and therefore decrease the amount of road rage. This is why research on children’s road rage
is important to solving our driving problems of the present and the future.
The
chapter in Driving Lessons presents
an important part of driving psychology: the fact that we are social beings and
this influences most things in our life, including the way we drive. This is especially important in research on
why teenagers have more of a risk of getting into accidents and creating acts
of aggression towards other drivers. For
example, a teenager might be more likely to engage in driving while
intoxicated, simply from peer pressure.
If a person agrees to be the designated driver, then is influenced to
have “just a couple” of drinks, then they might do this and still think they
are ok to drive friends home. The only
way to prevent teenagers from engaging in these bad habits on the road, it is
important to educate them of the effect that alcohol can have on your driving
ability, and also how important it is to pay attention while driving even if
you are driving friends around. This
will continue to be a hot research topic in driving psychology.
(d) My comments
These
textbooks were very helpful in teaching me the important aspects of driving
psychology. As a result, I am much more
aware of the causes of driving aggression and accidents on the roads, and
therefore I can carry that into my daily life when I drive. I definitely pay more attention to what I am
doing while I am driving, and every day I consciously try and do something
positive on the road instead of reacting in a bad way to other drivers.
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.
(c) Add a General Conclusion Section in
which you discuss your reactions to what they did –
(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.
Response:
(a) 1st Report: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/chun/report2.htm
(b) This first report that I read was written
by Alyssa Chun. The assignment was to
write about her emotional cycle and data she collected while observing
herself. She first tells a little about
the emotional spin cycle, explaining that everyone goes through it
everyday. Then, she moves on to discuss
how this cycle affects our society, commenting on the fact that she thinks our
society is ignorant when it comes to acknowledging our own emotion cycles. Next, she talks about how this cycle is a
function of the brain and certain nerves trigger our emotions. She then presents her data that she collected
on her own emotional spin cycle, collected three times a day for seven days,
then for the next seven days while she was actively trying to modify her
negative emotions.
In her conclusions, she states that most of her anger was directed at
other people, perhaps to try and justify her own actions. Also, she says that in her observations of
her own emotions, she could not totally express herself and she felt inhibited
because it had to be completed by a due date, and it was going to be available
to view on the internet. She says it was
a good assignment to recognize her negative thoughts, however, and gained a lot
from the experience, which I will talk about more later.
(c) (i) This student has many ideas about the emotional spin cycle. She thinks that her emotional cycle during her first week of observation was negative, and she found herself having thoughts such as depression and anger towards other people who were in her daily life, such as her co-workers. She tried to change these negative emotions the next week by using the bridge techniques, red or blue. The red bridge technique is when you change your emotionally impaired thoughts to emotionally intelligent thoughts, which for her was a way to justify someone’s actions so she could better accept them. The blue bridge technique is when you change your pessimistic thoughts to positive thoughts, which make you feel better emotionally. Both of these techniques helped the author of this report.(ii) The method that this student used, which was given to her in the directions, were to record her emotions at three times throughout the day. She recorded in the morning, afternoon, and night, to obtain a broad spectrum of emotions. From the first week to the next week, she tried to consciously change her emotions through the aforementioned bridge techniques.
(iii) One of her explanations of her emotional spin
cycle data was that she functioned well within all of the 12 setting of the
spin cycle. Therefore, she knew that she
needed to increase her thinking in the positive zone, because she recognized
that she had a lot of negative thoughts.
She knew that lots of things feed into these negative thoughts and angry
emotions such as retaliation and the need to vent, but this was no excuse to
keep her thoughts negative. It is
important for her to figure out ahead of time what she should do to turn her
feelings into more positive ones, which will help her in every aspect of
life. She felt that most of the time when she had rage, it was directed
towards her bosses or coworkers, so she decided to turn these feelings into
positive emotions by rationalizing the actions of these people to sound better
to herself, and it worked. Also, when
she had negative thoughts towards herself, like depression and dissatisfaction,
she tried to make these better by not procrastinating on her homework, and therefore
feeling better about herself. She said
that most of the time, the bridge technique did work.
(d) This
student gained a lot from their report, which was apparent when she was
analyzing her emotions from the two weeks.
She consciously recognized her hostile and angry feelings, as well as
the depressing and low self-esteem feelings.
She tried out the two bridge techniques, and discovered ways to curb her
anger and other bad feelings and turn them into positive feelings. Even though this was just for two weeks, I
think that since she observed this in herself, she will carry it on. She seemed to experience lots of low
self-esteem when she had bad thoughts, so it probably also made her feel better
about herself when she saw that she could think more positively, making her
happier about herself.
(e) I had never heard of the emotional spin cycle; however it makes a lot of sense to me, especially after reading this report. I think that if one thinks too negatively all the time, it can carry over into things like depression and low self-esteem. If you even change one negative thought into a positive one, then I think it could change your whole mood for a day. From personal experience, I identify with her about placing blame on other people for her negative emotions, because I always try justifying my actions or thoughts by things other people have done to me. Overall, this report was very informative to me.
(a)
Second Report: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/shellgirl/report2.htm
(b) The
second report I read was written by a student with the alias shell87, and was
also written about her emotional spin cycle.
In her introduction, she points out that it is helpful to read her
Report 1, which is an annotated bibliography, and explains how the two reports
are related in regards to the emotional spin cycle and what it is exactly. Also in her intro, she mentions how she
recorded her data 3 times a week, the same as the previous student, and how she
had to analyze the first week’s data before moving on to week two where she
would try and modify her behavior.
Then, she explains
the method of acknowledging, witnessing, and modifying that the professor said
she should use when trying to change her own spin cycle during the second
week. She then records her data for week
one, and analyzed the data. She said
that she had a lot of recurring spin cycles, mostly when she repeated events,
such as work and school. Next, she presents
her week two data and says that she tried to change her behavior specifically
late in the day where she seemed to be negative. In her discussion and conclusion she talks
about how she really became aware of some of her negative emotions and how to
change them through this project.
(c) (i) One idea that this student had when she was
doing her emotional spin cycle data analysis was the fact that as the day
progressed, she seemed to get in worse moods and her emotions would change from
positive to negative. Therefore, she
tried to change this by focusing on changing the negative to positive using the
bridge techniques like the previous student.
Another idea was that she was in a lot of recurring situations such as
work and school, where she would either get bored and irritated or just tired
and negative.
(ii) This student also recorded her emotions three
times a day, which were in the instructions, for one week. Then, she looked back at that week and
decided for the second week to try and change her bored and lazy feelings into
positive feelings like being productive.
(iii) This student explained her
emotions in a couple of ways. She says
that it was sad to observe herself having all of the negative feelings like
anger and being bored, and how often she felt these. Therefore, she tried to change them
throughout the second week. She says it
was hard to try and change these negative feelings since she usually takes a
bad mood and runs with it for the rest of the day.
(d) There
were several things this student learned throughout the process of writing this
report. She thinks the most important
thing that she learned was the effectiveness of self-observation. Through just writing down her current
emotions throughout the day, it was more apparent to her that she was feeling
negative emotions way too often. She
thought that the only reason she seemed like she was trying to change the
emotions from negative to positive was because of this project, not for the
genuine reason of being happier. She
says that for her, it was just a project and that she probably won’t try and
change her negative emotions, because it takes more effort than she is willing
to put out.
(e) Carrying
on from the previous report to this one, and reading the different ideas and
conclusions this student had, I realized a couple of things. It would take a lot of effort to try and
change every single negative thought that you ever had, therefore wouldn’t be a
practical application to most people’s lives.
However, if you just tried to change one negative thought a week or not
very often, it would probably still make you feel better about yourself. Sometimes I find my own bad moods and
negative emotions coming out as the day moves on, which can make me feel crappy
by the time I go to bed. Therefore, from
reading this report I realize that I could probably try and be in a better mood
throughout the entire day, even right before I go to sleep, which is usually
when I worry or just want to sleep the day away.
(a) Third Report: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/sophie/report2.htm
(b) The
third and final report I read was written by a student named Sophie. She also had to write about her data and
analysis of her own emotional spin cycle.
In her introduction, she talks about the emotional spin cycle, the
bridge techniques, and the threefold self, all the same as the previous two
reports. She takes it a little further,
however, going into detail about how the emotional spin cycle can be helpful to
society and how psychology can help anyone.
She then goes on to talk her data and its analysis, saying that she too
wrote down her emotions three times a day, however she did it only whenever she
felt she had a really strong emotion, at random times. I chose this report because she did not seem
to have hardly any negative thoughts, in contrast to the first two that I read.
(c) (i)
One idea this student had was that she was leading a stress-free laid back life
at the moment of the observation. She
said that she only had three negative feelings the whole three weeks, one being
late for her standardized test, the other two being while at job working with
animals. She thought that this lack of
negativity was mostly because she did not have to deal with a daily stressful
commute to work or school, and because she works in a solitary state with
animals.
(ii) Her method in taking data three times a day
was to do this when she was feeling a very strong emotion, at three random
times, so as to obtain good results. She
did the global ratings on each day that looked at things like her strongest
stress point of the day. She says that
she ended up taking most observations either while she was working or
studying. (iii) The student went into very detailed
explanations of the three negative feelings that she experienced during those
two weeks. She explains how she used the
blue bridge to make herself feel better after she sent off a turkey to be
killed and eaten for Thanksgiving dinner; one that she had raised herself. She used the red bridge in the next negative
situation, and then the blue bridge in the last negative situation. She says they all worked well to change it to
positive emotions.
(d) Through
doing this report on the emotional spin cycle, this student learned that she
was generally a very positive person, 90% in the first week, and 80% in the
second week. She did think that it is
important to use the method of acknowledging, witnessing, and modifying to
change your negative emotions to positive ones.
She says that she would recommend the program to anyone who wants to be
more aware of their emotions, as it helped her in that way.
(e) I
think that this student is a very positive person from reading all of her data
and her report. I thought that it would
be nice to be positive like that a lot of the time, but a lot of it probably
has to do with the fact that she does not have a stressful life. As for me at the moment, I am taking the
maximum number of credits at school, I work with kids after school three times
a week, and I am married, therefore I have to worry about keeping up my house,
especially since my husband is in the military and is on a 6-month deployment
right now. Not to mention, I have a cat
and a dog. Therefore, I think I could
not be as positive as she is and laid-back, because I have a lot more on my
plate at the moment. It is possible for
me to review my negative emotions and try to change them, but I am not sure if
I can commit to that right now.
The
Question I Am Answering is Question 5
(a) Consider Table 5 in the Lecture Notes,
in the Section on Driving Psychology Theory and Charts at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-lecture-notes.htm#Charts
(b) Consult the article from which the Table
was taken.
(c) Copy and paste the table into your file.
Now delete the examples in each cell and replace them with your own examples
that you make up.
(d) Discuss why driving is such a big
problem in all societies and why no effective solutions have yet been found for
them.
(e) Discuss the solutions offered by Dr.
Leon James (www.DrDriving.org).
What likelihood is there that his approach will be adopted? Explain. (f) Any
other comments you wish to make.
Response:
(a) To view the original chart, go to: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-lecture-notes.htm#Charts
(b) Table 5 is from an article entitled
“Principles of Driving Psychology” found at:
http://www.drdriving.org/articles/driving_psy.htm
(c) Here are my examples that I put into the
table myself:
|
Table
5 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
(d) Driving
is definitely a big problem in our society.
There are several reasons for this.
First and foremost, humans are not perfect; therefore anything they do
doesn’t always go as planned. A good
example of this is driving and how human fallible behavior can cause
accidents. We can go to classes to learn
how to drive safer and always be cautious, however this is not going to prevent
an accident from happening because they is always going to be the chance that
you run into a driver who is not cautious and who will cause an accident from
their reckless driving. This is a hard
problem to fix, and there are things being done such as making roads safer and
so on, but it will always come down to the human making a mistake.
Another
reason that driving is a problem is the fact that when we drive, we don’t
really acknowledge what we are thinking or feeling, and don’t realize how much
this affects our actions. As a result,
most people think that they are driving fine, when they may in fact be putting
others in danger. If you don’t take a
step back and observe your behaviors and acknowledge your aggressive thoughts,
then most people will never discover that they are in fact aggressive
drivers. Familiarity also plays into
this as well because when you are comfortable in the situation of driving
because you do it on a daily basis; it is hard to believe that long-term habits
can be dangerous, especially if you have never cause an accident.
Yet
another reason driving is such a big problem is because most people think that
they are the only ones who are driving.
The car is a place where you are isolated, and this isolation causes a
sense of independence from the rest of the world. This is aggressive however, because if you
think you are alone on the road, you are not considering the other drivers, and
this is dangerous. This problem is
mostly apparent when we drive by ourselves, but can also occur when we have
passengers in the car with us.
(e) Dr.
Leon James offers a few solutions to fighting road rage and aggressive driving. He suggests a continuous driver’s education
that will start in kindergarten, and move forward in content and complexity
throughout elementary, middle, and high school.
It starts off with simple concepts such as recognizing anger, and moves
on as the child gets older to observing your parents driving and other
activities to recognize bad driving habits.
By the time the students get to the driving age, after being exposed to
this education each year, they will have a thorough understanding of road rage
and how to prevent it. This is a good
approach to decreasing deaths; however it would definitely take a lot of time
and effort to actually get schools to adopt the program, and for it to be
present in all schools. It is unlikely
that this will happen right away, if at all, however it is a very smart
proposal.
Another
solution Dr. James suggests that is perhaps more practical is the 3-step method
which is something an individual can do to improve their driving skills. You have to Acknowledge your problem on the road, Witness to the bad driving by observing yourself, and Modify your bad habits. It is necessary to do this method in small
doses, such as trying to modify one bad habit at a time. For example, work on leaving earlier for work
because you are always rushing. This
method can be very effective for an individual, but might be hard to convince
people to try it. This is because most
people have a hard time admitting that they have problems, and we might think
that we are good drivers. However, this
method would be more practical to use to immediately improve driving.
Other
solutions that have to do with driver’s education are things such as his
RoadRageous Video Course. This is a
video that teaches the viewer all about how to control their anger while on the
road, to modify aggressive behavior, and what aggressive behavior is. Dr. James thinks that every American should
watch this course, in order to just gain knowledge on the subject, which could
make a difference. It may be hard for an
individual, but they could recognize things in the video that they are doing
wrong, and realize that they should change their bad habits. This method could be easier to implement
because you could include it into a mandatory course, or make it mandatory for every
driver to see before they get their license.
(f) I
think that driving is definitely a huge problem, and needs to be fixed. There are tons of different ways that people
could educate themselves and change their bad habits while driving, however
they have to make that choice. If a
person doesn’t think they drive aggressively, then they might even go through
driving improvement courses, but never learn anything because they think that
it doesn’t apply to them. This just
contributes to the problem more, so I think that in the long run the best
solution to battling aggressive driving and really decreasing the number of
deaths would be to implement driver’s education as early as possible in the
schools so young drivers can start out with the right habits.
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?
(c) Discuss how these exercises help you to
become more aware of yourself as a driver.
(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.
Response:
(b) The first exercise called “How
Passenger-Friendly Are You?” serves to identify how you feel and act towards
the passengers that ride/have ridden in your car. I thought each question had a valid point. I think this is an important exercise because
it causes you to look at a different point of view, the one of your passengers,
that you may never consider otherwise.
The second exercise is called “Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving” and
it causes you to step back and observe your own emotions, thoughts and actions
while you are driving. This way, you can
see if you are having negative/angry emotions, thoughts, or actions on the
road, and therefore self-witness what you may have never seen before. Some examples would be feeling angry or
wanting revenge against other drivers, thinking about laws as unfair or other
drivers are ignorant, and tailgating or closing in a gap so no one can come
into your lane. These are all
aggressive, and in my opinion, bad driving habits.
The third exercise called “Your Road
Rage Tendency” is designed to help you identify when you might have road
rage. The questions ask you to answer
yes or no to statements that would characterize an aggressive driver, such as
feeling that pedestrians should not have the right of way when jaywalking, or
what you do or feel when traffic becomes congested. These statements may sound
absurd to some, but in fact they might have experienced them however cannot
admit to it. At the end, you get a score
how much rage you have on the road. The
fourth and final exercise is called “Your Verbal Road Rage Tendency.” This one is a little different because it
states several statements that real drivers have said, and asks you if you have
ever had the same thoughts. This shows
that many people have the same thoughts while driving sometimes, even bad
thoughts, and this heightens your awareness that there aren’t just a tiny
number of aggressive drivers on the roads every single day.
(c) I
think that I am a passenger-friendly driver.
My responses seemed to back that up, because I answered yes to: I want
my passengers to think of me as a good and safe driver; I try and avoid
mistakes while driving with passengers; I think the passengers should leave the
driving to me, but if they want to participate in a safe way they can, and my
passengers can select the music, air conditioning and windows. I have never really thought about my driving
while I have other people in the car, I guess because right now most of my
driving is by myself, since I just go between work and school. However, when I drive with other people, like
my husband and my best friend, I often tend to go slower and tend to their
needs while on the road, such as their taste in music and the temperature they
like the car to be. I think this is a
really good habit to have, because it is good for your passengers to feel safe
with you as a driver.
When I did the second exercise, some of my
answers were emotions such as:
·
getting angry when
forced to brake by another motorist
·
feeling hostile
when your progress is impeded by congestion
·
constantly
feeling like rushing even when not late
·
striving to get ahead of every car
Then, some of my
answers were thoughts such as:
·
justifying
rejection of the law that every lane change must be signaled
·
being ignorant
of safety rules an principles
·
not leaving
early enough
·
thinking that
some drivers are fools, airheads, rejects, and so on
·
thinking it’s
best to get ahead of others even if you cause them to slow down.
Finally, some of my
answers were actions such as:
·
Not signaling
when required by law
·
Lane hopping to
get ahead rather than going with the flow
·
Following too
close for the speed
·
Gap closing to
prevent someone from entering your lane
·
Speeding faster
than the flow of traffic
·
Speeding up
suddenly to make it through a yellow light
·
Playing the
radio loudly enough to be heard by other drivers
·
Failing to yield
When I looked at my
answers to this exercise, I was almost shocked, because I realized how many bad
habits I really do have! It makes me
kind of scared because any of these bad habits at any time could put me or
someone else into danger or getting into an accident. Therefore, this exercise was very helpful for
me to self-witness. The next exercise asked about my tendency to have road
rage, and it went in the same direction, with thoughts about rushing and
getting unjustifiably angry at other motorists.
This was really a wake-up call that I need to change my habits.
The last exercise
which was about how verbal I am with my road rage, and some of the things I did
realize that I say to myself while in the car, such as “look at that dumb
driver,” or “I’m tailgating you, how do you like that?” When I step back and think about all of these
thoughts or words that even make it out of my mouth, it makes me sad and makes
me want to improve my driving. It
honestly makes me feel stupid, like what am I thinking when I do or think these
kinds of things? Therefore, these
exercises can be very helpful to many road ragers to realize their bad habits.
(d) I
gave the book to my best friend and told her to take these tests that I
took. I then looked at her answers and
came up with several conclusions about her driving and about driving psychology
in general. One thing that stood out to
me was the concept of verbal road rage.
This is addressed in the book to be one of the most common forms of road
rage in our society, so it was no surprise to me that my best friend used this
form. In the exercise “Your Verbal Road
Rage Tendency,” she checked off a lot of the answers, which all contained
negative comments, such as “serves you right,” or “who do you think you are” in
response to other drivers. She also
admits to usually feeling very hostile while driving, and this results in
venting her anger verbally. I think this
form is definitely a threat, because in the book it says that many people may
choose to take this even farther than just verbal abuse, and it could result in
physical abuse. Therefore, I think it is
important to have self-awareness.
In
contrast to all the verbal aggression and angry feelings that my best friend
has while driving, when she took the passenger-friendly test, she did well as
far as showing that she respects her passengers. She says she always turns the music down when
she knows the passengers don’t like it, and they can roll down the windows or
adjust the air if they want to. This is
similar to me, in that we both think that being respectfully to our passengers
is necessary. The book identifies road
rage against passengers an issue that is often overlooked, because most people
don’t think about it. However, I think
that you can be respectful to your passengers, but then on the other hand, have
road rage against other drivers, which would most likely occur in that case
when no one is in the car with you. This
is just a conclusion based on both of our experiences, but I think it is
important to identify specific problems that drivers should work on, not just
label them “bad drivers” overall.
(e) These
practical applications really help in gaining perspective on how you drive on a
daily basis. If I would not have taken
this class, I probably never would have really thought about how I drive, if it
is aggressive or not. But I am a firm believer
that knowledge is power, and if you spread your knowledge of aggressive driving
on to just a few other people, more people will consider this in their daily
lives. I know this first-hand not only
from my best friend that helped with this part of the report, but with some of
my other friends who ask me about the driving class. I think that aggressive driving is a problem
where the solution comes from the same source as any other solution, from
within yourself and you ability to admit that you need to change something in
your life.
The
Question I am answering is 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
(c) Describe the reactions of friends when you tell
them about driving personality makeovers
(d) Anything else you have to say.
Response:
(a)
Supportive driving is just the opposite of
aggressive driving. Supportive drivers
know that they always have to be concerned about the other driver, and that
they constantly have to be aware of their surroundings. They do not do things that are inconsiderate
to other drivers, and they know how to control emotions such as anger. Dr. James mentions in his book Road Rage and Aggressive Driving a few
reasons why supportive driving is beneficial: it helps contain road rage, it
reduces stress, it improves the immune system, fosters community spirit,
protects from emotional or physical injury, and protects from financial liability. These reasons should make anyone want to
become a supportive driver in my opinion.
The driver’s threefold self is
affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor.
When this threefold self is looked at from the supportive driving point
of view, it is important to look at each part separately. A driver’s affective self is based on their
feelings and emotions, therefore a supportive driver is one who is calm,
accepting of other drivers, and who is not under the influence; these are all
supportive emotions while driving. A
driver’s cognitive self is based on one’s thoughts, so if a driver is
supportive, then they are thinking positive things while driving, such as this
person in front of me is going slow and has a handicap sign on their license
plate, so I should pass them carefully; another thought a supportive driver
might have is, there is a lot of traffic today, so I should try and be extra
alert while driving home. All of these
thoughts can be considered adaptive, which is adapting to the situation, and is
something that is imperative in order to consider a driver to be
supportive.
The last part, a driver’s
sensorimotor self, is the actions that the driver actually carries out;
therefore, a supportive driver might slow down while it is raining, or give a
nice wave to someone who lets them over into their lane. The actions are a direct result of a person’s
thoughts and emotions, so therefore if you don’t think adaptively or feel calm
and accepting of other drivers, then you will not carry out the actions of a
supportive driver. All three aspects of
the threefold self working together can give a perfect example of how a
supportive driver should/does act.
(b) A
supportive driver to me is seen as the “perfect” driver, but I know no one is
perfect. I think that in order to be a
supportive driver, you must have a mindset that is completely opposite of being
an aggressive driver. I think this is a
hard mindset to have, because its definition requires you to be continually
alert, positive, and supporting of the other drivers, which is not always
easy. For me, it is so easy to just get
into a bad mood when I drive, especially when there is heavy traffic. I think this is because I have control over
my vehicle, as opposed to not having control over other things in my life. This is aggressive behavior, and I know that
I should change into more of a supportive driver. I know that this is not an easy task, because
it is asking you to give up thoughts, emotions, and actions of aggression that
I have known probably the whole time I have been driving.
(i) Before this course, I did not even consider
the fact that the way I drive is a moral issue of human rights. That is, if I drive aggressively, then I
could be taking away another person’s rights by putting them into danger on the
road. This is disturbing to me because I
consider myself to be a very moral person who does not want to hurt
anyone. I would never intentionally
start out my commute saying, I want to hurt someone on the road today, or I
want to cause an accident. But driving
aggressively makes this statement for you.
It makes me take a second look at the way I drive, because I really want
to be supportive driver who always looks out for other drivers and does not put
them in any type of danger. However, I
know that this would require me to change a lot of aspects of my driving
behavior, and that I would have to be totally committed for it to really have a
positive effect.
(ii) Lifelong driver education to me is a very
good idea, because it teaches children from an early age how to deal with their
emotions, and to be a supportive driver who always considers how they are
affecting other people while driving. I
know that obviously, I will never be able to take part in this type of
education, but I would definitely be all for it if it came into effect when my
potential children go to school. I know
that from a parent’s perspective, I will like it for my children, because it
will ensure more safety once they begin to drive. As far as the QDC support groups being
mandatory, I am not sure if I would support them or not. I know that it would be good to constantly be
discussing your driving behavior, because if you didn’t talk about it on a
regular basis, then you would most likely forget about it and possibly start up
bad habits again. On the other hand, if
I had a lot going on in my life, I might see the class as an imposition and
something that just got in my way, so I might not take it as seriously. Therefore, it would definitely be a different
experience for me, and that could potentially help me to be a supportive
driver.
(c)I have already explained the method of
acknowledging, witnessing, and modifying in this report in my answer to
question number 5; this is called a driving personality makeover. If you would like to read more about this
method of changing your driving behaviors, you can go to http://www.drdriving.org/articles/makeover.htm
Also in this report, I
mentioned my best friend who took the quizzes in the book about her driving behavior
in question number 7. When she took
these quizzes, she checked off answers that said she is hostile while driving
most of the time, and she has a problem with verbal road rage. I told her about how she could change her
aggressive behaviors that I noticed from the quizzes by doing a driving
personality makeover. She just kind of
looked at me weird, and said, “Well I don’t think I would ever really do
something like that because I don’t think I am a bad driver, and would not want
to take the time to study my behavior.”
I think a lot of this attitude is because she has not ever
second-guessed her ability to drive, and cannot be easily convinced that she
needs a driving makeover. I tried to
explain it to her in more detail, and she listened, but she did not really say
that she would try and change anything; she just said that she understood.
I
also mentioned this driving personality makeover concept to my husband. I had told him about the driving psychology
class before this, but this time I went into a lot more detail about how you
can change your driving personality with a makeover. I mentioned it to him, because whenever I
ride with him, I notice some behaviors like anger and frustration at other
drivers, and from taking this class I know this is not good and is considered
to be aggressive. I waited to see if he
would say he could use a makeover after my explanation, but he just said “oh
ok, well I guess that would be good for people who can’t drive and need to
learn how.” I think his reaction has to
deal a lot with the fact with being a male, because in my own experience, males
have more pride and have a lot harder time admitting that they need to change
something about themselves. He seemed to
think that other drivers cannot drive, but he can. I think I will continue to bring this up every
now and then to let him know that he could use a change while driving.
(d) After looking at supportive driving in its own context apart from aggressive driving, I understand a lot more about what supportive driving is. It is a mindset that one has constantly while driving, and it creates a peaceful experience for them anytime they get into the car. To me, that sounds wonderful because I spend so much time commuting from home to school to work and back to home. To be able to create an environment where I feel like I am helping others out and also not putting myself or anyone in danger, would be a good thing for me. Therefore, I am going to seriously look at my driving behavior and see what I need to fix.
“My
Report on the Previous Generation”
These
reports can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/geraghty/409a-g22-report2.htm
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/mcwade/409a-g22-report2.htm
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/lacy/409a-g22-report2.htm
Julia
Mae Geraghty- This student from
Generation 22 had a very nice Report 2.
Her report was very easy to read, and the things she included were: five
questions she answered from Dr. James’ list of questions, her report on her
current generation-the class she was in, and finally her advice to future
generations. She answered questions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 7. I really related to her
advice because she was up front, and wasn’t afraid to say that she got angry
and frustrated while trying to complete the long report. I also liked the way she answered question
number 3, comparing the two websites drdriving.org and drivers.com. These websites were frequently visited by me
and my classmates throughout the semester and I thought the way she described
the websites visually and the content was very accurate and
straight-forward. I think this is an
excellent report and I am sure she did well in this class last semester.
Brandi
Mcwade- This student from Generation
22 did a really good job on her Report 2.
I loved the different colors and designs that she used, because it helps
to read the long report without getting bored.
She answered questions 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7, and included a report on her
other classmates from the same generation and her advice to future
generations. She did a very good job
being thorough on all of her questions that she answered, and giving her honest
opinion of driving psychology and the way she thinks of herself as a driver. By reading through her report, you can see
that she thinks she has learned a lot about driving psychology through this
course, and that she has improved her driving by putting into practice some of
the exercises presented in different articles.
Jessica
Lacy- This report was not as
colorful or easy to read as the previous two from Generation 22. Her Report 2 contained questions 1, 3, 4, 7,
and 10, her report on her fellow classmates’ oral presentations, and her advice
to future generations. Question 1 was
kind of vague because she was summarizing tables and did not paste them on the
report, so it was hard to follow it.
From reading her report, I could mostly understand the concepts she was
presenting and her opinions on some of the subjects. She does think that psychology of driving is
important, and that we can definitely improve our driving in our society. You can especially understand her opinions
when she answers question 7, and she is responding to negative versus positive
statements while driving. She puts
emphasis on safe behaviors and being polite to other drivers, which is part of
being a supportive driver.
“Advice
to Future Generations”
I have to say what I’m sure all my classmates say and tell you to not
procrastinate. I spread out my time on this
report so that I would not be overwhelmed at the end and therefore felt no
stress while completing this assignment.
As far as the other work goes, the outlines might seem a little tiring
to have to do ten of them, but they are so easy if you just do 1 a week, and if
you do this at first they will be done and you can concentrate on this last
report which requires some time and effort.
I also recommend going to class, not until because you’ll lose points
otherwise, but because you learn about the concepts in better depth, firsthand
from Dr. James and other students. This
makes this last report so much easier because you already know the concepts and
don’t have to keep looking things up.
This is an enjoyable class if you make it that way; Dr. James is out to
teach you about driving psychology and information literacy, not to just give
you a lot of work.
Class
Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/classhome-g23.htm
My
Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/40af2005/hooks/409a-g23-home.htm