Psy 409a 10/03/05

My First Outline of Assigned Readings

By Ashley Hooks

The Effects of Personality on Driving Behavior and Driving Research

 

Reference:  Rothe, Peter, Ed., By: Schmidt, Sergio L. (2002).  Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer.  University of Alberta Press p. 10-19.

 

Instructions for this activity are found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-oral.htm 

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

 

My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/hooks/home.htm

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

 

 

I. Three Personal Subsystems
                A.  Health-to be a safe driver, you should be in good physical and mental condition; Social-we are by nature social beings, and driving

is a social activity in which we constantly have to pay attention to others; Cultural-Despite which culture we live in, we all have similar 
          thoughts and actions when it comes to driving; these all come naturally on the road.
    B.  These three sub-systems are definitely a part of everyday life while on the road.  If you have someone who is handicapped, they might 
          drive slower than others and cause someone to get angry, which creates road rage.  Social and cultural sub-systems exist on the road every 
          day.  For example, flipping someone off for cutting you off is social because of the interaction and cultural because giving someone the 
          finger is a universal sign that someone is mad.
    C.  I think these sub-systems exist while driving, and I think it is important to be aware of them.  A person, who does not think about 
          someone not being in good health as the reason that person is driving slowly, will not take that into consideration.  As a result, the person 
          who is not in good health would be jeopardized and might be put into danger by the other driver if he decides to act aggressively.
II. Importance of Neurophsychology and Higher Brain Function
     A.  Neuropsychology covers a wide range of functions that are present in every human brain, having to deal with cognition and 
           behavior.
     B.  Neuropsychology accurately describes mental efficiency and is therefore a good indicator of whether or not someone can be a good 
           driver.
     C.  Neuropsychology is a great approach to determining someone's ability to drive a car; however, it would be hard to test every driver, 
           so it would probably not be efficient in the overall improvement and safety on the road.
III. Supporting Human Fallible Behavior
      A.  One problem that is very important is that humans are fallible, and scientists are working on finding ways to support this 
             behavior in humans, to make the roadways safer overall.
      B.   Two things they are researching currently are ways to support drowsy driving and handedness.  Their goal is to learn how to make 
             these factors less of a hazard on the road.
      C.  Drowsy driving is always going to occur in my opinion, because someone is not going to not drive somewhere because they are 
            sleep-deprived; driving is a necessity to some people.  Therefore, it is good to study ways to support this habit since it will always be a 
            factor affecting many drivers.  Also, with handedness, studies could definitely help to illustrate if this factor is really affecting the 
            safety of the roadways.

 

 

Related Web Links:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/health/article-page.html?res=9F07E2DE153FF931A15753C1A9659C8B63 – This article talks about older people being tested virtually for their driving ability.

http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/licensing/renewingalicence/drivingandhealth.html - a list of conditions that could affect your driving, rules, and legal responsibilities if you are driving under these conditions.

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Clinical_Neurosciences/articles/ww44099.html - an article about the neuropsychology of driving with dementia in elderly drivers