Psy 409 11/09/05

My Seventh Outline of Assigned Readings

By Ashley Hooks

Lifelong Driver Education

Reference: Leon James and Diane Nahl (2000). Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare. Amherst, New York; Prometheus Books. Pages 190-202.

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. Teenagers at Risk

A. Statistics have shown that teenagers are the most high-risk individual drivers on the road, because of many factors, but mostly just inexperience. Since a teenager is brand new at operating a vehicle, they may not know how to handle some situations on the road and may make poor decisions. They also have been shown to take more risks while driving. To prevent this, many states have implemented stages of getting your drivers license, such as having a permit, then not being able to drive at night for six months, and then getting their full license.

B. Parents can have a significant role with their young driver. Particularly with the driving permit rule, where the teenager has to have a licensed adult in the car with them while they are driving. This can be helpful to the young driver because the parent who has been trying to set a good example can see if they have made an influence or not, and can help to correct any bad driving habits before the young adult has a chance to drive by themselves.

C. I had to go through the stages, and though it was annoying I know it helped. I hated driving with my parents because they were really annoying at the time, but I know the points they were making about me speeding and about other bad habits I had were all true. Also, when I could not drive after 9pm for six months, that became annoying because if I wanted to go out I had to be back by 9pm, but I’m sure it kept me out of a lot of trouble anyway.

II. Driving Psychology Curriculum

A. This curriculum is designed to be a lifelong learning experience. It goes through the stages of school from elementary, to middle, and then to high school when they start to drive:

· In elementary curriculum, the child learns affective skills in ways that they will understand; they observe other drivers they ride with or see on the road and also observe drivers from a pedestrian’s point of view.

· In the middle school curriculum, the child starts to add onto their knowledge by learning cognitive driving skills. These skills are a step up from affective and include reasoning mechanisms about what is aggressive or supportive driving. Another big objective is to teach the children about our rights on the road as human beings and how aggressive driving can affect the rights of other motorists.

· In the high school curriculum, the sensorimotor driving skills are introduced and put into practice. Since sensorimotor is the actions that a person carries out, the students are given lots of hands-on experience prior to receiving their license, including driving simulators. This way, they can understand how their thoughts and emotions affect their decisions on the road and learn how to respect other drivers’ rights.

B. Teaching this curriculum in every school would make it easier for kids to understand from an early age that driving safely and non-aggressively is important in a society where transportation by cars is totally necessary. Then they would most likely take it more seriously and then when they get their licenses, there might not be as many accidents. However, it would be a long time before society would see these effects because a whole generation would need to go through the same curriculum.

C. I think that this would definitely be a hard program to implement across the board, because different states and school systems would most likely have mixed emotions about whether or not to make the program mandatory. I think it is a good concept and a good long-term solution for current road rage, because it would take a while to show up in the statistics.

III. Post Licensing: The QDC Approach

A. QDCs are Quality Driving Circles that are like a support group for drivers after they have been through school and through the graduated licensing approach. These groups help drivers to continue their good driving and to talk with others about how they drive. However, in the authors’ experiences, there are not a lot of people willing to go to these groups. This is because of the lack of motivation of people in our society to try and recognize their driving habits and to improve them.

B. These groups don’t have to be completely random, and can be grouped together, such as Family QDCs, Dyadic QDCs with other people you are in the car with often, Professional QDCs for those who drive for their profession, and also senior QDCs for drivers who are in the senior age group.

C. I think these groups are a very good concept, because they can implement discussions about driving, which will in turn increase the people in the group’s awareness of their own driving habits, good or bad. If someone else is telling us that we could work on something, and we feel like we have something in common with that person, we would most likely be more motivated to consciously try and make ourselves better drivers.