Report 2:
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By: Tiffanie Jinbo
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409a-g23-report2.htm
I am answering Questions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7.
The
Question I am answering is 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).
Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl are the creators
of “driving psychology.” After years of
research, the couple was able to create theories and a solution to decrease
road rage and aggressive driving. Dr.
James had years of experience in driving but could not admit to being an
aggressive driver; with help of his grandmother and wife he was able to
overcome the challenges. Dr. James and
Dr. Nahl achieved goals to overcome negative driving habits and wrote Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare to
share how every driver is able to overcome these challenges.
This book contains three principle parts: 1) Conflict Mentality 2) Driving Psychology 3)
The Future of Driving. Conflict
Mentality socially and psychologically defines road rage and aggressive
driving. Driving Psychology introduces
ways to become a supportive driver, or the non-aggressive driver. The future of driving involves technology
improvements to increase awareness, skill, and safety in driving. As we strive to improve driving habits, every
chapter is equally as important as the next.
Conflict mentality educates the definition of
driving psychology. The first chapter
includes the severity of road rage and how we deny ourselves of our actions in
driving. Two key definitions emphasized
are road rage and aggression which are explained in the second and third
chapter of Road Rage and Aggressive
Driving book. With the final chapter
of conflict mentality involves categorizing your personal severity of road
rage.
Driving psychology is the next section of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving. This would be the most influential part of
the book where it explains the emotional and psychological aspects of road
rage. It also includes a
self-improvement program to become the supportive driver which stresses on
acknowledgement, witnessing, and modifying.
The last section of the book is entitled “The
Future of Driving.” The leading cause of
death in the world is traffic, and finally people are acknowledging the
problem. It is not only Dr. James who
takes interest, but government is also taking actions. There will be a constant battle in aggressive
driving. Our reality has to be focused more
on our driving skills than in the changes in safer technology.
As a result of the Traffic Safety
Driving Lessons is also divided into
three sub-systems: 1) personal
sub-systems, 2) institutional sub-systems, 3) technical sub-system. Personal sub-systems involves one’s self
verses others in the contribution to tension on the road. Institutional sub-systems involves the how
traffic safety is affected by daily interactions of different
organizations. The technical sub-system
is the mediary and interacts with all sub-systems to create change (Rothe, 246)
The first section, “Personal sub-systems” is broken
down into the health, social and cultural sub-systems. This sub-system explains our reasons for our
actions on the road. Theories included
in these chapters explain how driving and safety relate to personal
psychology. Other theories include how
one’s social group may affect driving and habits that are formed.
“Institutional sub-systems” is the second section
that deals with organizations within the community that influence our driving
and driving environment. Many of the
chapters include the legal aspects in driving as well as studies done in
truckers. It also involves concepts on
educating the real world challenges of driving.
The final section of Driving Lessons is called the “Technological sub-system”. Articles in the section of the book dealt
with any improvements or changes done in the driving world. With technological advances such as photo
radar and red-light cameras we are able to increase traffic safety and adapt to
new laws in our continually changing society.
b) Select one Chapter form each text and give a
summary of it.
“Driving in the Age of Rage” is the
title of 1st chapter of the Road
Rages and Aggressive Driving book written by Dr. James and Dr. Nahl. Not only was this chapter the most appealing,
but it was an introduction into the class in driving psychology. It educates on how the automobile is the
leading cause of death in the world. They
also educate on how it is human choice that anger becomes an emotion of our
lives. Ways of protecting yourself from
aggressive drivers are also advised in this chapter. The interactive checklist in discovering
self-road rage tendency concludes the chapter.
Chapter 19, “Is Using a Cellphone
Like Driving Drunk?,” by Donald Redelmeier and Robert Tibshirani is about life
stories about use of the cellular phone and getting into an accident. With much ease cell phone use while driving
is something that can be monitored and one change in decreasing mortality can
lead to many more. In their study they
concluded that the cell phone is not an adequate cause of fatal collisions
because cell phone usage does not lead to fatal collisions.
c) Discuss in what way these ideas contribute to
solving society’s driving problems.
By informing the public that the
automobile is the leading cause of death should be the major eye catcher. We see advertisements of decreasing smoking
and drinking, but where are the commercials on driving safety? After being
taught that anger is a natural emotion for a majority of life, it is truly a
choice that humans make. Seeing anger as
a choice assists with any desired actions of retaliation in driving.
Society seems to find a scapegoat
for their actions, when in reality it is truly their own fault. There are people who see the cell phone as a
way to increase comfort in our lives and there are others who see it as a ways
of emergency. Of course there are only a
handful that uses a cell phone as an emergency, knowing that we only have our
selves to blame increases our awareness and alertness in driving
d) Any other comments you wish to make.
The
Question I am Answering is Question 3
a) Discuss these two Web sites: drivers.com vs. drdriving.org
by first describing their overall appearance and purpose.
Dr. Driving’s website is a user
friendly website and feels welcoming.
Dr. James and Dr. Nahl provide this website for the public’s personal
use. The website includes information in
areas of children and youth, driving courses, elderly drivers, law enforcement
and legislation, pedestrians and bicycling, etc. Scrolling down the page you are able to view
free articles concerning areas in traffic, useful statistics on car crashes and
injures, related links, and main topics offered on their website. The purpose of the website is clearly visible
in educating driving psychology to the general people.
Drivers.com is a website that
dedicates studies in the areas of computers and auto drivers. Drivers.com is originated in
b) What are their main differences? Be sure to consider
at least these areas:
i)
content of articles
There is much variance in the content of the
articles in the two websites.
Drdriving.org contains articles written by other professionals in
driving psychology. Although there is
variety in choice of articles in drivers.com, how do we know that the articles
written are credible because they are written by the “drivers.com staff.” Drdriving.org shows much credibility in his
article as they are written by professionals of the topic.
ii)
Content and tone of
newsletters, when present
Availability in drivers.com is a major issue in
newsletters. Drivers.com is written
several times a year and is emailed to you upon registration. Drdriving.org did not contain any newsletter,
but when searched articles were the response.
iii) Style of the site
Drivers.com is designed with frames and is commercial
oriented. Drdriving.org is basic with
multiple links at the bottom of the page, with the main page also containing a
list of sub-categories in driving.
iv) Probable Audience
The probable audiences for Drdriving.org are
students of his class, professionals interested in fixing societies problems in
driving, and those seeking professional advice in driving psychology. Drivers.com seeks anyone looking for an
occupation in driving and any person seeking current issues in the traffic
community.
v)
Public Relations or
Policy, etc.
There is no written policy in either of the
websites. Public Relations involving
Drdriving.org is completed by Dr. Nahl and Dr. James. The couple is contacted either by phone or by
email regarding questions or concerns, and what I would consider a “family
business.” Drivers.com has articles and
contact information including address, phone, and email. Drivers.com also contains ads from Google who
sponsors the website.
vi)
Advertising (if any)
Advertising in Drdriving.org would only be the
book and video authored by Dr. James and Dr. Nahl. The advertising on Drivers.com is written by
Cardinal Logistics, which is a sponsored link and ads by Google.
vii) Size (number of files or links)
Drivers.com contains 4.65 kilobytes and 19
links. Drdriving.org has approximately
84 links and holds 51.76 kilobytes.
viii) Ranking
According to Alexa powered by Google Drdriving.org
is traffic ranked 389,384 and has been online since November 29, 1997. Drivers.com is traffic ranked 91,519. It has been available online since May 28,
2005.
ix) Other sites that link to
each
Link to Drdriving.org:
1.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/1999/Dec/01/opinion2.html
2.
http://au.dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Automotive/Driving/Road_Rage/
3.
http://exn.ca/cars/Links.cfm
4.
http://www3.telus.net/eddyelmer/eeres.htm
5.
http://www.allscars.com/caranddriver/
Link to drivers.com:
1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout
2.
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=13131
3.
http://washington-dc.addresses.com/city/driving~schools/washington-district+of+columbia-dc-89.html
5.
http://library.millersville.edu/guide.cfm?Parent=608
The
Question I am answering is 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)
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/chun/report2.htm
This is the second
report of Alyssa Chun entitled “Customizing My Emotional Spin Cycle: Data
Analysis”. Cycling of positive and
negative feelings that equates to thoughts and following actions. Her assignment was to collect data of her
emotional spin cycle. After explaining
the emotional spin cycle, she analyzed two weeks of her data recognizing her
uses of red or blue bridge techniques.
In her findings were somewhat biased and stressed that time was an issue
of data collected.
ii) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bf2001/reaves/report2.html
Nicole Reaves was the
author of this report. This report was
also entitled “Customizing My Emotional Spin Cycle: Data Analysis.” She first introduces you to the Emotional Spin
Cycle by defining it and its components.
After explaining the three-step method and the blue/red bride
techniques, she summarized her two weeks of observation and discussed the
issues of changing habits. Through her
study she was able to realize just how challenging changing old habits can
be.
iii) http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2001/sophie/report2.htm
Sophie wrote report
two: “Customizing My Emotional Spin
Cycle: Data Analysis.” She introduces the emotional daily cycle,
three-step method, and the bridges all theorized by Dr. James. Over her two week period she was to rate her
days on a scale of 1-10 on the amount of stress she received. Sophie found that in her two week period, she
enjoys life and leads life stress-free.
Self-witnessing is also appreciated in this observation of herself,
which incorporate her to learn methods of the threefold self and emotional spin
cycle.
c) Add a General Conclusion Section in which you discuss your reactions to what they did
i) their ideas
Their ideas were explained in such a way that people with no background
of driving psychology would be able to understand. They all effectively learned characteristics
of themselves as they completed the process of self-witnessing.
ii) their method
Chun had the best method of recording her self witnessing. By providing the days and levels her daily
emotional spin cycle, she was able to determine any drastic changes. Whereas Reaves only provided samples of her
data collected, which may undermine the research she has completed. Sophie was well organized in her research and
provided the dates as well as times in which she recorded her emotional
spin-cycle.
iii) their explanations.
They all provided understandable explanations. They were able to determine any changes in
their daily spin cycle, and whether or not the two week research was
adequate. Chun believed that the two
weeks certainly was not enough time for such a sophisticated research
project. They could not determine
whether or not they had any drastic changes in emotions.
d) What did they gain from doing their reports?
They were able
to understand the concept behind self-witnessing, the ability to understand
their actions, emotions, and feelings.
They were able to apply the three-step method to their daily lives and
comprehend the changes in the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor; they were
also able to identify their three-fold self and using the bridges able to
adjust any negative feelings, thoughts, or desires.
e) How do their ideas influence what you yourself
think about these issues?
Their research makes a believer out of me,
that the concepts of Dr. James are in fact useful to driving improvements. Their research also proves that they are able
to apply their knowledge of the class to life’s challenges. Dr. James’s steps of becoming a supportive
driver do not only apply to driving, but other emotional challenges as
well.
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
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Table 5 |
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b) Consult
the article from which the Table was taken.
The
above comes from: www.drdriving.org/articles/driving_psy.htm
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.
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d) Discuss why driving is such a big problem in all societies and why no
effective solutions have yet been found for them.
Driving
is a problem in all societies because it is built around the curves of the
Earth. In societies such as the
e) Discuss the solutions offered by Dr. Leon James (www.DrDriving.org). What likelihood is there that his approach
will be adopted? Explain.
After years of research, Dr. James and Dr. Nahl
have established many solutions to solving society’s problem in driving. Of the solutions, the three step method and
driving personality makeover would help others to solve worldwide
solutions. The three-step method and
driving personality makeover are practical, but not advertised as other
problems in society such as drinking, smoking, drugs, and diseases. It is a lack of this driving knowledge and
interest in society that it is a solution.
If it ever does become a trend, these solutions should be the first to
introduction.
The
Question I am answering is Question 7:
a)
Our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has
checklist exercises in several chapters. Do the following four exercises: (X =
Yes)
i.
Checklist on How
Passenger-Friendly Are You on p.184-5
How many
of these items are true of you as a driver?
1.
_X_ I always consider my
passenger’s feelings.
2.
_X_ I adjust my driving to
accommodate to my passengers’ comfort.
3.
_X_ I let my passengers
influence my driving for the better.