Psychology 409a, November 10, 2005
My Fourth Outline of Assigned
By Yu Takebayashi
Gender, Impaired Driving, and Emotions
James, Dr.
Instructions for this
activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/409-g23-oral.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Concept 1: The
Gender Effect
A. There are differences in behaviors between men and
women. Men experience rage, impatience,
danger, violence, and competition more than women. Women experience positive emotions more than
men when they drive. Men drive more
aggressively than women, and act out their road rage more often.
B. Although men report to be more aggressive and have
more road rage, the % of women is increasing as well. This is most likely due to the increased
amount of women in the work force. They
have so many responsibilities: make sure
everything is okay in the morning, drop their kids off at school, get to work
on time, work, pick up their kids, make dinner, put kids to sleep, etc. When they get stuck in traffic, it throws off
their schedule and could possible result in being late for their kid’s pick up,
or making dinner. This leads to stress
and anxiety, which may be the reason why they are being more aggressive on the
roads.
C. I don’t experience too much road rage but I still
find it irritating when someone does something stupid to “get in my way”. I know my mom stresses a lot when she’s
driving because she always has to pick up my brother, then
make dinner right after. Because my
brother is spoiled he doesn’t want to take the bus home after he works so he
has my mom pick him up. She always has
to make a few round trips due to these factors, which must lead to a lot of
stress.
Concept 2:
Impaired Driving
A. Many people think “impaired driving” is if you are
drunk driving or on drugs. However, it
also counts your emotional state as well.
Impaired driving is driving under the influence of: fatigue, chemical substance, or strong
emotions. It is aggressive driving
because you are putting other people on the road at your level of risk when you
chose to drive.
B. A lot of people drive after they’ve had a few drinks
because in their mind, they are not all that impaired. However, if they are angry or depressed, they
do not think “I shouldn’t drive because my emotional state could be endangering
others on the road.” We are always in
constantly changing emotional states, so it’s really hard to just stop driving
when we get angry or upset. Another
reason why people drive while impaired because they always rate themselves as a
better driver than they really are.
C. One time I got really upset at my mom and I just
wanted to get out of the house. I could
just run out, but if I did she would just follow me and keep yelling and
nagging me. So I thought a good idea was
to take my car and go to a nearby place (but somewhere she wouldn’t find
me). I was crying and really upset, so I
probably shouldn’t have been driving at the time but all I wanted to do was get
away.
Concept 3:
Emotional Self-control
A. There are two parts to controlling our emotions:
1. Self-appraisal:
monitor our emotions and how we express them
2. Self-regulation:
acquiring methods to self-regulate the intensity and expression of our
emotions.
B. When asked what they are thinking, people can easily
answer. When asked how they are feeling,
many times it’s hard to accurately answer with just one word or a
sentence. We are (most of the time) not
just one emotion like happy/sad/mad.
Since we are not always completely aware of our emotional state, it
makes it hard for us to control when it gets too strong.
C. Sometimes when I get upset, I have a hard time
knowing what to do. It feels like I want
to just let out my anger or sadness on something, but don’t quite know
what. Not knowing what to do usually
makes me more irritated, because I feel like I should be able to do something
about it since they are *my* emotions.
My Homepage:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/takebayashi/home.htm
The G23 Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy23/classhome-g23.htm
Related Weblinks:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s98/nakagawa/report3.html
gender differences in driving
http://www.ncadd.com/ The National Commission Against Drunk Driving
http://www.coping.org/control/selfcont.htm
self control and how to develop it