Psychology 409, November 25, 2006
Analysis of Road Rage
by your Lida Atkinson

Instructions for this activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm 
Instructor: Dr. Leon James

 

The Phenomenon of Road Rage: Complexities, Discrepancies and Opportunities for CR Analysis

www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/3_3scott.htm

 

Introduction:

 

            We have all read the stories of a conflict between two drivers escalating into violence and even death. Most of us have witnessed or been involved with at least one instance of “road rage”. This article takes a close look at specific events of aggression and violence on the roadways and provides a model of conflict resolution that is hoped to inspire dialog among those that research conflict.

 

  1. The stories
    1. road rage is a more frequent occurrence in Britain, Canada, and the United States than in other countries
    2. road rage is not limited to Western societies
    3. analysis of 33 newspaper stories indicates that “road rage” is a global phenomenon
    4. road rage presents a series of unique challenges to researchers because:

                                                              i.      usually involves expressed aggression between strangers

                                                            ii.      it is related in some way to a driving incident

                                                          iii.      a perceived threat of "invasion" into one's space, and thus, one's identity

                                                         iv.      it is a conflict phenomenon that has yet to secure a universally agreed upon definition

                                                           v.      insufficient quantifiable data documenting its existence

                                                         vi.      theories about its causes abound, proposing an extremely broad range of probabilities

                                                       vii.      the inability to target causes for the phenomenon presents major challenges to resolving it

  1. Defining Road Rage
    1. In Canada, the Ontario police define road rage as "random acts of violence or aggressive behavior carried out by frustrated or over-stressed drivers"

                                                              i.      what constitutes aggression may be entirely subjective

    1. Dr. Arnold Nerenberg, a California-based psychologist who treats patients with difficulty controlling their anger on the road, defines road rage as, "When one driver lets another driver know that he or she is angry because of something the other driver did. In expressing that anger, the driver might make obscene gestures, scream, honk, put on the brakes, cut in front or brandish a weapon. Or even use the weapon"

                                                              i.      "Aggressive driving and road rage are blurred terms and difficult to distinguish," writes Patrick Bedard of Car and Driver (1998). Bedard goes on to ask, "Can you criminalize impatience?"

    1. Dr. Ricardo Martinez, head of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive drivers as "individuals who are more likely to speed, tailgate, fail to yield, weave in and out of traffic, pass on the right, make improper and unsafe lane changes, run stop signs and red lights, make hand and facial gestures, scream, honk, flash their lights, be impaired by alcohol or drugs, drive unbelted or take other unsafe actions"

                                                              i.      How do you legislate hand and facial gestures, and to what degree does such legislation impinge upon rights for the freedom of speech?

    1. Daniel B. Rathbone and Jorg C. Huckabee (1999) define road rage as when "an angry or impatient motorist or passenger intentionally injures or kills another motorist, passenger, or pedestrian, or attempts or threatens to injure or kill another motorist, passenger or pedestrian"

                                                              i.      what about those instances where one driver aggresses another and unintentionally causes the latter to be involved in a violent and/or deadly accident or unintentionally causes the latter to suffer such emotional duress as to produce a deadly heart attack or stroke? Should the aggressing driver be charged with road rage?

  1. Quantifying Road Rage
    1. According to Overberg, "We knew there was no real definition of road rage, and we quickly found that there weren't even good measures of its level, let alone whether it was on the rise. It was, we reasoned, the tip of a dangerous iceberg called aggressive driving"

                                                              i.      concluded that efforts to measure road rage trends were impossible since "aggressive driving is fleeting and elusive"

    1. a January 1999 article in Consumer's Research Magazine concluded, "There's no objective evidence to support the notion that highway hostility is increasing…despite recent media attention rediscovering aggressive drivers this has been a problem in one form or another for most of this century"
    2. The fact that the phenomenon of road rage has received more attention in the past 10 years (much due to the efforts of media) than it did in the previous decade could be evidence of not only its increase but also its increasing volatility.
    3. There are strong indicators of the prevalence of more deadly manifestations of road rage, particularly manifestations linked to fire arms
    4. today's phenomenon exists in a social milieu of more widespread cultural and interpersonal violence than in previous times
    5. Gallup International Poll found that 80.4% of people surveyed in Britain, 78.1% of people surveyed in the Netherlands, 76.6% of people surveyed in Greece and 72.7% of people surveyed in Luxembourg report having been victims of road rage
    6. NHTSA head Ricardo Martinez reported that cases of "violent aggressive driving" were growing by 7% a year. He speculated that "approximately 28,000 deaths on America's roads each year, or two-thirds of the total, are wholly or partly the result of bad temper"
  1. Identifying the causes for Road Rage
    1. The list of probable causes includes:

·         Increased congestion on roadways; a report by U.S. News and World Report (June 2, 1997) indicates that between 1970 and 1987 the number of cars on the road more than doubled;

·         Increased levels of intrapersonal and interpersonal stress, including stress associated with employment, two-career families, familial relationships, child-care issues, elder-care issues, and fundamental economic and technological changes in society;

·         Listening to loud, thumping music on the car radio while driving;

·         The need to "save face" and overcome feelings of being disrespected by another driver;

·         The need to assert one's identity and maintain control in a situation where one fears losing control;

·         An overriding cultural focus on "time" as a limited resource, including concerns about "saving time," "using time wisely," "being on time," and "time being money";

·         An overriding human need for "space," which causes some drivers to become territorial and guard against another driver's infringement on their space;

·         The summer heat;

·         A breakdown in manners;

·         Popular culture's focus on machismo and masculinity;

·         Increased immigration trends leading to a mixture of different driving styles;

·         A widespread increase in interpersonal violence, including murder, domestic abuse, and street crime;

·         An overriding focus on individualism that produces a "me first" mentality;

·         Oppressive social conditions that produce feelings of alienation in individuals;

·         Slow drivers;

·         Defensive driving habits that produce an inflated sense of concern about the poor driving skills of others;

·         A pervasively lower emotional intelligence and moral character than exhibited in past societies;

·         An innate human drive to aggression;

·         Decreased drivers education in schools;

·         Reduced levels of traffic enforcement;

·         An ignorance about the "rules of the road";

·         Dehumanization of the other;

·         An attempt to attain power in an otherwise powerless existence;

·         Increased commuting distances and durations;

·         Fewer people relying on mass transit and more relying on cars;

·         An increased sense of invincibility behind the wheel of a 3,000-pound vehicle;

·         A cultural propensity to promote and reward behavior that is competitive, tenacious, and aggressive; and

·         An individual propensity to perceive one's vehicle as an extension of oneself.

  1. Institutional, Therapeutic, and Individual Attempts to End Road Rage
    1. there are also innumerable tactics designed to bring an end to the phenomenon

·         Education programs: driver education programs to teach the rules of the road, public education campaigns to publicize the hazards of road rage, and motorist education programs to teach motorists the best ways to respond during incidents of road rage;

·         Therapeutic programs, including anger management, stress management, and behavior modification workshops;

·         Intelligent transportation systems, including enhanced photo radar and speed detection devices; and

·         More vigorous law enforcement, including an increased police presence on the roads and stiffer penalties for persons convicted of aggressive driving and driving "too slowly" in the left lane.

  1. From Identity to Escalation: Examining the stages in "classic" road rage
    1. The origin of the anger and hostility apparent in road rage could very well be initiated by fear -- the fear of being disrespected, unacknowledged, injured, violated, and losing control are closely aligned to the fear of being forced to sacrifice, compromise, or in some cases relinquish one's identity
    2. Northrup's four stages of conflict - From Identity to Escalation

                                                              i.      Stage 1: Threat

1.     an agent's perception of a threat

                                                            ii.      Stage 2: Distortion

1.     In this stage of the conflict, a psychological response to the threat involves a distortion of reality in order to preserve a sense of identity

                                                          iii.      Stage 3: Rigidification

1.     the drivers become more firmly rooted in their distortions and their behavioral responses to the distortions increase

                                                         iv.      Stage 4: Collusion

1.     the Drivers give the conflict itself prominence over anything else

 

Conclusion:

 

            This article exemplifies the difficulty of defining “road rage” much less trying to determine the actual instances of aggressive driving. The author feels that the perception of an increase in aggressive driving is a fair indication of truth. He makes a logical argument for assuming that the problem exists and poses his idea for a resolution, which involves using a conflict resolution method. This method is intended to give mental health professionals a tool to intervene before an incident escalates into violence.  

 

Links:

 

http://www.crnhq.org/  The Conflict Resolution Network. Conflict Resolution skills, strategies and attitudes more readily and universally accessible

 

http://www.acrnet.org/ Association for Conflict Resolution. Advances the practice, research, public understanding and teaching of conflict prevention and resolution

 

My Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/atkinson/atkinson-home.htm

Class Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm