Report 2

Report 2
My Report on Driving Psychology
By your name

Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-report2.htm
I am answering Questions 01, 02, 03, 05 and 07.

Dr. Leon James, Instructor
University of Hawaii
December 2006

My Report on the Previous Generation:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/kubo/report2.htm

I chose this report done by Jeremy Kubo because he seemed very intent on improving his driving. He used didn’t AWM approach (acknowledging his problem, witnessing his problems, and modifying his behavior) to do his report and he was very organized. He seemed somewhat knowledgeable of what he was doing as but he could have talked more about the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor and how it was involved in the AWM approach.

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/fukushima/report2.htm

I looked at Ikue Fukushima report on her driver makeover plan for her boyfriend. She gave her boyfriend the test on pages 40 and 41 from Road Rage and Aggressive Driving By. Dr. James and Dr. Nahl that accessed his road rage tendency. This shows that she had read the book and understood that too start the driver makeover plan she had to see his tendencies first. She used found the weak points as well as his strengths then began to use the AWM approach. She seemed to know more then the previous report because she then talked more about the three-fold self and applied it to her boyfriend’s situation.

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/mansfield/report3.htm

Melissa Mansfield report was done on her proposal for life long education. She focused on modifying behavior and felt that QDC groups were very important. But for lifelong education for kids and teens she felt like it was important for the parents to instill wisdom for the kids. She felt like the parents should take an active roll and help their sons and daughters driver education through out their life.

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/kikuchi/report%201.htm

Hiroko Kikuchi report was done on the basics of driving psychology. Although you can’t really tell if someone is knowledgeable by listing definitions in his conclusion he showed that he saw things that needed improvement as a driver on the road. This shows that he took what he learned and looked at his own life which is the beginning of the AWM approach.

Even though we focused on different things in our reports I felt that all of us learned a lot from this course. It seemed like we all started to acknowledge that we weren’t perfect drivers and that we saw room for improvement. The knowledge we obtained helped us to become better drivers. Our understanding of the curriculum is different but all of us showed signs that we were learning and I think that was the idea behind these reports.

The Question I am answering is Question 01:

(a) Contrast our two textbooks: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving (James and Nahl), and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer (Peter Rothe, Editor). Name some ways they are similar, and some ways they are different. Would either text be suitable for high school students?

(b) Discuss in what way these ideas can help solve society's driving problems. Be specific: describe the main problems (use some statistics) and how can particular ideas in these two books help solve those problems.

(c) Describe the reactions of friends when you tell them about driving personality makeovers and its psychological and social context.

Road Rage and Aggressive Driving by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl is a book that is separated into three main parts. The first part is about conflict mentality and has 4 sections. The sections are Driving in the Age of Rage, Aggressive Driving and Mental Health, Causes of Highway Hostility, and The Road Rage Spectrum. The second part is titled Driving Psychology and has five parts. The parts are Emotional Intelligence for Drivers, Three-Step Driver Self-Improvement Program, Children and Road Rage, Supportive Driving, and Lifelong Driver Education. The last section is called The Future of Driving and has three parts. The War Against Aggressive Driving, Speed Limits—The Great Motorist Rebellion, and Dream Cars and Driving Realities.

Driving Lessons edited by J. Peter Rothe also has three parts. The first part is the Personal Sub-Systems which goes into Neuro-Behavioural Variables and Traffic Safety, Dealing with Stress, Aggression and Pressure in the Vehicle, Innovations in Injury Control, Family and Friends, Rural versus Urban Driving, Driving Identities over the Lifespan, and Risky Vehicles, Risky Agents. The second part is the Institutional Sub-Systems which is about the Sugar Bear in the Hot Zone, Dispatchers and Drivers, Volunteer Citizen Activism and Court Monitoring, From Workplace to Community, Revisiting Communications and Traffic Safety, Driver skill, and Breaking the Crystal Ball. The last part is the Technical Sub-Systems is about Geographic Information Systems, Case-Based Reasoning and System Design, Modeling Hazardous Locations with Geographic Information Systems, The Evolution Toward an Integrated Systems Approach to Traffic Safety and Roadways, Is Using a Cell phone like Driving Drunk?, Red-Light Cameras, and Traffic Safety.

Just by looking at the introduction of the book you can see differences in the books. In Driving Lessons edited Rothe starts to explain what his book is about and who wrote it but in Road Rage and Aggressive Driving by Dr. James and Dr. Nahl start off the book with a story that explains why they are interested in driving psychology. Road Rage and Aggressive Driving show emotion as well as personal experiences which make this book a lot more personal. Driving Lessons seems to be aloof and distant.

Driving Lessons takes articles from different people and compiles it into a book. Though the articles differ from person to person this book is well put together. Road Rage and Aggressive Driving are written by mostly Dr. James and Dr. Nahl and the opinions in the book seem to be more understandable because it’s from the same people not from different people.

Driving Lessons uses more technical jargon and terms that high school students wouldn’t understand. Some things I read I had to read over and over just to understand the concept on what they were saying. Road Rage and Aggressive Driving had words that are more understandable to high school students and have a lot of examples which they can relate too. Also the checklists that were given would help the student understand how this book relates to them and how it can help them.

In my opinion Road Rage and Aggressive Driving should be read first to get the general idea and develop a general interest. If they see that they enjoy the book they should have the option of taking another class that uses Driving Lessons. Driving Lessons is a bit drier and probably those who are more interested in driving psychology would enjoy it more.

I think the idea of just teaching high school students this material will greatly improve their awareness and whether they realize it or not they will be taking away something that will help in life. If we incorporate driving psychology in high school we will be helping the lives of our teens as well as lives that they could have negatively affected. Also if we keep driving psychology in school eventually through generations everyone will be aware of the issue and problems haven’t been solved or addressed might be addressed and solved later.

To show how road rage affects us there are 12,000 road rage assaults and battery incidents are reported each year by police as stated in Road Rage and Aggressive Driving by Dr. James and Dr. Nahl. If we can do things to prevent this from happening we will be saving times, money and lives. We will be able to go to our destinations faster if we spend less time arguing and fighting. We will have more money because of money not spend in court or on damages to the cars. And lives will be saved because there will be less road rage and anger while driving.

According to Driving Lessons edited by J. Peter Rothe between 80-90% of accidents occur are to driver error, less than 10% is to vehicle failure and between 10-20% is to road related deficiency. Seeing that driver error is by far the biggest incident area we should focus a lot more attention on driver skill as well as how drivers handle themselves. We seem to focus to much on cars and not enough on the people that controls how the cars respond to situations. By reading these two books you can gain valuable information on how to make yourself a better driver and in fact some of these lessons make you a better person.

Stress is a big factor in our every day lives and driving with a lot of stress will make driving more difficult and dangerous for everyone. That’s why in Chapter 3 of Driving Lessons it talks about what gives us stress and how we can deal with it. By labeling what stresses us out we can then find a solution to prevent this from happening or minimizing the reoccurrence of the situation happening again.

(c) Describe the reactions of friends when you tell them about driving personality makeovers and its psychological and social context.

I talked to a couple of my friends about how people should change their driving styles and behaviors by doing a driving personality makeover and they just laughed at me. They thought that they drove perfectly fine and that getting mad and yelling or swearing over things was a common thing that everyone did. I then told them that if it is a common thing that it is more of a reason why we should change because these things should not be common. They saw a point in that but thought it would be difficult to change one person but to change everyone it would be near impossible.

So I told them that there are actually classes people can take and that psychology has a branch dedicated to helping drivers and they were slightly intrigued. They didn’t think that there were that many people interested in driving psychology and asked what a driving personality makeover was. I explained to them it’s about accepting that we aren’t perfect drivers and looking for things we can improve on. Then we actually take a step on improving in that area. They said this may help me stop physically doing some actions but the way they think would not change. I told them that after you react negatively think of reasons why they acted like that, it might not have been intentionally at all or there might have had an emergency.

After I explained that to them they saw that this may in fact help our society. They thought this wouldn’t help everyone but the people it did help made driving personality makeovers well worth it. Because the people that are being helped directly aren’t the only one’s benefiting, everyone is. They asked some personally questions about their driving after I talked to them and seemed generally interested in the topic of driving psychology.

The Question I am answering is Question 02:

(a) Search Google News section, for "road rage." Describe what you see. Is it a general phenomenon? How do you react?

(b) How do you explain what's going on -- using driving psychology theory. Connect what you found in the news with the problems and solutions you discuss in Question 1.

(a) Search Google News section, for "road rage." Describe what you see. Is it a general phenomenon? How do you react?

When I searched Google News for road rage 2,000+ articles popped up. And as I scrolled down and looked at the dates road rage seemed to be happening daily, in fact in many situations more then twice in a day. And the articles I found where not just from a specific area or country it was happening around the world. Then I started to look at the titles and summaries of the articles.

Many of these articles deals with extreme violence like guns or battery. Most of the articles I see dealt with men from the age of 18-29. I was surprised at how cruel people could be over simple and stupid things. Just because someone was driving to slow or cut them off by accident extreme violence occurred. This led to articles about prison sentences, jail times and trials.

What else surprised me though there were many incidents there weren’t that many articles that studied road rage or tried to help eliminate it. In fact the first page of articles pulled up 9 out of 10 were articles dealing about actual incidents and 1 trying to give us more information about road rage.

Road rage is a general phenomenon which was clearly shown in Google News. It was happening every day all over the world. It contained extreme violence that sometimes seemed worse then what we see on television. The term road rage was brought to a whole new light to me when I read some of these articles.

I was shocked, just by using Google it made me realize even more how important dealing with road rage really is. We really need to expend more effort on eliminating road rage or at least minimizing it in our world. We should try to make more information to the public informing them that we need to stop road rage and show them ways on how we can improve our societies.

(b) How do you explain what's going on -- using driving psychology theory. Connect what you found in the news with the problems and solutions you discuss in Question 1.

In Road Rage and Aggressive Driving it mentions that we need greater civility in our society. We have encouraged aggressiveness and violence which is shown by a popular commercial successful even on television which is wrestling. A popular show that embodies violence and aggressiveness is what entertains millions. The show sadistic characteristics have become a norm in television shows today.

If we can show that being unruly is not a norm and by doing that people realize that road rage is not something that should be common or happening everyday. If we can realize that we would get more people interested in the subject of road rage and a broader driver psychology. With more interest we would have more ideas as well as more action taken to prevent road rage.

(c) Tell your friends about what you found. Describe their reaction.

My friends were in shock about how often these road rage cases happen. They were surprised that this happened everyday all over the world. But what surprised them the most was the severity of the crimes. They thought this kinds of things happened infrequently and mostly on television. But this brought them back to reality and they were further interested on the topic of road rage. They said they might have felt this way before but never dreamed of actually acting it out.

I think this is a great way to introduce people who have little knowledge of road rage and driving psychology and show them that this indeed is a huge problem. With actual events that are happening daily they will have to address this issue and would be prone to learn more about it.

The Question I am answering is Question 03:

(a) Select some student reports at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups Discuss your reactions to what they did – their ideas, their method, and their explanations. What did they gain from doing their reports? How do their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues?

(b) Now go to Google Groups search and type in "driving". See if you can corroborate the conclusions of the student reports which were done several years ago. Is this still going on the same way?

The first report I choose was: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups/newgroups71.html

The idea of this student was to find interesting they found stories that were not the usual one sided stories or typical ideas that we here but found stories that conflicted with ideas and thoughts. For example he talked about motorist and bicyclist which we normally don’t hear about in road rage and explained their side of the story. I think that even though these ideas aren’t heard about much they are important for improving our driving and helping our road rage.

I like the method that she used, think outside of the box to help fix what is in the box. We can’t all just dwell on the same issues and come up with new and innovating ideas to solve our problems but thinking of new angles will guarantee new results. The student also gave his personal experience as long as data to support what he said.

He seemed to gain a lot of insight of the topic of driving psychology as well as learning that being impartial and looking at many different views can help you learn more then just sticking to what you think. Though this may seem common sense it is hard for people to do and I think this is something very important that we all need to learn.

The second report I have chose was: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups/newsgroups25.html

Janice Kamm chose statements that ranged from things that are hard to change to things that are common annoyances that could be easily resolved. From making speeding a felony to simple turning on your headlights on earlier to stop accidents Janice took a firm stand in her opinion. Taking stand is not enough but she also backed it up with what she thought should happen to show that she was just not mindlessly saying that she was right because she said so.

Though she took a firm stand in her opinion she admitted that she was unaware of things which is not only a good thing to do as a person in life but also as a driver. While driving I have begun to catch myself assuming things but I told myself that I didn’t really know the answer and their driving could be explained by a different reason. This led me to have a lot less stress while driving and kept my anger and frustration in check.

These reports differed but I felt like I took something from both of them. I realized that if I looked for statements like the following students I would choose the ones that interested me and not really look at the others ones. But by looking at what other people picked it helped me pick up on information I wouldn’t normally be able to obtain.

(b) Now go to Google Groups search and type in "driving". See if you can corroborate the conclusions of the student reports which were done several years ago. Is this still going on the same way?

My initial reaction of Google Groups is that it is a great way for people to communicate and express how they feel and to help each other learn from their mistakes and experiences. But when I googled and look at some of the forums I was disappointed that I saw just a lot of road rage transferred onto the forums. They weren’t trying to help each other but instead just making the matter worst by goading each other. But as I continued looking through the search I found material that was enlightening. People were helping each other by providing information and statistics to back up their reasoning. These people were clearly more level headed then the others and I think they are more informed today then they are now.

I think things are getting a little better because of people are more informed then before. Though there is improvement I personally don’t think much has happened. I talked to my family and friends about it and all of them never heard of driving psychology and I feel that to take a positive step we need to get a lot more people aware of it.

The Question I am answering is Question 05:

(a) Our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has checklist exercises in several chapters. Have a friend do the following four exercises:

(i) Exercise on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings on p. 65-66

(ii) Exercise on Are You an Aggressive Competitor on p. 104-5
(iii) Exercise on Positive Driving Behaviors on p. 212-3
(iv) Exercise on Your Passive Aggressive Road Rage Tendency on p. 88-9

(b) Discuss the results with your friends. How do you explain the results? Where did they get this style of reacting and driving? How do they help you understand some principles of driving psychology mentioned in the book?

(a) Our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has checklist exercises in several chapters. Have a friend do the following four exercises:

(i) Exercise on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings on p. 65-66

I interviewed my friend and this is the statements that applied to her:

Driving Area 1: Fantasies of Retaliation and Revenge

3) When drivers become aggressive by tailgating me, I enjoy slowing down to pay them back.

She not only felt angry that someone would disrespect her space she was worried that they would hit her if she had to stop.

6) If motorists around me act cocky and drive recklessly, I get into a rebellious mood.

She took it personally if someone was driving bad and felt like something needed to be done.

8) When a driver cuts me off and then slows down, I feel like ramming that car.

She felt like someone had to teach the driver manners and wanted to take it into her own hands.

9) I get nasty thoughts about drivers who force their way into my lane, especially without signaling.

Signal lights were put there for a reason and she felt that if you were going to force yourself into her lane you should at least have the courtesy to let her know.

10) I feel like ramming them to smarten them up about doing dangerous things (eating, putting on makeup, reading, talking on the phone, etc.) while they should be paying attention to the road.

She wanted to let the drivers know that she thought they were not driving safely and they need a reality check.

Driving Area 2: High-Pressure Driving and Competition

13) When a car gets in my way I don’t like it and I try to get around it even if it means taking some risks.

She felt like she wasn’t in control of the situation and that it was worth the risk if she could get the control back.

15) I’m a “gap closer” and I make sure no one enters my lane in front of me.

She sometimes felt that it slows her down greatly when people enter her lane so she tries to close the gap even though if it means tailgating slightly.

16) When I’m late, I have no patience and tailgate slower motorists in my way.

She felt like people were purposely trying to slow her down and felt that she wanted to let them know that they were going to slow.

17) If it was up to me, I’d have everybody else get off the road until I pass – like the president.

She sometimes felt that she felt that she had the greatest urgency to go somewhere and that others people urgency wasn’t as bad.

18) I like the idea of saluting careless drivers “with respect” (flipping them off with my hand safely out of view under the dashboard.

She wants to express how she feels and let others know what she thought of their driving.

19) I don’t have respect for drivers who forget to turn their blinkers on or off.

She felt that drivers were just stupid for being so careless.

Driving Area 3: Impulsive and Reckless Driving

21) I enjoy loud, fast music while I drive – lets me feel free!

She felt driving empowered her and loud music made the ride much more enjoyable.

22) When I drive late at night and the road is clear, I like to go faster no matter what the signs say.

If there is no one else on the road she felt that she could go as fast as she wants because she wasn’t endangering anyone else.

23) When I’m in a rush and upset I cut in front of cars and rush through yellow lights

She feels like it is okay to do things because she only does it when she is rushing.

24) If I had a few drinks but feel all right, I take a chance and drive home anyway.

She feels like she has total control of the situation and that those drinks did not hamper her driving ability.

(ii) Exercise on Are You an Aggressive Competitor on p. 104-5

2) I’ve discovered that I can force my way into any lane by being pushy.

If people don’t let her cut in she knows that she can force her way in which she can always resort to doing.

3) I believe the law prevails on the road is the law of the jungle- we might as well face it: The most aggressive drivers end up getting what they want.

She sees aggressive drivers getting away with things and feels like she should have the same rights as well.

4) I’m driving in the left lane in heavy traffic and trying to switch to the right lane to make a right turn at the next intersection. The driver in the car next to me sees my signal and closes the gap, preventing me from entering the lane. I miss my turn as a result. This proves that he purposely kept me out.

This happened to her many times and felt this way, but I then told her maybe he didn’t really see her signal or if he let her in he might have caused a dangerous situation with the cars in front and in back of him.

10) As the streets are getting more crowded, drivers make each other angry. It’s a competitive situation and I can’t afford to worry too much about how my driving makes others angry because we all make each other angry.

She feels helpless that she can’t help the situation so she just goes along with what she thinks everyone else would do.

(iii) Exercise on Positive Driving Behaviors on p. 212-3

1) Putting on the turn signal in consideration of others; thinking of how to reduce stress for others.

She thought this was important so she exhibits this behavior because she knows how other people would feel if she didn’t.

3) Concentrating on developing better on-ramp merging skills by focusing on leaving enough space to pick up speed.

She had been in this situation and through experience had better learned how to go on onramps.

4) Creating positive mental scenarios and avoiding pessimism; saying, “Traffic is not too bad. I’ll just relax,” versus “Traffic is awful. I’ll never get home.”

She tries to practice this but sometimes she says traffic just gets to her.

6) Consciously practicing how to handle common obstacles to traffic flow; for instance, when a lane is closed and merging is required.

She felt like experience taught her that but when she first started to drive she wished she did practice it.

7) Compensating for the “blind spot” by always using both side-and rearview mirror and turning your head for a better view.

Her parents taught her this and she actively did do this.

8) Merging properly when a lane is closed by remaining in your lane until reaching the merge point.

She would practice this if she wasn’t in a rush, but she knew if she was in a rush she would probably merge earlier.

9) Learning to avoid mental violence as retaliation; not letting frustration lead to aggressiveness and hostility.

She thought this was very important after I told her some incidents of road rage and what physical action was taken by people.

10) Avoiding the symbols of competition in driving, like racing to get there first, wanting to pass all cars, feeling ridiculed when a lot of cars pass you, impulsively cutting in.

She wanted to improve on this and said she was going to try.

11) Practicing nodding instead of shaking your head at traffic.

She said she would try this though she knew instinctively she would shake her head.

14) Being willing to figure things out ahead of time, like how late to leave, when to turn, which way to go, when to change lanes, with the goal of avoiding making unpredictable, impulsive moves that other drivers can’t interpret.

She thought this was very important and realized though experience that she was doing this.

(iv) Exercise on Your Passive Aggressive Road Rage Tendency on p. 88-9

1) I insist on driving at the speed limit in the passing lane because it’s the law

She felt like this when people were zooming around and she also does this because of the increase of tickets given for speeding.

8) I repeatedly tap the brakes or slow way down to retaliate against a tailgater.

She doesn’t want to feel rushed or threatened by another driver so she retaliates and said she feels better when she does it.

10) I make gestures and facial expressions to myself to show my disapproval of pushy drivers.

She feels like she has to vent and this is how she chooses to dissipate her angry.

I first asked her where she learned her aggressive driving behavior and her aggressive thoughts and she said she learned it from her father. Also she felt many of these feelings when she was in her truck, she felt like she had more power and control of the situation because she was more higher and bigger then the other cars. She felt that she was aggressive driver but didn’t seem to concern with it. We discussed it and she said that though she was an aggressive driver she felt that it wasn’t abnormal and that what she did do aggressively did not hurt anyone. But she was willing to change and I applauded her for that because some of my other friends were not willing to change. She actually said she started to improve her driving as she noticed more things that she did that was dangerous or made her overly stressful.

When I was reading the book I mostly concentrated on the things that I did wrong and focused most of my attention on that. But when I looked at someone else’s checklist it made me look at different things as well as look at the broader picture. I saw how the AWM program could help her and that some people just need that little push and there driving style could greatly improve. I saw how much different she was in real life then in her car and realized how different driving is then doing other normal activities. People who are the most caring and very kind can still have a lot of road rage when they step into the car.

The Question I am answering is Question 07:

(a) Find a road rage newspaper story on the Web that gives enough detail that you can reconstruct the interactions between the people involved. Now do a scenario analysis of events. The Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book gives some examples (see the Book Index under "Scenario analysis: There is also an example in the Lecture Notes in the Section on Charts at Table 7 -- see
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-lecture-notes.htm#Charts

(b) Try to reconstruct the interactions by making a list or table of the steps, as illustrated in our textbook. Apply driving psychology principles to explain what's going on at each step and how it influences the outcome.

(a) Find a road rage newspaper story on the Web that gives enough detail that you can reconstruct the interactions between the people involved. Now do a scenario analysis of events. The Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book gives some examples (see the Book Index under "Scenario analysis: There is also an example in the Lecture Notes in the Section on Charts at Table 7 -- see
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-lecture-notes.htm#Charts

I have obtained my newspaper story from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061120.RAGE20/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/

1) Sahle Selassie Allen and friends were cut off by a vehicle driven by Thien Tran.

Mr. Allen felt like he was cut off deliberately by Mr. Tran.

2) Mr. Allen reacted by speeding up to the vehicle and driving along side.

He acted out of anger and wanted retribution

3) Mr. Allen began to argue Mr. Tran and then sped off.

He expressed his anger at Mr. Tran then drove away.

4) Mr. Tran caught up then began to exchange insults again

Instead of walking away from the situation Mr. Tran escalated it.

5) Andre Bourne a passenger in Mr. Allen’s car then pointed a gun at Mr. Tran

Mr. Bourne acted out of anger and used unnecessary display of a weapon at Mr. Tran.

6) Mr. Tran then fell back and called the police.

Mr. Tran got himself out of danger by doing what he should have done in the first place and backed off in the situation.

7) A gun was found belonging to Andre Bourne as well another gun found that was owned by Mr. Allen. Although Mr. Allen did not brandish the gun he was still severely punished for having one.

Mr. Allen got sentenced to a 21 month jail time as well as being placed on a 3 year probation. All of this could have been avoided if Mr. Allen thought rationally of the situation.

Scenario Analysis of the Road Rage Behavior
Emotionally challenged behavior	Segment from the letter	State how each step contributes to trouble.	Suggest smarter behavior.
1. Mr. Tran changing lanes without consideration of other drivers	“…he was cut off by a vehicle driven by Thien Tran.”	He gave Mr. Allen a reason to be upset.	He should have waited to he had more space to change lanes.
2. Mr. Allen catching up to Mr. Tran’s vehicle	"Mr. Allen responded by speeding up so that the two vehicles were alongside one another."	Instead of dissipating the situation he chose to allow it to continue.	Mr. Allen should have instead continued on his way and instead of thinking Mr. Tran did it on purpose.
3. Mr. Allen began to argue with Mr. Tran	"He began yelling insults at Mr. Tran,"	Yelling at Mr. Tran made his angry escalate as well as Mr. Tran’s.	He should have reflected on possible reasons why Mr. Tran did it, assuming that he didn’t know he did it.
4. Mr. Tran proceeded to catch up and started to argue again.	"Mr. Tran raced up until the two cars were again level with one another. Again, both men exchanged heated insults."	Mr. Tran then took it to the next stage as he then was in pursuit of vengeance	He should have went on his way and be the bigger man.
5. Mr. Bourne brandished his weapon and pointed it at Mr. Tran	"Andre Bourne, pulled out a handgun and made a threatening gesture toward Mr. Tran."	Mr. Bourne took the incident to the extreme by showing that he was willing to do physical violence.	They should have ignored Mr. Tran.

Advice to Future Generations:

Dr. James had often said that driving psychology can be applied to many other fields in our life and I felt like this was true. You should pay attention and take into heart what you learn in this class because it won’t only help your grade but it will affect your life. You gain a new understanding of situations and how to handle them and this I feel is a very important life lesson you take into account. Also keep an open mind during class discussions as everyone’s input can help you understand topics that seem difficult to comprehend.

Don’t procrastinate on the outlines that you have to do for the class. Even though there is no actual set deadline it will help you better understand the presentations that the students give in each class. The outlines helped me even better understand the chapter I read as I reviewed and looked into greater detail as I searched for things to put in the outline.

But what I felt helped the most was what I feared the most in this class. The reports 1 and 2 seemed so daunting when I first heard about. Not only was it 20 pages but it was 20 pages single space. The longest paper I ever written was 10 pages double space. But as I started the first report it tested my knowledge of the material I did and encourage me to look for more information. I found that the reports made me learn a lot and ingrained the information into my head. The thing I stress most is do not procrastinate when doing the reports. If you wait to do it on a weekend 20 pages can seem to be too overwhelming. Break the report up by questions and do a question a day; this made doing the report so much easier and less stressful to me.

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

My Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/ishida/ishida-home.htm