Psych 409a: November 13, 2006

Driving Identities and How We are Affected

By:  Kirk Ishida

 

Instructions for this activity are found at:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

Peter Rothe, editor (2002). Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. (Edmonton: University Of Alberta Press). Reviewing pgs. 97-104.

I.                    Young Children

a.       They have little conscious identity work

b.      Safety behaviors in the  car should be learned here

                                                               i.      This will show them that safety behaviors are a pre requisite to driving

                                                             ii.       i.e. seatbelts, infants in their car seat properly

 

II.                 Beginning Drivers

a.       Formation of safe driving attitudes and behaviors are learned here due to driver education programs

b.      Also risk related behavior is shown in this stage by young drivers

                                                               i.      We can challenge norms of driving behavior here to change their attitude but it is difficult

                                                             ii.      Also we can separate driving and identity so we can see driving as driving and identity as identity

 

III.               Middle Age Drivers

a.       Identity is less of a concern but we do sometimes try to change our identity

                                                               i.      i.e. A middle age man buying a sports car to change his identity

b.      Focus on the social acceptance of behaviors

                                                               i.      MADD

c.       Look at raising moral codes of drivers

                                                               i.      Show that driving a certain way does have consequences

 

IV.              Elderly Drivers

a.       They look at the issue of identity, about how they affected themselves and others

                                                               i.      Integrity vs Despair

1.      We look at what we accomplished and what we wanted to do but never did

b.      The automobile is ideal for transportation because they have less options in the non rush periods

c.       Driving is seen as part of their identity and not being able to drive seems to be like losing a part of their identity

 

 

Links:

 

http://www.drdriving.org/articles/chart.htm I used this site because I felt that these two things are related topic.  Driving personality and Driving Identity is similar and when using the information together, it can help us understand ourselves better.

 

http://www.drivers.com/article/662/ Is an interesting article focusing on the young adult drivers.  Like this book mentioned that this is a time to learn about safety and good behavior so is this game that is being created.  It is focusing on teens and showing them the consequences that come with bad driving as well as rewards with good driving.

 

http://www.cnn.com/US/9708/26/road.ignorance/ This is an article from CNN that talk about how we need a program to help our driving society.  They were looking at not only new drivers for the safety program but older drivers as well.  I think that this article would be a good thing to read for the reporter as well as obtaining more information from www.drdriving.org

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

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