Report 1
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By Gina Kim
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-report1.htm
G25 Lecture Notes on Driving Psychology are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-lecture-notes.htm
Section A: Two Stages of a Driving Personality Makeover
Plan
The purpose of this report is to show my own understanding of driving
psychology and how I relate it to my own style of driving. I will be going over what driving psychology
is as well as what the three domains of driving behavior are, previous
generational student reports, and my own driving makeover. Every topic will be
split into separate sections. This first
section will be going over the driving personality makeover plan and its two
stages. A table summarizing the two
stages can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-lecture-notes.htm
as Table 3.
A taxonomy or classification of driving behavior can be used to help a driver
further understand the level of their thoughts and actions when driving. One can be placed into different levels of
driving skills and errors according to the affective, cognitive, and
sensorimotor domains. A driving taxonomy
can help a driver in making a driving personality makeover plan. This method helps a driver plan his/her own
makeover as well as examine the improvements that he/she is making with their
makeover. In the given chart, a driver
divided his plan into two stages.
The first stage in his plan was to avoid being an aggressive driver. This should be everyone’s first step. He knew that the first step would not be to
completely morph into a supportive driver but to first take steps to stop his
current habits. He split up this stage into
the three domains of driving behavior.
In the affective level, he decided to change how he reacted to things by
changing the fact that he was resistant to change. He did this by trying to control his anger,
making it okay for passengers to complain or comment, and being more charitable
to other drivers.
In the cognitive level of stage one, he made a list of habits to change
that didn’t allow him to be objective towards other drivers and their actions
while driving. In the cognitive domain,
he would make thinking errors when assessing a situation. One thing he needed to avoid was constantly
putting the blame on the other driver.
He would reason that the fault was on the other drivers. This also led to the change in his
self-serving bias. Instead of trying to
find excuses for himself, he would try to find more rational reasoning.
In the sensorimotor level of stage one, he had to act out his changed
thoughts and assessments. In this level, he knew he had to practice
acting out behaviors that were more acceptable and civil. This included being friendly by smiling and
waving, not swearing, signaling, keeping a good distance between cars instead
of tailing, and pretending to be in a good mood despite everything. The actions in this domain come from the fact
that the driver is able to change habits in the other two domains. Without being able to think and react
differently, the driver certainly cannot behave differently.
The second stage is now the important step of actually changing and
morphing into a supportive driver. A
driver is still stuck in the first stage when those bad habits are still there
and one has to force him/herself to follow the behaviors listed in stage
one. When a driver reaches a point where
these behaviors actually become the norm and are enjoyable, they have matured
and can move onto stage two of the makeover plan. This stage cannot be reached without
overcoming stage one.
In the affective level of the second stage, the driver feels that he
needs to have and keep a positive attitude when it comes to other drivers. This can be seen when he not only listens to
but appreciates a passenger’s comments and suggestions. Instead of getting angry at a situation, he
gives others the benefit of the doubt and forgives mistakes. Instead of getting angry, he feels glad when
he is nice to other drivers and feels regret when he is not so nice and
understanding. His attitude changed from
being negative to positive and in stage two, he is striving to maintain that
attitude.
In the cognitive level of the second stage, the driver behaves in ways
that show that he is able to analyze and view situations objectively. He is able to see his own driving errors and
takes responsibility for them instead of blaming others. By acknowledging his own errors, he can
practice ways to change and correct those errors. Also in this level, he should be able to step
outside of himself and view the situation as well as other drivers’ behaviors
objectively. Instead of viewing the
situation from a subjective, angry viewpoint, he can see it from an outsider’s
viewpoint.
In the final sensorimotor level of the second stage, the driver can not
only act like a civilized driver, he is and behaves like a civilized,
cooperative, and happy driver. This can
be seen when a driver doesn’t only look out for his own needs but tries to be
aware of other drivers’ needs. For
example, by utilizing your other domains, a driver in this level will see that
another driver needs to get into his lane and will happily slow down to let him
in. At this stage and level, a driver
can be content and is able to enjoy the car ride and give positive comments
throughout the drive.
Following this type of plan will lead to a maximizing of safety and a
minimizing of stress in the driver. Driving
has turned into a stressful chore and following this plan can help change it
back into an enjoyable time. In order to
use this plan though, one must use a strategy that is called the “Threestep Program”.
The first step is to acknowledge the problem or habit. The next step is
to see or witness your self doing this habit. The final step is to change or
modify the habit. Each habit in the plan
must go through this threestep program one at a
time. The program must be repeated over
and over again.
I chose to teach this two-stage process to my boyfriend. I chose him because he is one of the most
aggressive drivers I know. Normally, he
is a very calm, positive, and friendly person, but when he drives, he turns
into a negative automotive vigilante. He
cannot stand it when people tail him and yet he will tail others who are
driving too slowly. He will insult other
drivers that aren’t driving according to his standards and sometimes will even
get angry at drivers that aren’t even affecting him personally. I thought he was an ideal candidate to teach
this process to since he also agrees that he is aggressive.
I first started out by telling him about aggressive and supportive
driving. He knew that he was an
aggressive driver but he didn’t understand why we called the opposite
supportive drivers. He felt that it
should be called non-aggressive drivers and from that I could see that he put
the focus on being aggressive. I would
think that the main focus should be being supportive and non-supportive. It was interesting to see how strong the
cultural influence was on people’s thinking.
Right after explaining the process to him, his first thought was that it
was not practical enough. He felt that
the process of changing how you think when driving was too hard and that
changing how you think would initially be lying to yourself. He felt that if you give people the benefit
of the doubt, you need to trick yourself into thinking that the person had good
reason and that would be lying. I
explained to him that getting angry and believing that the person didn’t have
good reason for what he did is also lying to yourself because you have no way
of knowing the other driver’s real intentions.
After giving him a better explanation of everything, he slowly started to
change his mind and realize that the program sounded better than he initially
thought. He agreed that thinking
positively would be the most important change in his driving and that just
thinking positively alone would make driving a lot less stressful. He wants to try the program but says it might
take a while because he is naturally a very stubborn person. Still, he agrees and knows that once he
masters the program, he will be a much safer and calmer driver.
One point that he brought up had to do with the three domains of driving
behavior. I explained the three domains
in order to explain the three different levels of each section. He thought that the actions and habits he needed
to change in the sensorimotor level would come naturally just by changing his
habits in the affective and cognitive levels.
If you change how you feel about and view a situation, you will react
and behave differently. Therefore, he
came to the conclusion that if he were to use the program, he would focus
mainly on the affective and cognitive domains.
In the end, he agreed that if everyone used this program, there would
definitely be a lot more supportive drivers because he feels that this program
would work. Still. he
thought that although drivers and roads would be safer, driving wouldn’t
necessarily be better because for many people, the focus is time. If everyone
is a supportive driver, he feels that everyone will be slower drivers and there
would be more traffic. In turn, that would
make it hard for some people to change and some people might actually go back
to their old habits because eventually, everything will be slow again.
This program sounds like it would be a very beneficial program for me to
follow. I know that I have a lot of
habits that result in aggressive driving and I know that it has a lot to do
with how I think and how I view situations.
I agree with my boyfriend that it would be hard initially to get started
with the program. Habits are not easy to
change but when you do, it is for the better and will make things a lot less
stressful. My boyfriend should
definitely try this program. We get into
many arguments because of his driving habits and it not only hurts him, it
hurts our relationship.
I think that this program would be good for every driver to do. A lot of times, people won’t learn to change
their behaviors by someone telling them to do things. Many people have to do it themselves and see
for themselves that they need to change.
Once they can see their habits, they can use this program to change and
monitor their changes. Driving shouldn’t
be stressful. It should not be a way for
people to get angry and get into fights.
Driving is just to get yourself from point a to
point b and that’s all it should be.
When it gets to be more than that and starts hurting people, it’s not
right. It needs to stop.
I agree that many people are aggressive drivers because of the time
issue. People in this society are
constantly rushed and feel that they need to be ahead of others. Still, if they go through with this program,
I feel that their thinking will change.
I don’t agree with my boyfriend that time will be an issue and I don’t
agree that traffic would be worse. I
don’t think people will drive any slower than they are just because you are
being more considerate and letting people into your lane. Even if it were to create more traffic, it’s
still more important that the roads are safer.
Section B: Driving Psychology
Driving psychology is a new field in psychology that is still currently
being created and is a field that studies driving behavior. This field is growing and changing and is a
response to a society that is growing more and more dependent on technology
like driving. Driving brings about many
social, physical, and mental problems for the driver as well as society as a
whole. When put this way, you can see a
clear need for a field that is devoted to studying the psychology of drivers
today. Much of the information that will
be given can also be found at http://www.drdriving.org/articles/driving_psy.htm.
Driving psychology, just like any other science, has its own underlying
basic principles. One of them is that
“driving is a complex of behaviors acting together as cultural norms”. This means that driving encompasses many
different behaviors and they tend to be put together and accepted in society as
norms. Driving is just pressing the
accelerator or brake and steering the wheel to get you from point A to point
B. When you drive, however, you do many
different things other than the act of driving itself. People tend to forget this.
For example, when driving, you need to interact with passengers,
pedestrians, as well as other drivers.
You are in a situation where you need to be aware of your
surroundings. This itself
brings forth a multitude of behaviors like waving, signaling and talking. These are basic behaviors that can later turn
into positive behaviors or negative behaviors.
These are also behaviors that people do on a normal basis and so they
don’t think about them. It is culturally
accepted to do these things while driving.
Driving also makes you react in ways that cause you to exhibit certain
behaviors whether it is positive or negative.
No one can say that they drive and feel no emotion at all. At least some of the time, you will
experience anger, frustration, or impatience when driving. When this happens, you not only drive, but
also exhibit behaviors like speeding, tailing, swearing, and making obscene gestures
at other drivers. These may not be
behaviors that you would normally exhibit when you are not driving. However, because these behaviors are so
socially accepted as driving norms, people forget about them.
You can see why this is such an important principle in driving
psychology. We need to study these behaviors and see why they are so culturally
accepted. Making these behaviors
cultural norms tells people that it’s okay to swear or drive aggressively when
it is clearly not okay. We live in a society
that is very independent and competitive.
This may be why some of these driving behaviors came about but they
definitely need to be changed.
However, there are positive driving behaviors that are also cultural
norms. When driving, you can also be
considerate and polite. When you are
aware of your surroundings and have a positive frame of mind, you can exhibit
behaviors like waving, smiling, letting someone into your lane, stopping for pedestrians, and so forth. These are behaviors that are also accepted as
cultural norms and they should be the norms that are taught to drivers.
Another important principle in driving psychology is that driving
behaviors can be divided into three different domains. All driving norms can be
found in either the affective, cognitive, or sensorimotor domains. This principle will be further explained in
section C of this paper. Also, you read
about the different domains as the separate levels in each stage of the driving
personality makeover plan in Section A.
For now, current driving psychology explains the three domains in terms
of what the norms are for our generation.
The affective driving norms for our generation tend to be negative and
our behaviors can be seen as antisocial.
We live in a society that teaches us to be competitive, territorial, and
dominant. Most of us want to be the best
and strive to be in the lead. This sort
of attitude transfers over to our driving habits. Our affective norms accept aggressiveness,
intolerance for other drivers, risk-taking, and disrespect. It makes it okay for us as drivers to feel
this way and put ourselves and others in danger. This type of norm is
attractive to us and steps must be taken to be it less attractive.
The cognitive domain controls how we view or think of driving
situations. In this generation, the norm
seems to be to make the wrong or inaccurate assessment. When assessing the situation or trying to see
the risk involved in any given situation, our conclusions tend to be wrong. There are a lot of reasons for this.
A big reason may be that we lack emotional intelligence. Your level of emotional intelligence
determines how aware you are of what your emotions are and why you have
them. If we lack this intelligence, we
fail to see how we are feeling and therefore fail to control them
accurately. Another reason is that when
we are in a car, we tend to dissociate ourselves from the rest of society. We have a feeling of isolation and we then
have a distorted view of reality. As drivers, we need to learn how to properly
assess risk and manage our emotions.
The sensorimotor domain focuses on our specific actions and behaviors on
the road. Our norms are immature and can
be a danger on the road. A main norm
that is a problem is that a lot of our driving behaviors are habits that we are
unaware of. This is dangerous because a
lot of those habits are unsafe and risky.
We pick up these habits from the beginning because they are cultural
norms and we don’t stop to think about why we are doing them. We also tend to make errors in our
perceptions of speed and distance. We
speed and tail others because of our need to be in the lead.
The third principle is that these behaviors and norms are taught and
passed on to children and following generations by parents, teachers, mentors,
and the media. Parents, caregivers, and other adults are usually the first ones
to introduce children to driving habits.
Children learn what is accepted as a driver by watching the adults
around them. If that adult is a positive and supportive driver, the child will
learn to drive in that manner whereas if the adult is negative, swearing,
speeding, and taking risks, the child will learn that it is okay to be that way
and will grow up to drive that same way.
The media is another big influence in a child’s driver education. The media includes television, movies,
magazines, and books. Children are
surrounded by it and it influences children everyday from what they eat to how
they feel about themselves. Many movies
and television shows have scenes that involve driving. Many times, the driving behaviors are
negative like speeding, aggressiveness, risk-taking, and swearing. These behaviors seem cool and attractive to
young children and will later grow up to want to be that way. The media could use its power to teach
positive habits as well.
There are still many other principles of driving psychology. One is the belief that driving norms and
beliefs can be changed. Without this
belief, the study of driver psychology would be pointless. You would study it without ever being able to
alter it. Negative driving habits need
to be diminished and eventually eliminated from the cultural norm. In place of those, positive habits need to be
enforced and accepted as the attractive cultural norm.
One other principle that is held is that finally getting a drivers’
license should not mean the end of the need for driver education. Drivers can continue to learn and improve
their skills throughout their life as a driver.
Cars, roads, and laws are always changing and so a driver needs to be
aware and alert to keep up with the changes.
When you learn a new skill, it takes time to incorporate them into your
already existing driving skills. A
driver is always learning. The idea that
you are done learning when you get your license is wrong.
Driving psychology is very much like a lot of different fields in
psychology in that you study an individual’s thought processes and growth. In driving psychology, you are not only studying
driving as an act, but you are studying an individual in terms of social
skills, learning skills, personality, culture, and overall behaviors. When you study other types of psychology, you
are focusing on just one aspect of an individual. In driving psychology, you take all of those
aspects and put them together to study how they affect a person’s driving
behavior.
Let’s take social psychology, for example. Social psychology studies how an individual
thinks about, relates to, and behaves with other individuals. It tries to understand why we do things and
why we think certain things based on our interactions with others. Driving psychology is similar because driving
is filled with social interactions. As
drivers, we need to relate to other drivers and interact with them. The basic principles of psychology have to do
with how we interact socially. We study how we relate to other drivers and how
to change our negative interactions.
Within social psychology, you could also compare driving psychology to
community psychology. Community
psychology strives to better understand people not just at the individual level
but at the community level. It studies
issues in the community and how it affects the people in that society. In the same way, driving psychology not only
studies an individual driver, but also puts drivers together into one society
and tries to study how they affect one another.
We study issues in the driving community such as aggressiveness, violence,
and intolerance that affect the drivers.
Another field of psychology that is related to driver psychology is
cognitive psychology. A big part of what
is studied in driver psychology is our cognitive domain. We study our thought processes while
driving. Cognitive psychology is the
main study of mental processes. The purpose is to understand why we think the
way we do. As drivers, we use a lot of
mental processes to assess our driving situations and driving psychology
studies those mental processes to figure out better ways to assess and control
our thoughts and behaviors.
One other field that is related to driver psychology is the general field
of applied psychology. This field aims
to apply the results that are found in the researches to the particular
problem. This field is important because
instead of just observing and finding problems, they strive to fix the
problem. This relates to driver
psychology because driver psychology also strives to change the problems
associated with driving.
After relating driver psychology to these different studies, you can see
that driver psychology is a good mix of all of them. Driver psychology wouldn’t be complete
without social, cognitive, or applied psychology. It would be a good topic to discuss in any
one of these subjects, but it is not. Driver
psychology is usually left out of other psychology subjects. For most students, this class is the first
time they associated driving with psychology.
Most people do not think of driving as a psychological phenomenon. We see it just as an everyday routine. Most people don’t even stop to think about
the fact that they are driving. We tend
to overlook the potential psychological dangers that driving can put on
individuals as well as society as a whole.
Many people feel that driving is so natural to them that they don’t stop
to think about how it is affecting them.
If people were to realize how much is actually involved in driving, more
researchers would focus on driving psychology aspects.
Section C: Three Domains of Driving Behavior
The three domains of driving behavior, or the driver’s threefold self, are further explained in the lecture notes. The lecture notes can be found at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/409a-g25-lecture-notes.htm. This section will help break down what the lecture notes say about the three domains of driving behavior. Each occurrence of the term “three domains” will be examined and summarized.
The first occurrence of the phrase can be
found in the very first sentence. It serves to introduce the concept and
explain how it relates to driving psychology and behavior. Driving behavior cannot be studied unless you
know and realize the three domains of behavior.
The three domains that work together to create your
behaviors are affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. The affective self is our feelings, the
cognitive self is our thoughts and reasonings, and
the sensorimotor self is our actual physical feelings and acts while driving.
The second occurrence begins by
saying that the threefold self is created by who we are raised by and the
experiences we have. We learn our
driving styles by watcing others like parents and
media and usually, especially in our generation, we grow up learning aggressive
driving behaviors. Our affective domain learns to have angry or hostile
feelings. Our cognitive domain tends to
have negative or biased thoughts and reasoning. Finally, our sensorimotor
domain reacts by exhibiting aggressive and risky driving behaviors.
The third occurrence can be found as
part of the title of Table 1. This table divides a driver’s behaviors into
skills and errors for each of the three domains. It helps to clarify the difference between
each domain as well as supportive and aggressive driving. Affective skills show cautiousness and caring
for other drivers. Instead of showing or
feeling anger when someone cuts you off, you have more feelings of being
cautious and helpful. Errors
in the affective self shows selfishness.
You feel angry and react to other drivers in a negative way.
The table goes on to explain the
other two domains. Skills in the cognitive domain include positive reasoning
skills. You give drivers the benefit of the doubt and your reasoning puts other
drivers in a more positive light. Errors would include negative reasoning
skills. Negative reasoning and logic usually puts other drivers in a negative
light. Blame is put on the other driver’s skills. Skills in the sensorimotor
domain include friendly gestures like smiling and waving. It includes leaving
enough space between cars. Errors exhibit dangerous and risky driving like
tailing, speeding, and swearing.
The fourth occurrence is in Table 4
of the lecture notes. This part of table
4 goes over the basic principles of driving psychology. This is also covered
previously in section B of this report. One basic principle of driving
psychology is that driving norms or behaviors are found in each of the three
domains. The table goes on to explain
that driving norms of this generation that are found in each domain are
negative and aggressive.
The final occurrence of the term is
also found in Table 4 as a basic principle.
This principle states that driving norms and behaviors can be changed.
This can be done by making a driver want or feel the need to change. Driving is a habit that is exhibited in all
three domains and so with proper skills, one’s driving habits can be changed. Specific habits and behaviors can be found in
each of the three domains and every one can be singled out and changed. Having
them in separate domains makes it easier to find and work on the habits.
The three domains not only apply to
driving behavior but behavior in general. Our feelings, thoughts, and actions
all work together to create our personalities. Psychology is all about trying
to figure out why people react and behave in certain ways. A course on personality and emotion tries to
focus on the driving forces of feelings. Social psychology focuses on people’s
interactions. If the three domain
concept was incorporated into these fields, people would have a better
understanding of how each domain works together to create our behaviors.
Before taking this course, I never
really stopped to think about the fact that my thoughts and actions were all
interconnected. I guess I always knew this, but like most people, I didn’t stop
to actually realize it and utilize this knowledge. When my eyes were opened up
to this concept, it made me realize that I didn’t have to react in certain
ways. I could control how I felt about a
situation, how I reasoned and thought about that situation, and how I reacted
and behaved. I felt that even though I
was angry, I could control what I did, but that’s not true. I know now that I
need to control all three domains.
Section D: Student Generational Reports on Driving
Psychology
In this section, I will be reviewing
five student generational reports from previous generations. One report was chosen from each of the five
generations from G20 to G24. Focus will
be put on what each report was trying to present and I will close by giving a
general conclusion on this type of learning style.
G20
In G20, a student by the name of Sarah
E. Phillips wrote a report entitled “Driving Psychology: Theory and
Application”. This report can be found
at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/report1.htm.
This student began by giving a
preface as well as in introduction. In
the preface, she went over how previous generations also wrote reports about
driving psychology and how it related to them.
She felt proud that she would also be contributing to spreading the word
about driving psychology and driving behavior.
She chose three previous generational reports and wrote a sentence or
two about what each report was about and the style the student used to present.
In the introduction, Sarah begins by
giving an explanation of what driving psychology and this course is about. She
goes on to say that the purpose of this course is to help people understand and
change their wrong driving behaviors.
Different things that students and drivers need to understand are the
thought processes and reasons behind the way we react in certain driving
situations. By taking this course, she believes that it will help people be
more aware of aggressive driving and that it will help her personally to become
a safer and more aware driver.
Her third section was entitled
“Definitions” and she went on to define ten important terms in driving
psychology. She defined the driver’s
three-fold self, self-witnessing methodology, road rage, aggressive driving legislation,
emotional intelligence, emotional spin cycle, newsgroups for drivers, lifelong
driver education, passive-aggressive road rage, and the left-lane bandit. This
section seemed very well organized and was easy to read and understand the
definitions. I will give a brief explanation of each term.
The first two definitions kind of go
hand in hand. The driver’s three-fold
self includes the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor domains. These three
domains work together and are the reasons behind the way we react and behave.
They form our driving personalities.
Self-witnessing methodology is a three-step program to help drivers
improve their driving habits. It involves acknowledging their problem,
witnessing the problem, and modifying the behavioral problem. It relates to the three-fold self because
each domain has problems that need to go through this program.
She defines road rage as a “learned
habit” of exhibiting negative behaviors while driving. Negative behaviors
include things such as swearing, retaliating against other drivers and making
obscene gestures. It is a learned habit because we pick up driving habits when
we are young and we learn to drive the way adults around us drive. Each state defines what aggressive driving is
and how to deal with it. This is the aggressive driving legislation. Aggressive
driving needs to be curbed and dealt with.
Sarah also gave a link for more information on aggressive driving
legislations. http://www.aggressive.drivers.com/papers/james-nahl/james-nahl-paper.html
.
A driver’s emotional intelligence
level determines how much he/she is able to control their emotions while
driving. Having emotional intelligence is important because it allows a driver
to be supportive and avoid risky driving situations. Drivers can control their
anger and frustration by stopping to think about the reasons behind their
emotions. A driver’s emotional spin cycle is the cycle that people go through
emotionally on a daily basis. We choose to be positive or negative to ourselves
or about the world. When we choose to be
negative, we are using emotionally impaired thinking.
Newsgroups are like forums on a web
where people can go to talk to others about specific topics. Drivers can use these newsgroups to talk to
and stay connected with other drivers. It’s a good way for people to get advice
and gain other perspectives in driving situations. This is a good way to
practice lifelong driver education. This is the idea that people should learn
to drive properly and positively from an early age and on to later stages in
life. Driving education doesn’t stop when you get a license, but should
continue for the rest of a driver’s life.
Passive-aggressive road rage is a type
of road rage where a driver is on the defense rather than being aggressive.
This person feels like they are being pushed around by other drivers and starts
putting up a fight. They will refuse to speed up or listen to other drivers’
requests. The left-lane bandits are passive-aggressive drivers that like to
maintain control over their space. These are the ones that drive in the fast
lane and refuse to go faster than they want. These drivers can be an
obstruction and are dangerous because they can cause other drivers to exhibit
road rage.
Sarah then went on to explain her
experience with driving. She believes that her driving behaviors are a
reflection of her true personality.
Since she is a calm person, she is considerate of other drivers but
because she does not like stress, she doesn’t like to be pushed over her limit.
Her parents’ driving styles affected her but she feels that media and peers
weren’t big factors in molding her driving persona. Her main rule when driving
is to treat others the way she wants to be treated.
Her conclusion was good because it
really showed that she grasped the concepts that she was presenting and she
realized many things about her own driving skills. Her advice to other
generations was to keep up with the material being taught in class. A good
thing to practice is talking to other classmates. It helps clarify not only the content being
taught to us but to also clarify the assignments that we need to get done.
G21
In G21, I chose to review Davis
Hanai’s report 2 entitled “My Understanding of Driving Psychology”. For this report,
The first question asked him look
over and read tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the lecture notes found at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/409a-g21-lecture-notes.htm#Charts
.
The second question required
Drdriving.org had about 31 articles
and was mainly about road rage topics. Driving.org would seem to be a better
website to visit if you are looking for something that will cover a lot of
different aspects of driving like job listings or information on new automotive
technology. Drivers.com also has a quarterly newsletter with free e-mail
newsletters every month. Drdriving.org has a link to Driver Alert, which is an
online magazine about driving and driving safety. Overall however,
Question three asked
Question four requires you to do
four of the exercises found in the book “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving” by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl
and give reactions to them. The first exercise was a scenario analysis of two
guys driving tandem and upsetting another driver who in turn flashes a gun at
them. Davis and his girlfriend both found different things wrong with the
scenario but were similar.
The second exercise was about
“acting as if”. This means to say or do
something that is the opposite of how you are really feeling when you are
upset.
The third exercise was to compare
his assessment of his own driving compared to his friend’s assessment of his
driving. He saw that in both negative and positive driving skills, his
girlfriend had listed more about him than he had. He felt that a lot of the
habits that she saw were not listed by him because they were habits that he was
not aware of. Also from this exercise, he saw how people really do have a
self-serving bias. We make excuses for ourselves because we do not want to
admit our faults. Seeing how others view your driving helps you be more
objective.
The final exercise of question four
required him to answer twenty yes or no questions. The more yes answer you
have, the more road rage you exhibit while driving. He felt that this exercise
was a good measure of where you are with your driving skills. It helps you see
where you are and what you need to work on.
Finally, question five gave a link
to student reports on newsgroups.
G22
In G22, Robert Lee wrote a report
entitled “My Understanding of Driving Psychology”. It can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/lee/409a-g22-report2.htm
. He answered questions 1, 3, 4, 5, and
7.
This report was very similar the
report done by Davis Hanai in G21. The first question
asked him to also review tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the lecture notes. He starts
by explaining the three-fold self and the three domains. He feels that he has
many problems with his domains that cause him to drive recklessly and
dangerously. He realizes that he needs to change and that he needs to accept
other people’s flaws as well as accept and own up to his faults.
The second question asks him to
review the two websites, drivers.com and drdriving.org. He felt that drivers.com was more for
commercial use and included pop-ups for ads selling computer drivers. This
wasn’t a website just about driving whereas drdriving.org was strictly about
driving. He felt that drdriving.org was more personal but drivers.com was more
organized and professional. He goes on to give a list of differences between
articles, newsletters, style, probably audience, policy, advertising, and size.
The third question answered asked
Robert to review six student reports from G20 and give reactions to them. Robert started by summarizing the main
points in each student’s report. He then gave a brief reaction. For the most
part, he picked and enjoyed papers that were creative in style and had good
tables for references. He felt that G20 reports were very well done and the
experiments were well planned out. The students of G20 left him with the impression
that they had all learned from the experience of writing their papers.
The fourth question asked Robert to
look at Table 5 in the lecture notes and replace the examples given with his
own examples. His table is a good way of seeing his driving behavioral skills
and errors. Robert believes that driving is a problem in society because there
are just too many drivers on the road. Most of these drivers don’t believe we
have a problem and so that is why most solutions haven’t been effective. Robert
also went over a few examples of solutions given by Dr. Leon James. They
include self-witnessing, having a driving personality makeover, reading his
book, and using self-modification techniques.
Finally, question give asked Robert
to do the four exercises found in the book “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving”
by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl. The first
exercise was a scenario analysis and what Robert did was take a problem of
negative or oppositional behavior and give examples of and reasons for changing
it into a positive and emotionally intelligent behavior. Doing this helps you be more positive and
takes a lot of stress off of you as a driver.
The second exercise was a
self-assessment. He had to personally assess his driving skills and then ask
his passengers to assess his driving. Doing this helped him see that his
driving behavior was more negative than he thought. He always thought that he
was a pretty good driver but now he is being told that he is very aggressive
and impatient when driving. Robert did
not really go into detail about whether or not he agreed with his passengers
and whether he would change or not.
The third exercise was on
identifying wrong assumptions in a given situation. Robert went through each
situation and listed what he thought were to be wrong assumptions and what the
book gave as wrong assumptions. He did a good job of identifying the
assumptions and tells a story of how his cousin was in a similar situation and
still feels that he shouldn’t have gotten into trouble. It’s pretty clear that
Robert now knows that those behaviors are wrong.
Finally, exercise four asked Robert
to look at a table in the book and explain each item. Then he had to give an
example of words he would use when in that frame of mind. I think he skipped over
explaining each item. However, he did give examples of things he would say in
negative driving behaviors and positive ones.
When in a negative frame of mind, he would say angry and hurtful things.
In a positive frame of mind, he would be more able to control his thoughts and
emotions and stay away from risky driving.
Another part of Robert Lee’s paper
was to analyze or report on presentations given in his current generation. He chose three students’ oral presentations
and gave a brief summary of each. After his, he goes on to give advice to
future generations. His advice is to be disciplined and not procrastinate. He explains that by taking this course, he
not only learned new skills for driving, his oral and writing skills improved
and he learned a lot about posting on the web.
G23
For G23, I chose to review Jessica
Trujillo’s report entitled “My Understanding of Driving Psychology. It can be
found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/trujillo/trujillo-409a-g23-report2.htm
. This report followed the same format as the previous two reports I reviewed
but Jessica chose to answer questions 2, 4, 5, 7, and 10.
For question two, Jessica reviewed
the two books that were used for this class. She then had to choose a chapter
from each book and summarize it. The two
books were “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving” (James and Nahl),
and “Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer” (Peter Rothe,
Editor).
Jessica first reviewed “Road Rage
and Aggressive Driving” by giving examples of the topics that are covered in
the book. Topics included road rage, health, children, gender, and media but
the book revolved around the concept of aggressive driving and how it affected
or was incorporated in each topic. She felt that the book did a good job of
presenting aggressive driving and how to change it. The second book is a
compilation of articles written by various authors and edited by Peter Rothe.
It goes into detail about the three subsystems that deal with and affect
driving. Jessica didn’t really go into her feelings about the book.
She chose to summarize chapter one
in the “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving” book. This
chapter explains that we live in a society that is highly influenced by the
media. We also live in a culture of disrespect and that attitude transfers into
our driving habits. The chapter gives a list of solutions and tips on how to
change that attitude.
In “Driving Lessons: Exploring
Systems That Make Traffic Safer”, Jessica chose to review chapter 19, which is
called “Is Using a Cell Phone Like Drunk
Driving?” It revolves around the
stereotype that using your cell phone while driving is very bad. They did case
studies and found that most people involved in accidents had in fact used their
cell phone within ten minutes prior to the accident. They also found that the
longer a person owned a cell phone, the lesser the risk factor.
Question four asks Jessica to choose
three student reports from G15 and summarize them. After summarizing a report,
she wrote conclusions about them. In general, I think that summarizing and
reviewing these reports helped her to be more aware of her own driving skills.
One report in particular made her feel more negative about her driving habits.
The person who wrote that report had only three negative thoughts in a week and
that was eye-opening for her to see that it’s possible to change your thoughts.
Question five asks her to review
table 5 in the lecture notes and replace the given examples with her own
examples. The table lists driver competence skills and then gives examples of
negative and positive driving for each skill. Then Jessica goes over why our
society has such a big driving problem. One reason is that there is not enough
driver education. Also, drivers fail to see that they are not the only drivers
on the road. Another factor is that drivers don’t see the reality of the
dangers of driving. We focus on and get upset about soldiers dying in a war but
we don’t see millions of people dying or getting hurt on the road due to our
driving.
She says that Dr. Leon James has
many solutions and tips for dealing with negative and aggressive driving on the
road. She hopes that his solutions will
be more and more accepted in society and that more people will give them a try.
Question seven asks her to do four
of the exercises that are given in our textbook. After doing each exercise, she
wrote her reaction. In the first exercise, she filled out a checklist on how
passenger-friendly she was. She felt that this was really bad because she
realized just how passenger-unfriendly she was and she said that it was because
she was very stubborn and proud. She realizes that she needs to listen to her
passengers more often.
The second exercise was to witness
her aggressive driving. She does not do a lot of the aggressive actions but
knows that she does speed, honk and ignore her passengers’ comfort. She
acknowledges it and admits that she needs to work on modifying them. The third
exercise was a checklist on her road rage tendencies. She found herself to be
very aggressive. She wants to try a driving log and feels that it would help
her change her negative habits. The fourth exercise was a checklist on verbal
road rage. She never thought of verbal road rage as road rage but now knows
that she needs to control them.
After doing all of these exercises,
she realized a lot. She knew she was negative but she didn’t know she was
exhibiting aggressive driving to that extent.
She also did the exercises with her fiancé and her fiancé was shocked to
find how aggressive he was. Jessica feels that is the problem with drivers
today. We underestimate the negativity and risk of how we drive. We tend to
view others’ driving as aggressive but not our own.
In question ten, Jessica goes over
how positive supportive driving relates to the driver’s threefold self. She gives examples of how each domain can be
positive. She believes that driving is a
moral issue because when you have passengers in a car or if there are other
cars or pedestrians on the street, you are responsible for their well-being as
well as your own. However, she is resistant to the idea of mandatory QDC
classes because she feels that it is not realistic.
In the end, Jessica gave similar
advice to future generations that previous students gave. She also says that
students should not procrastinate in this class. She also tells us to speak up
in class and voice our opinions. This is good because it keeps you
participating and can bring up issues that may not have been brought up before.
G24
I chose Tiffany Bumanglang’s
first report entitled “My Understanding of Driving Psychology”. It can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/bumanglag/bumanglag-409a-g24-report1.htm
. Her report’s format seemed very similar to our report.
The first section went over the theory of driving psychology and the charts that go along with it. Table 1 that is found in the lecture notes goes over what driver psychology is and explains the skills and errors found in the three domains of driver behavior. Table 2 shows the 18 different zones of driver behavior. Each domain is divided into three levels and in each level, there are two zones for skill and error. Tiffany goes on to explain each table. These tables can be found at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/409a-g24-lecture-notes.htm#Charts .
Table 3 goes over the driver personality makeover plan. It includes two stages where the first stage is to avoid being an aggressive driver and the second stage is to become a supportive driver. In order to do this, one must follow the three-step driver self-improvement program. Table 4 now covers the three-step plan which is also called the AWM approach. The steps are to acknowledge the issue, witness the problem behavior, and then modify the behavior.
The next section goes over the basic principles of driving psychology. Tiffany goes over four different principles. The first principle is that there are three levels of emotional intelligence that drivers are in. We must strive to be at level 3 of emotional intelligence. The second principle is the driver’s three-fold self. It is that when a driver follows the AWM approach, they can modify the way they are in their three domains of behavior.
The third principle is that driving behavior, whether positive or negative, is transferred to children through the adults that raise them and drive them. Children will learn by observing how their parents or other adults drive. They will mimic the negative behaviors when they drive. The fourth principle is that the opposite of aggressive driving is supportive driving. Supportive driving is the style of driving that we must all learn.
The next section discusses the three domains of driving behavior. The three domains are affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. The affective domain deals with the driver’s feelings. These can be negative like anger. The cognitive domain deals with the driver’s thoughts and reasoning. Finally, the sensorimotor domain deals with the actual behaviors and actions the driver exhibits. Examples are given for each domain to better explain the concept.
Next, Tiffany chose two student reports from previous generations. One report talked about a driving situation that could have been dealt with negatively. However, the student saw that she could not control other drivers and instead of getting upset, she backed off. This helped avoid a risky situation. Another student reported that more emphasis should be on a driver’s mood. Tiffany disagreed with this saying that this student is blaming her mood instead of her thoughts and choices.
Next, she made a driving personality makeover for herself. She admits to being an aggressive driver because she tends to speed a lot. She knew that she did this because she left her house late and felt rushed to get to where she was going. For her plan, she decided to change her schedule, stick to the speed limit, and only follow the flow of traffic. From doing this, she found that she was a lot calmer and not stressed out on the days that she left earlier. She did not feel rushed and therefore did not feel the need to speed and get frustrated with other drivers.
Finally, like all the other students, she gave her advice to future generations. Her advice is to take what we learned from this class and spread the word to others like family and friends. She also gave great advice on doing our reports. Instead of focusing on not procrastinating, she told us to check out other previous reports and use them as sort of guidelines. She says we need to fully grasp the concept of driving psychology and spread the word to the world that driving psychology is here and that it is necessary.
Conclusion
At first, I didn’t know what purpose this type of learning behavior served. I felt like reading five reports that were almost exactly alike would be pointless and repetitive. However, after reading all five, I found that each of them brought up new points that I had not read about or thought of before. Each paper that I read helped to clarify a concept that I had not fully grasped. In that sense, reading previous reports done by other students is a great way to learn. You not only get ideas on how to write your own paper, but you gain insight into how other people view driving psychology and its principles.
When I started this section, I had wanted to write basic summaries about what each report was about. However, especially with the first two reports I reviewed, I felt that there was so much information that I wanted to cover that was not covered in the rest of my report. I felt that I needed to go over the concepts and examples that they gave in order to better explain what this class is all about. Reading the reports was not enough. Actually having to break down the report and review it really helped to embed the concepts into my mind.
There are two different types of learning involved with this method. One is what I went over about reading other students’ reports. The other is actually writing a report such as this. The point of this is not to just write and fill up pages but to see and help you clarify your thoughts about driving psychology. Doing this report, I found that each section taught me more about what we were actually learning. It forced us to view the concepts and relate it to ourselves. I think that is one of the best ways to learn. When you relate it to yourself and make examples, you understand more clearly and you implement the theories into your life.
Section E: My Driving Personality Makeover Field
Experiment
A driving personality makeover plan has two
stages, as is explained in section A. The first stage is to avoid being an aggressive
driver and the second stage is to become a supportive driver. In order to get
through both stages, we need to make use of the three-step driver
self-improvement program. This program asks the driver to acknowledge, witness,
and modify their negative behaviors. When this program is used repeatedly for
each habit, a driver can get from stage one to stage two of their
makeover. All habits need to be changed
at the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor domains. I will focus on the
affective domain for my makeover.
According to the three-step program,
I first started out by acknowledging and witnessing my behavior. I know that I
am an aggressive driver. Actually, I’m a very defensive driver. About two years
ago, I was involved in a major accident where I was the driver. I was driving
on a main road and did not see the traffic light. It happened to be red and I
rammed my car into a big Dodge truck and a minivan. It was completely my fault
and I thought that I would be traumatized by it and wouldn’t be able to drive.
It turns out that I had no problems driving again right away but the difference
was that I was a lot more cautious.
I don’t mean cautious as in driving
slowly or overly defensive. I would drive my normal speed and such but the
smallest events would cause me to scream or get very scared. My pulse starts
racing and I tense up. It’s the worst when I’m crossing an intersection or when
it’s actually someone else driving. I guess it’s because I know that I have no
control over the other driver or other cars in the intersection. This has
caused me to be a very irritating passenger as well as a very defensive driver.
I won’t tolerate other drivers driving recklessly. If I feel that another driver is putting me
in danger, I get very upset.
The main feeling or behavior that I
wanted to change had to do with my affective and cognitive domains. I get
easily irritated and angry with other drivers. I find myself saying mean things
when someone cuts me off or when drivers seem like they are trying to swerve
into my lane. I feel defensive because I don’t want to get into another
accident. I normally don’t swear or put people down but when I drive, I found
that I swear a lot and I am constantly saying degrading things about the other
drivers. I acknowledged that I do these
things and I knew I needed to change.
The next step for me was to witness
these behaviors while I was driving. I found that majority of the time, I am
very considerate. I try to be aware of other drivers and let them into my lane
if they need to get in. However, once something happens to anger me, everything
seems to start irritating me. The main thing that gets me upset is when another
aggressive driver drives recklessly. I feel that they put other cars in danger
and I guess I turn into an automotive vigilante. I feel the need to chase them
down and teach them a lesson. In my affective domain, I feel anger and worry
for my safety.
My cognitive domain contributes to
how I feel and it can be seen by how I evaluate situations. A lot of the time,
I will be biased and not see that I did something wrong. It is hard for me to
be objective and not have a self-serving bias. I assume and reason that the
other driver is purposely driving recklessly and I reason with myself that the
other driver must be a rude and inconsiderate person. This makes me feel like I
have the right to swear at the person and put him/her down. If they are putting
other people in danger, they deserve to be punished, right? I witnessed that
sort of thinking when I was driving. I also witnessed it when I was a
passenger.
After acknowledging and witnessing
these behaviors and feelings, the next step was to modify them. One thing that
helped me get started in modifying my behaviors was re-evaluating my logic. I was
getting upset because of how other drivers were behaving on the road. I still
feel that drivers should be more considerate, but I realized that I can only
change myself. I can only control my thoughts, feelings, and actions. By getting angry, I knew that I was only
stressing myself out and I was turning into a negative person that I didn’t
want to be. When the thoughts in my
cognitive domain changed, it was easier to change the other domains.
Now that I knew I could only control
myself, I told myself that I should first change how I think about other
drivers. While driving, there are always going to be people that try to cut you
off or speed or tail you. Instead of getting upset, I tried to put them in a
positive light. For example, a driver was obviously tailing me on the freeway
one night. At first, I didn’t realize that I was getting upset about it, but
then I tried to think that maybe the person was in a rush to get somewhere.
Instead of feeling anger, I felt sympathy for the person that might have been
trying to rush home to a sick child. When I thought that way, I felt no anger
or stress.
As a result, it was a lot easier for
me to change my behaviors. Instead of being passive-aggressive and not
switching lanes or speeding up, I decided that the right thing to do was to
speed up to a point where the car could get around me. Had I been able to
switch lanes to let him get past me, I would have done so. This was the first
situation that I was in after starting my plan. It was the first step towards changing
myself into a supportive driver.
My field experiment really showed me
that I am in control of my emotions. Before, I would blame my anger and
behavior on being traumatized by my accident. Now, although I still get scared
when others are driving, I can control how I react. I no longer scream or get
jumpy. I guess it was all something that I already knew. I just couldn’t put my
knowledge into practice. Driving for me is a lot calmer now and less stressful.
While doing this experiment, especially after feeling calmer, I knew I had to
teach it to my boyfriend.
My boyfriend is a very aggressive
driver. He does not like driving because he says that it is very stressful for
him. Supposedly, drivers in
He really wanted to change how he
viewed other drivers and he wanted to change his impatience while driving.
While carrying out his makeover, he noticed that he will automatically assumes
that the other driver will do something negative or bad before they even do it.
I asked him why he thought that and he says that he’s just so used to people
driving poorly that I expects it. His
first change was to modify that sort of thinking. It took a really long time
but eventually, he started to get not necessarily more positive but a lot less
negative. I guess it will take time but I’m glad to see that there are good
changes occurring to both of us.
We both tried changing only one bad
habit or behavior and we know that there are so many more behaviors that need
to be changed. It will take a really long time and the only way that we can do
this is to never forget to self-witness.
Once you stop self-witnessing, you will stop being aware of what you are
doing or thinking. I think that is the most important aspect of this program.
You need to always be aware of yourself. Supportive driving isn’t only about
being aware of other drivers; it is also about being aware of what you are
doing and how you are driving. We won’t ever change if we stop doing that.
Section F: Advice to Future Generations
Before taking this course, I had no idea what
to expect. I had a completely different idea of what driving psychology was
because I had never before heard of the term. From the first meeting, however,
I knew that this was a course that I had always needed. Just from being in this class, I learned to
realize and accept that I have very negative and aggressive driving habits. I
had always thought of road rage as being extreme and that although I speed and
get angry, I never exhibited road rage. I found that was not necessarily true.
I do exhibit forms of aggressive driving.
After realizing that so many of us
actually practice the habit of aggressive driving, it was good to learn that
there were things that we could do to break the bad habits. I found the
three-step driver self-improvement program to be very helpful. At first, the
concept seemed very obvious and general, but it is something that helps me a
lot when I try to break down my negative habits and change them.
When registering for this course, I
couldn’t really understand why this kind of class was being offered as an
upper-level psychology course. I felt like it was a very interesting and
necessary course but I couldn’t see why it was so important and related to
psychology. After doing this report,
however, especially section B, I learned that driving is such an important part
of people’s lives that it’s not possible to keep the topic out of psychology.
The concepts learned in this class all stem from concepts learned and studied
in other fields like social, cultural, and emotional/personality psychology.
All of these things that I learned
throughout this semester helped me be more aware of my driving habits. It has helped me to be more aware of my
feelings and to stop my anger and frustrations from controlling my behaviors.
It was also good because I could take this knowledge and teach it to my friends
and parents. My boyfriend in particular
learned a lot from this material and we are now able to communicate better in
the car. As a passenger, I feel that he tries to listen to me more and he takes
measures to stay away from risky driving situations.
A concept that was difficult to
grasp but was clarified for me in the end was the concept of the three domains
or the driver’s three-fold self. It was difficult to make examples for
affective domain. This idea that the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor
domains form our behaviors and personas taught me that I can have better
control over my reactions and how I behave on the road as not only a driver but
a passenger as well. This also leads into emotional intelligence. After hearing
this term, I know that I need to strive towards reaching the third level of
emotional intelligence.
I have many ways of applying this
material into my life. I am already trying to incorporate the material that I
learned into my own driving skills. I plan on continuing to follow through with
my makeover plan and hopefully my boyfriend will soon try his own plan as well.
I feel that the information learned in this class isn’t just for us. It’s not
material that we learn to help us in our careers. It is information that we
need to go out and teach to the public.
Another important fact that I came
away with was how driving affected children. Children will imitate what they
see. It’s no different when you are in the car. So many drivers are aggressive
and exhibit negative behaviors. When children see this, they will grow up to
drive that way as well because that is what they will think is the norm. It’s
no wonder our society and generation’s norms are so negative. It’s all a
learned habit. I know that I want things to be different when I am older. In
order to do that, I know that I need to be more positive when driving and be
more aware of how I drive especially in front of my future children.
First of all, my advice to future
generations is to really keep up with the material that is taught. Keep up with
the outlines and don’t put them off until the very end. Also, start your paper early
on. This isn’t so that you can get the best grade possible. It is so that you
give yourself enough time to fully comprehend the concepts. The more you think about them and talk to
other people about them, the more clear they will be and you will be able to
write a better report.
Also, don’t take this course and
then forget about the concepts a month after the semester is over. Just like
Dr. James says, driving education should continue throughout our entire lives
as drivers. We should keep up with technology and shouldn’t forget to practice
self-witnessing. I urge future students to incorporate this material into their
daily lives and educate their family and friends about driving psychology.
Section G: Links
My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/kim/kim-home.htm
G25 Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm