Psy 409a, October 16, 2006
Emotional Intelligence
by Gina Kim
Instructions for
this activity are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr.
Leon James
Leon James and Diane Nahl
(2000). Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway
Warfare. (
A. 6 Components of Emotional Intelligence can be learned:
1. How to look at a situation and find different explanations for it
2. How to control negative mood shifts
3. How to empathize with “the other side”
4. How to discipline yourself to stay with a plan despite distractions or temptations
5. How to control your impulses
6. How to think with positive outcomes
B. 3 Levels of Emotional Intelligence
1. Level 1 – Oppositional Driving
a. At this level, a driver is unaware of emotional intelligence.
b. These drivers are irrational, impulsive and reckless
c. They tend to be intolerant and put the blame on other drivers
d. One in three drivers are at this level on a daily basis and the other two thirds are the same but to a lesser degree.
2. Level 2 – Defensive Driving
a. Level 2 drivers are more logical than level 1 drivers
b. They think about the consequences of their actions first and are more careful.
c. Although defensive driving can be more careful, drivers tend to be encouraged to be more competitive and suspicious.
d. Defensive driving doesn’t prevent you from being impatient and intolerant to other drivers.
3. Level 3 – Supportive Driving
a. To be at level 3, you need to think positively
b. Supportive drivers use prosocial thought patterns.
c. You are logical, safe, and tolerant.
d. The key to staying at level 3 is to practice self-witnessing when you are driving and to quickly turn your negative thoughts into positive ones.
e. Being a friendly, level 3 driver is contagious.
C. Three-Step Driver Self-Improvement Program
1. The first step is to acknowledge or realize and accept that you need traffic emotions education.
2. The second step is to witness your behavior while you are driving and observe
what you are thinking, feeling, and doing.
3. The third step is to modify or change your driving behaviors one at a time throughout your life as a driver.
LINKS
1.
Smart Driver : http://www.smartdriver.co.nz/Articles/Emotional%20Intelligence.htm
– Smart Driver is a website that provides a lot of good information and tips
for drivers. They give you online training on how to be a good and safe driver.
This particular link in the website is about emotional intelligence and goes
over the three types of drivers and how to become a supportive driver.
2. Driving Health Hazards :
http://www.healthylife.net/body/DrivHazArt.html
- This website focuses on how driving can be hazardous to your health mentally
and physically. It gives a list of things that hurt your health like stress,
vision, and fatigue and then also gives a list on how to deal with these
things. It’s a good website because you normally don’t think about how driving
hurts you physically.
3. Defensive Driving :
http://www.nsc.org/library/facts/defdriv.htm
- This website tells people that driving defensively is a good thing. When
driving, you should always be careful and be aware of other drivers. This is
true and this is definitely better than being an oppositional driver but I
picked this website because it forgets to mention that defensive driving can
make a driver competitive and suspicious of other drivers. It was interesting
that so many websites call defensive driving “good”driving.
My Home page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/kim/kim-home.htm
Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm