Psychology 409a, October 9, 2006

Aggression and Violent Behavior

By Melissa Mills

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

Galovski, T. E. & Blanchard, E. B. (2004). Road rage: A domain for psychological intervention? Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal, Vol. 9, pp. 105-127.

I. Basic Facts

A. Aggression and violence are appearing more often in mainstream American society.

1. Stress and annoyances experienced on the roadways can lead to minor acts of discourtesy, which can turn into aggressive driving behaviors.

B. Americans spend more time annually in an automobile than any other country.

1. The probability of being a victim is increased. These behaviors increase the risk of crashes and fatalities.

C. Aggressive driving has equaled alcohol related driving in the number of accidents, injuries and fatalities.

II. The Impact of the Automobile

A. The automobile has dramatically altered the occupational, social, interpersonal, economic, and environmental areas of individual countries to varying degrees.

B. Advantages and Disadvantages

C. Improvements in structural areas on the highways and secondary roads, technological advances in the safety features of the automobiles, legislation in safety (seat belt laws), and social reform (drunk driving) have lowered the amount of injuries and fatalities from 1970-1996.

III. Aggressive Driving

A. Most motor vehicle crashes are a result of the human driver. (90%)

1. Mechanical malfunctions only account for 10% of the accidents.

2. Behaviors included in human driving are speeding, cutting in, refusing to yield right of way, and other aggressive driving behavior.

3. Described by the MVA, drivers’ attitudes were, reckless, and antisocial.

4. Ross suggests a need for sociopsychological interventions.

B. Stradling and Parkers 3 groups of driving behavior

1. Lapses include behaviors such as pulling away from the curb in third gear, or switching on one control when trying to turn on another.

2. Errors include behaviors such as failing to see a sign, misjudging a distance, etc.

3. Violations involve intent and are related to aggressive driving. Examples include tailgating or running a red light.

a. People who engaged in these acts were more likely to be involved in traffic accident

C. Aggressive driving behaviors vary in range and intensity.

1. The most common form of aggression is directed at other drivers, although some aggression is directed at self and at inanimate objects as well.

IV. Social Variables

A. The social significance of the automobile, along with the social and interpersonal factors involved in driving, has been neglected in recent literature.

B. Perceived social class (status), gender, ethnicity, perception of aggression, and age are thought to play a major role in aggressive driving but are often overlooked.

C. Doob and Gross examined the role of social status as associated with cars and aggressive driving behaviors.

1. They hypothesized that high status implies the ability to exercise sanctions.

2. In their experiment they stopped either old (low status) or new (high status) vehicles at an intersection, blocking the road.

3. Horn latency (time it took for the blocked vehicle to honk the horn), frequency (number of honks), and duration (length of the honk) were measured.

4. They recorded the make, model and year of the blocked car along with a brief description of the driver (age, sex, etc.)

5. Results

a. Low status condition: 84% of the subjects honked at least once compared to 50% in the high status condition.

b. Subjects waited longer to honk at the high status car that was blocking them.

c. Status appears to have an inhibitory effect on aggression. Subjects tended to exhibit less patience and more aggression toward a low status vehicle.

6. Replications of this study have found significantly different results.

V. Stress and the environment

A. In considering an anger-provoking situation, the context of the situation must be evaluated.

B. Novaco suggests using three themes to assess the anger of a driver in a given context.

1. Embeddedness: understanding that anger influences variables that occur across settings.

a. Ex: general economy. Financial stress might cause arguments about spending money, the ability to engage in extracurricular activities, higher gas prices, and many other things. Anger may manifest itself in a certain situation like driving, but may involve frustration from a different stressor such as economic stress.

2. Interrelatedness: way anger influences other behavioral and environmental elements over time. Anger is surrounded by previous incidences and is influenced by past experiences.

a. Ex: rush-hour traffic and stress from work may contribute to difficulties at home. When the difficulties at home are the main focus of attention, the larger contextual contributors (rush-hour traffic and work) may be overlooked.

3. Transformationality: change processes that occur with anger.

a. Ex: honking the horn when annoyed for some drivers may escalate to involve a number of annoyance behaviors that can be more serious acts of aggression.

VI. Important Areas of Functioning

A. Interpersonal and occupational difficulties and major life stressors can predict the incidence and frequency of road accidents. Research has shown that drivers who are experiencing major life stressors are 5 times more likely to cause fatal accidents than drivers who were somewhat free from serious stressors.

B. Maybe higher risk taking and aggression

C. Matthew researches links between a driver's vulnerability to stress and their performance on a driving simulator task.

D. Three main factors in the vulnerability to driver stress

1. Aggression

a. Hypothesis: Drivers who scored high in aggression would react in a more confrontative manner to other drivers and engage in more risk-taking behavior.

b. Results: These drivers experienced higher degrees of depression after the risk-taking behavior. Aggressive drivers did not seem to be sensation-seeking. They were also not underestimating the risks involved. The risk-taking behavior was significantly high, showing a link between driving aggression and driving stress.

2. Dislike of driving

a. Hypothesis: Drivers high in dislike would drive more carefully and would commit less overtakes of other drivers.

b. Restults: Dislike is related to added errors and less driving control. These drivers also showed less frequency of overtaking other drivers.

3. Alertness

a. Hypothesis: Drivers scoring high in alertness would show greater capability in detecting road hazards.

b. Results: Alertness in young drivers correlated with higher ability to detect hazards.

E. Stress experienced while driving impacts other areas of functioning in one’s life. Environmental factors interact with driving stress. This results in negative consequences on the road and in social, interpersonal, recreational, and occupational levels of functioning.

F. People spending a lot of time in high stressful situations (in the car) can suffer from long term health problems.

VII. Personality of Aggressive Drivers

A. Car is an extension of one’s personality.

1. Marketing-certain car in perfect for certain personality traits.

B. The car is an outlet for social and individual expression

1. A car is a symbol of status and extension of our personalities and values.

2. Also and outlet for frustration and anger.

VIII. Treatment of Aggressive Driving

A. Three psychosocial interventions specifically targeting aggressive driving

1. 1-day intensive treatment program: the goal of this program is to change the drivers' belief systems on the roadways.

2. Relaxation training: Emphasizing training in awareness of anger. Uses relaxation techniques for calming purposes. Includes progressive muscle relaxation and 4 relaxation coping skills. Relaxation skills are paired with exposure to angering driving situations.

3. Relaxation training combined with cognitive therapy. Faulty assumptions and imprecise thoughts (overgeneralization, labeling, and personalization) about driving were identified and confronted.

4. SUNY-Albany aggressive driving research program: Treatment includes education about the consequences of aggressive driving and anger (Ex; highway statistics), motivational techniques, muscle relaxation training, and discussion of alternative coping strategies (Ex, enjoyable music, leaving extra time), and cognitive strategies (Ex. targeting faulty assumptions).

My Homepage:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2006/mills/mills-home.htm

Class web page:

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