Report
2:
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By Julia Mae Geraghty
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/409a-g22-report2.htm
I am answering Questions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7.
The Question I am answering is Question 1:
Question 1:
(a) Consider
Tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the Lecture Notes, in the Section on Driving Psychology
Theory and Charts at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/409a-g22-lecture-notes.htm#Charts Consult
the article from which the Tables were taken. (b) Using your own words,
describe the three behavioral domains and levels of a driver (nine cells). (c)
Illustrate each domain with your own driving behavior skills and errors, or
that of another driver you know well, or a driver in a particular movie. (d)
Make up a "driving personality makeover" plan for yourself (or
another driver you know well), relating specifically to negative thoughts you
have about other road users. (e) Discuss the problems you anticipate in
carrying out such a plan successfully. (f) Any other comments you wish to make.
(a) Question one deals with a series of Lecture Notes and
Driving Psychology Charts. The notes are written by Leon James along and Dr.
Nahl. They begin by defining the three fold self, then they give examples, chart
out positive and negative instances, and finally they discuss ways to monitor
one’s behavior so they can become more aware and competent drivers. Please
refer to these charts when reading the answer to Question
1.
(b) A person’s driving behavior can be easiest understood
and analyzed if looked at though a set of three interacting domains. This, as
Dr. Leon James likes to label it, is called “the driver’s three fold self.”
This three fold self contains three networking domains: (1) the affective self,
(2) the cognitive self, and (3) the sensorimotor self.
The first self,
the affective self, describes the domain that operates the feelings and
motivations we have while driving. For example, the thought “I should drive
under the speed limit for safety,” is an example of a positive affective
thought. However, they can also be negative. For example, “I wish that person
would stop driving so slow so I could pass. They are a terrible driver.”
The second self
is the cognitive self. This is domain functions the analysis and thinking we do
during driving. For example, “I think that I should let this man pass, he seems
to be in a real hurry,” is an example of a positive cognitive thought. However,
similar to the affective self, negative thought can arise. An example of this
is the thought, “I think that person is the worst driver I’ve ever seen.”
Finally, the
third aspect of the three fold self deals with the actual motor acts that the
driver carries out. The act of letting someone pass you is a positive
sensorimotor action, where the act of flipping another drive the bird is an
example of a negative.
The examples in
the past three paragraphs are similar to the ones that are shown in Table 1
labeled “Driver Behavior as Skills and Errors in Three Domains.” Table 2 is
labeled “Behavioral Zones of Driving.” This table explains the three fold self
in three separate zones of driving: (1) Proficiency, (2) Safety, and (3) Responsibility.
Level one is the
basic Level of Proficiency, staying calm and alert (affective), watching and
thinking about the drivers around you (cognitive), and using your body to
maneuver the car (sensorimotor). Level two deals with the motive to arrive to
one’s destination safely (affective), the thinking and dealing with
difficulties in the road (cognitive), and finally the actions that you do and
do not do to keep yourself and others around you safe on the roadways
(sensorimotor). Level three represents the motive to try to keep others safe on
the road, and not wanting to make yourself accountable for accidents
(affective). Also, creating pro-social thoughts about other drivers
(cognitive), and executing this feeling weather they are positive or negative
(sensorimotor) all play in the Responsibility Zone.
(c) I can also use examples from my own driving
experiences to better explain the Behavioral zones of driving. For example, I
was driving to the town near mine this past winter. There was a man who was driving
very close to my rear on the highway. It was icy out and I immediately became
nervous and thought, “I wish that a** hole would be more careful and stay away
from me.” Luckily, positive cognitive self kicked in and said, “Maybe he needs
to be somewhere important soon, and so I better slow down and let him pass
safely.” I was still angry that he did not use more caution, and that by
tailgating me he put me in danger, however my positive sensorimotor self
allowed him to pass me safely.
(d) A driving personality makeover is best described as a
way a driver can change his or her affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor
skills on the road as well as in other areas of his or her life. The first step
is admitting that you have faults, the next step is acknowledging and
witnessing those faults, and then finally changing and modifying your behavior
to fix those faults. All of these steps are equally important they all need to
be implemented for the behavior to change completely.
For example,
the next time I am out on the road before I even sit on the driver’s seat I
need to remind myself that I am not the ideal driver, nor is anyone else. I
have to remember that others may not have yet understood this phenomenon and
they may attempt to anger me. However, I am stronger than that and I will take
it in stride. When out on the road I have to try to think positive thoughts
about other drivers and realize that I cannot assume and justify any of their
actions negatively. Finally, I have to use these positive thoughts to execute
safe and appropriate actions while driving.
(e) There are many problems that can occur with any plan
and/or “personality makeover.” It is difficult for people to realize that the
problems they are facing, especially on the road, are or are at least partly
due to their own mistakes. Not only mistakes in executing a wrong turn signal
for example, but also mistakes in affective thoughts, and cognitive beliefs. A
plan like this can only work if one is determined and willing to change their
thoughts, views, ideas, and actions to better the road for their own, as well
as other’s, safety.
The Question I am answering is Question 2:
Question 2:
(a) Give a
brief review of our two textbooks: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving (James and
Nahl), and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer (Peter
Rothe, Editor). The reviews should be between 3 and 6 paragraphs for each text.
(b) Select one Chapter from each text and give a summary of it. (c) Discuss in
what way will these ideas contribute to solving society's driving problems. (d)
Any other comments you wish to make.
(a1)
Do you ever feel extreme anger when driving? Do you cringe at the thought of
having to commute to and from work everyday? Do you try to avoid rush hour and resist
taking scenic routes in fear that it will take too much of your time? Does the
idea of driving make you anxious and irritated? Too many people fear, hate, or
possibly even urn for road rage, and road rage is an extremely prevalent and
increasing phenomenon.
Dr.
Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl, professors at the University of Hawaii at Manoa,
took many of these questions into consideration when finding “driving
psychology” and authoring the book Road Rage and Aggressive Driving. In
this book they look at the conflict mentality of drivers, concepts and ideas of
driving psychology, as well as the future of driving.
This
book is extremely helpful to people of all ages because it focuses on older,
more experienced drivers, as well as driving from a child’s point of view. It
is also a very enjoyable read because it not only uses excerpts from scientific
studies, but it also uses letters from everyday drivers like you and me. They
receive these letters from various sources, but mainly from their web site www.drdriving.org. After receiving these
letters and examples, James and Nahl analyze the deeper issues of road rage
that lie behind them.
The
book also includes many different personal checklists that the reader can use
to assess his or her own driving behavior. Overall this book is a great tool
for anyone who drives, rides in, or has any interaction with traffic. Unless
you live in the North Pole or some isolated area, this book will not only help
you improve the safely of your own driving habits, but it will teach you
lessons that you can use to improve your entire life.
(b1)
What are the different types of road rage people express? Is there a way to
categorize them?
In
Chapter 4 of James and Nahl’s book Road Rage and Aggressive Driving,
they arrange a road rage spectrum to better explain that a classic “road rager”
does not posses one set of characteristics, rather they are many different
types of road rage and one may actually have more road rage than he or she previously
thought. The chapter has seventeen contents, consisting of “types” of road
rage, checklists for self-assessment, and tips. I do not feel the need to go
into each and very road rage type, however I will give a few examples to
explain what this chapter has to offer.
Verbal
road rage, for example, is a common form of road rage that many people can
easily relate to. Spoken and verbal attacks to other drivers, workers, or
objects on the road can be considered verbal road rage. Dr. James and Dr. Nahl
ask the question, “Have you ever listened to yourself behind the wheel?” Give
it a try; you may be surprised at your hostile feelings and choice of words.
An
aggressive competitor is another form of road rage. These drivers have such an
urge to compete that they feel a sense of loss or anxiety if they are not in
control or in the lead. These drivers treat driving like a game, where in
reality there is no “winning or losing” on the road, only losing when someone
gets hurt. James and Nahl explain that much of this driving technique is due to
psychological issues and a deeper meaning behind their excessive
competitiveness.
Overall
Chapter 4, The Road Rage Spectrum, helps open people’s eyes to categories of
road rage that they may have never realized existed. Discovering the different
ways road rage is expressed allows people to observe and hopefully change their
harmful driving habits.
(c1)
Allowing yourself to compare and visually see different types of road rage
written down in front of you, will allow you to better understand your own
driving procedures. By separating different types of “road ragers” into
different categories, drivers can now use examples and characteristics to
better understand the reason these actions are occurring. Then, after the
realization sets in, one can begin to work on improvement of one's own skills.
(a2)
Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer is a book
filled with essays that take a systems approach to traffic safety. The editor,
Peter Roth, works divides the book into twenty chapters. Some of the chapters
he wrote by himself, however people specializing in a wide range of professions
write the others. This diversity allows one to look at driving from many
different points of view including medicine, law enforcement, sociology,
engineering, etc…
Rothe
separates these twenty chapters into three distinct sections. Section one is
titles personal sub-systems, two is titled institutional sub-systems, and
finally three is titled technical sub-systems. In the first sub-system Rothe
dives into issues like neuro-behavioral variables and traffic safety, driving
behavior as affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor, innovations of injury
control, friend’s and family’s contributions to risky driving, rural vs. urban
driving, changes in driving identities over one’s lifespan, and mobility and
the politics of space, movement, and consciousness.
The intuitional sub-system section
focuses on understanding and interpreting the political basis of traffic
safety, truck drivers and dispatchers, volunteer citizen activism and court
monitoring, performance and behaviors during driving activities, and finally
action research and traffic safety in schools.
The third section, technical
sub-systems, delves into areas like geographic information systems, evolution
toward an integrated systems approach to traffic safety and roadways, cellular
phone use, and video surveillance.
He ends his book with a self-written
conclusion that discusses what might happen in the future if we do or do not
attempt to change many of our current reckless driving behaviors. I found his
book to be rather difficult to understand at times, however it is nice to have
a collaboration of authors. This allows for different points of view, and
different ideas that a single author may overlook. Basically, this book is
intended to explore all different systems and directions that are contributions
to the current safety problems and ways to improve them.
(b2)
Chapter three, “Dealing With Stress Aggression and Pressure in the Vehicle” in Driving
Lessons is written by Leon James and discusses the taxonomy of driving
behavior as affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. He begins the chapter by discussing fifteen widely known aspects
of driving that act as stressors. These include: immobility, constriction,
regulation, lack of control, being put in danger, territoriality, diversity,
multi-tasking denying our mistakes, cynicism, loss of objectivity, venting,
unpredictability, ambiguity, and lack of emotional intelligence.
He
then goes on to explain that many people feel that aggressive driving is a
cultural norm that is acquired from childhood by being passengers. It is then
practiced as adults, observed by our children, and the cycle continues.
Self-reported aggressive driving behavior is also an area James discusses. If
one would look at the statistics, it would seem that men engage in much more
aggressive driving than women. Where this could be true, it is also possible
that men are just more willing to admit up to the behavior.
After
discussing why many interventions have not worked, he looks proposes the idea
that one should look at driving from the psychological point of view. This
involves the driver’s threefold self. Made up of the affective, cognitive, and
sensorimotor domains. James uses the threefold self to help one first
acknowledge particular negative behaviors, witness him or herself performing
this negative behavior, and then finally working on modifying this behavior.
(b3)
Driving Lessons uses essays from various authors that specialize in
various areas of research. This allows different intervention and prevention
strategies to compliment and debate with one another in hopes that a mesh of
ideas may produce new and more effective strategies in road safety.
The Question I am answering is Question 3:
Question 3:
(a) Discuss
these two Web sites: drivers.com vs. drdriving.org by first describing their overall
appearance and purpose. (b) What are their main differences? Be sure to
consider at least these areas: (i) articles (ii) newsletters (iii) style (iv)
probable audience (v) public relations or policy (vi) advertising (vii) size
(vii) ranking (viii) Other sites that link to each. (c) Any other comments you
wish to make.
(a) From my initial guess I assumed that drivers.com and drdriving.org were both web sites that are
aimed at issues dealing with driver behavior, driving safety, and driving in
general. I was somewhat surprised to learn that these web sites are completely
different from one another. Just another reason the Internet can be so
confusing!
First let me discuss the overall appearance of drivers.com . Even before
typing the web address in, I knew that it was likely going to have
advertisements because of the “.com”. This means that it is a company, and to
own many of these websites it is economically sensible to put advertisements on
the page along with the information you are trying to get across.
The homepage of drivers.com is very classy. The blue colors make it easy
on the eyes, the vertical thick lines gives it a little uniqueness, and the
black medium sized font makes it easy for someone to understand the page. It
was pleased to see that the home page was not jammed packed with links, but
because there are such few links it acts more like a title page than a
home page.
I was extremely shocked to see that drivers.com was not just about motor
vehicles. It is also about computer printers! Half the site is dedicated to
cars, trucks, and so forth, but the other half is related to computer drivers
like modems, printers, scanners, and video cards. Although they share the same
name it is not a pair I would expect to see together.
After clicking on the Auto Drivers link, I was pleased to see more link
options and that they were organized in a fashion I can understand. Drivers.com
relies on other people’s work to provide information. They only provide links
to articles, newspaper articles mainly, and other web sites. They do not
produce any of their own original driving information.
Although the site was “pretty”, it really bugged me that everything was
surrounded by an advertisement, or it would direct you to one from where you
wanted to end up just so they could try to swindle some of my money. It’s nice
they have a library where one can purchase real driving safety books, and it is
true that their advertisements are directed towards driving (i.e. driving
school, CDL license), however it is obvious that it’s main goal is not to
improve the roadways.
I can tell immediately that drdriving.org is going to be a different
type of website just by looking at the “.org”. It means organization, not
company like .com .
The coloring of drdriving.org is not as sharp as drivers.com, however it
still seems friendly, inviting, and there is a great little picture in the
upper left hand corner welcoming you in! Right at the top of the page there is
a statement telling viewers exactly what this web site is about. That makes it
easy for someone to realize, “Yes, this is what I need!” or “Nope, looking for
something else.” I also really like how the creators of the web site, Dr. James
and Dr. Nahl put their email addresses at the top of the page for easy access.
Also right below the addresses there is a search engine for the web site. Not a
search engine, like Google or Yahoo, but a search engine for drdriving.org .
The main menu is simple and easy to understand, and there is a link to
buy their book, but it is not chock full of advertisements. I did not like how
long the home page was however. I thought that clicking on a link from the
right hand side would quickly scroll down to some particular place on the
homepage. I was surprised to find out that each link was a completely different
site, and it didn’t look like the sites were always directly related to the
homepage because of different font use. On the other hand the site map is
simple, understandable, and a wonderful tool!
(b) Main Differences:
(i)
Articles.
Drivers.com has
many articles. However, many of these articles are very useless and do not
relate to safety on the road at all. Many of the articles are sponsored by a
tire company or some other automotive giant. They even have articles that are
opinionated with no supporting evidence. DrDriving.org’s articles blow the
competition out of the water! There is everything available, real scientific
research, letters to Dr.Driving, excerpts from professional driving experts,
and on and on. Many of the articles come right from the book, so one can be
sure that they are accredited. Also, Dr.Driving.org supplies many of the
articles with graphs, tables, and even exercises and checklists to work on
driving improvement.
(ii)
Newsletters.
Where
DrDriving.org does not advocate clogging up email boxes and pestering people
with newsletters each month, driving.com does! Granted, a person has to sign up
for the newsletter, however there is no guarantee that your email address will
not be sent out to various advertisers and such.
(iii)
Style.
Although I do
admit that I found driving.com to be very classy, the over all ease and set up
was won by DrDriving.org . The site map was extremely helpful, and the fact
that after each couple scrolls of the mouse the “Table of Contents” and
“Search” would show up again.
(iv)
Probable
Audience.
Drivers.com is
obviously geared towards older middle and upper class people. It asks for money
constantly, it has a business appearance, and it has many articles about new
“car gadgets” and “insurance policies.” DrDriving.org is geared towards anyone
who is interested in driving. All ages, all incomes, all sexes…
(v)
Public
Relations.
I think the
only public relations that driving.com is trying to do is help themselves
profit! DrDriving.org is truly out there for the sake of informing people about
driving behavior and safety. For example, DrDriving will respond to emails
similar to a Dear Abby column. Although, they will obviously relate
relationships with the road, not relationships with a husband per say,
DrDriving is designed to help and inform.
(vi)
Advertising.
This one is a
no-brainer. Drivers.com’s main goal is advertising. Half their site is
dedicated to it, where numerous companies sponsor the other half of the site.
DrDriving.org only has the amazon.com link, which is required if they want to
sell their book through it.
(vii)
Size.
They both seem
like decent sized web sites, but for different reasons. DrDriving.org has hundreds
of helpful resources, like articles, links, book excerpts, studies, letters,
etc… Drivers.com on the other hand is large because it directs one off in
random directions. One minute you’ll be reading an article, but then next you
find yourself trapped in an advertising scheme. It’s a maze of confusion.
(viii)
Ranking.
Drivers.com
likely paid for a ranking service to construct their website so they could be
one of the top 30 sites when a category like “driving” was searched. They then
have to pay for a fee and do this by clogging up their website with
advertisers.
(ix)
Other sites that
link to each.
Like I
mentioned earlier, driving.com is basically just a site with links to
advisements, where DrDriving.org’s links are useful supplemental information.
The Question I am answering is Question 4:
Question 4:
(a) Select
six student reports on driving psychology from Generation 20 , as listed in the
Readings Section of the Lecture Notes. www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/409a-g22-lecture-notes.htm#g20-reports
You must select any two students from Report 1, two different
students from Report 2, and two still different students from Report 3. So
there will be a total of six different students, two students for each report.
(b) Summarize each of the six reports. Be sure you put a link to the report you
are referring to. (c) Add a General Conclusion Section in which you discuss
your reactions to what they did – (i) their ideas, (ii) their method, (iii)
their explanations. (d) What did they gain from doing their reports? (e) How do
their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues? (e) Any other
comments you wish to make.
(a) Reports
Selected:
Shari
Arakawa-Longboy (Report 2)
(b1) Ikue
Fusushima’s report was fun, easy to read, and yet she gave very good
explanations as well. She picked ten terms that are important when improving or
even just examining driving skills.
(1) The Driver’s Threefold Self: The affective self (the
driver’s decision), the cognitive self (the driver’s will), and then the
sensorimotor self (the driver’s final action based on his/her affective and
cognitive knowledge).
(2) Self-Witnessing Methodology: the idea that by
self-observing and self-monitoring while driving you are able to see yourself
from a different perspective and therefore able to modify your driving
behaviors.
(3) Road Rage: Competing, yelling, swearing, honking,
etc… Basically any aggressive behavior that occurs in a car or directed towards
a car or someone on the road. Verbal road rage conveys aggressive feelings that
are expressed in words, sounds, or gestures. Quiet road rage conveys aggressive
feelings through competing, complaining, and resisting. Finally, epic road rage
involves extreme physical output (i.e. fighting, blocking, shooting…).
(4) Aggressive Driving Legislation: These are state or
country laws that try to reduce the rates at which people engage in aggressive
driving behaviors.
(5) The Driver’s Emotional Intelligence: this is the
level in which a motorist can drive logically, patiently, and supportively.
This intelligence consists of three levels. The first is the oppositional
driving level, next is the defensive driving level, and finally third is the
supportive driving level.
(6) The Driver’s Emotional Spin Cycle: this is a model
that uses four sections (negative about others, positive about others, negative
about self, and positive about self) to determine possible reasons for road
rage. These aspects about your own self, as well as the aspects of others are
caused by biological traits, socialization, and culture.
(7) Newsgroups for drivers: These are forums where
drivers discuss the problems the have encountered with other drivers. These
help people evaluate their own driving skills and evaluate other’s with the
goal of becoming a more supportive driver.
(8) Lifelong Driver Education: this concept refers to
society’s goal to educate everyone about road rage and how to drive safely.
This can, and should, start from a very young age and last through out
adulthood.
(9) Atomization of Driving Behavior: this concept occurs
when a process, like driving a manual car, becomes such a routine activity you
begin to do it on “auto-pilot.” This can be positive or negative and needs to
be recognized so it can be balanced on the roadways.
(10)
Peer Pressure:
this term refers to the pressure that drivers get from the way other motorists
drive their cars. Embarrassment, competition, and fear are three common feeling
that occur from peer pressure on the road.
(b2) The second report I chose was another Report 1 by Jeremy Kubo.
He obviously had the same assignment that Ikue did, and therefore I am not
going to go over each and every point that I did with Ikue’s report because I
feel that would be pointless and a waste of time. I will however, list the
term’s he chose to define and explain four of them from his point of view. His
ten terms were:
(1) The Driver’s Threefold Self
(2) Self-witnessing Methodology
(3) Road Rage
(4) Aggressive Driving Legislation
(5) The Driver’s Emotional Intelligence
(6) The Driver’s Emotional Spin Cycle
(7) Newsgroups for Drivers
(8) Life Long Driver Education
(9) Jekyll-Hyde Syndrome
(10)
Automotive
Vigilante
I chose to pick number 2, 6, 9, and 10 to explain more in detail because
I thought he did a nice job explaining them and the 9 and 10 were not discussed
in the previous report.
Number 2, or the Self-Witnessing Methodology, is described as being your
own witness. Basically this means that you observe yourself as you drive. For
example by recording your vocal reactions allows you to recognize your
cognitive and affective self, which may not be as easily recognized when you
are involved in the actual action of driving the car.
In number 6, the driver’s emotional spin cycle, I really enjoyed the graph
that Jeremy chose to use. I have pasted it below to explain the idea behind the
driver’s emotional spin cycle. You can see that the “feeling, thinking, acting”
out columns on the left hand side represent the threefold self. Also this graph
better lies out the four feelings and the places that the two bridges make them
intersect.
Then in number 9 Jeremy explains the Jekyll-Hyde Syndrome. This term
explains a type of road rage where the driver almost literally becomes a
different person when put behind the wheel.
Finally number 10, automotive vigilante, is another type of road rage.
This is one where the motorist gets pleasure out of hounding other motorists.
They like to act like a “self-appointed cop” and find what everyone else is
doing incorrectly.
(3b) Next I chose to summarize Shari
Arakawa-Longboy’s Report Two. Her purpose in this report is to explain how
to identify one’s driving style, driving philosophy, and then ways of modifying
it.
The first step is conducting a self-assessment. This consists of
determining what level of emotional intelligence you, as a driver, are at and
this will help you to determine your road rage tendency. To self-asses you must
look at your verbal road rage tendency. Recording your voice while driving or
having a passenger recall or write down things you have said are ways that this
can be assessed. Next you must witness your aggressive driving, by listening or
reading the things you are verbally said.
Next you need to go into the Driver Self-Modification Attempt stage.
Shari decided to use the AWM strategy. This is the Acknowledge, Witness, and
Modify method. You first gather the initial data that was described in the
previous paragraph, you witness what you are doing wrong, and finally you come
up with an intervention about ways you can change and modify your behavior.
Sheri then went on to explain that she tried this “Driving Makeover” on
herself, and she spends a lot of time discussing what it felt like, what she
found, and how she feels about it.
(4b) Jenny
Arakaki’s Report 2 is the next report I chose to summarize. Her objective
in this report is to create a model to rid herself of the bad habits she
presents why diving. This can be termed as a “Driver Personality Makeover.” Her
first step was self-assessment.
She used various methods beginning with checklists to identify her
driving behaviors. She first looked at three different areas. First she did a
checklist involving fantasies of retaliation and revenge, next one on
high-pressure driving and competition, and third she did one on impulsive and
reckless driving. She continues to use the “Are you a scofflaw?” and
“Identifying your irrational driving rules” checklists to finish her
self-observation.
She decided that she would complete these self-assessment tasks on the
weekdays because those were the days she drove the most. To get the best and
most accurate results, she did not depend on memory alone. She used a tape
recorder and then reviewed the tapes before she filled out the checklists.
Next she discusses her results in definitions, graphs, and data tables.
This lies her data out very efficiently and simplicity for a reader to
understand. She uses the end of her report to analyze and discuss what she has
learned, discovered, and realized from this experiment. She concluded that her
prominent type of aggressive behavior is scofflawing. She also realized that
she was must more aggressive in the afternoon versus in the morning. To combat
these problems she is planning on working on the process of self-witnessing
which allows you to witness and be aware of your actions (i.e. using a tape
recorder in the car).
(5b) Jesse
Chang did a very interesting report titled “My Proposal for Lifelong
Education.” In this report he examines chapter nine from Road Rage and
Aggressive Driving, summarizes generation 20’s speeches, and researching
other forms of driver’s education he constructs his own proposal for a life
long drivers plan.
His
proposal for lifelong driver education begins with infancy (birth to 24 months
of age). He attests that children at this age are like “sponges” because they
soak up all the information around them at a rapid speed. This is why parents
need to when driving, or in all situations, create a supportive, loving, and
nurturing environment for the baby. For example, if someone were to cut you off
while your baby was in the car, you should recognize that there was an infant
in the car and make the best effort to not display any negativity.
Next
the toddler (2-3) and childhood (4-12) stage can be times when a parent can
express actions and consequences verbally to the child. They should make the
child feel important, but not better that any other individual. As the child
grows, the use of a more vast vocabulary can be used. By the time the child
reaches school age it is important to begin teaching cognitive aspects of
behavior. Not only verbally process all of the dangers that are observed on or
near the road, but also discuss why it happened and ways to what should have
been done differently (if the behavior was negative).
During adolescence he/she can begin to
focus on the effects of the affective and cognitive, which is called the
sensorimotor. These can be done in classroom setting or even at home with
teaching devices such as an interactive Internet workbook. Adults need to
continue to work on all of these skills and self-monitoring. They need to be
aware of their actions and take them into their own hands. They should be
punished for their aggressive driving and be forced to assess their driving
rather than just get off by paying a fine.
(6b) Chris
Concepcion also made a proposal for lifelong driver education. He did the
same preparation as Mr. Chang by reading chapter 9, reviewing past generation’s
reports, and using research and other resources. He also felt that it was
important to split driving curriculum into different age groups. At all ages
children need a positive environment, which is very difficult to get in today’s
society. He discussed the problems that occur with violent movies and T.V.
shows, such as Power Rangers and World’s Greatest Crashes. Although many adults
may realize that these shows are for entertainment purposes only, many children
are too young to grasp that concept.
Chris
does a nice job explaining why it is difficult to implement particular types of
instruction at younger ages, yet why it is important to evolve these types of
instruction so that the child gradually progresses into an adult frame of mind.
He also feels that Quality Driving Circles are very important. These will
reinforce the good behaviors taught through out childhood and early adulthood,
so that the self-improvement will continue to progress.
(c)
(i)
I was very impressed
by many of the ideas that were expressed in the previous six reports. It is
obvious that all of these students have grasped a real understand for the
topics they discussed. Their ideas are very thought provoking and I feel can
help many other’s in the future.
(ii)
I am glad that
they used less than 250 words per line, otherwise I would have had a difficult
time keeping track of where I was on the page. The font size was just large
enough for me to read, but small enough so it did not feel overwhelming. The
use of graphs and charts allowed me to get an even more insightful
understanding of the topic being conveyed.
(iii)
All of their
explanations were very precise and easy to understand. I liked the way that
they used explanations that anyone with some form of intelligence could
understand. I did not feel like this was written for a 10 year old, however I
did not feel that one needed to be a Driving Psychologist to understand their
reports either.
(d)
I gained a lot
of useful information from their reports. They gave me more detailed
descriptions of areas in Driving Psychology that we only discussed briefly in
class. I also now understand why it is so important to set up a web site so
that it is easy to read, not too overly creative, and user friendly.
(e)
Because many of
these issues were fairly new to me, it is difficult to have a strong opinion
about them. However, now that I have spent much time reading and thinking about
them I will be able to process and organize them to gain a better understanding
of my own beliefs.
The Question I am answering is Question 7:
Question 7:
(a) Our
textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has exercises in several
chapters. Do the following four exercises: (i) Exercise on scenario analysis on
p. 129; (ii) Exercise on self-assessment on p.134; (iii) Exercise on
identifying assumptions on p. 131; and (iv) Exercise on negative vs. positive
driving on p. 122. (b) What were your reactions to the exercises? (c) Discuss
how these exercises help you to become more aware of yourself as a driver. (d)
Do some of the exercises with another driver you know. How do they help you
understand some principles of driving psychology mentioned in the book? (e) Any
other comments you wish to make.
(a)
(i)
Exercise 1: Scenario
Analysis to Modify Oppositional Thinking
In this exercise you are given statements often used in traffic. The
object of the exercise is to dissect each statement and explain why it is
wrong. Then you look at the right hand column “Emotionally intelligent
remedies” and explain where its positive benefit lies.
Some examples
of responses from my finished exercise:
“I love to go
fast, but I’m careful.” “I feel the need for speed.”
Problem: Going fast increases a risk of accident no matter
how careful you are. It is obvious that the person knows it is dangerous to go
fast because he/she is trying to justify the first half of the sentence with
the second. Are there other more safe ways to fill your need for speed? Like a
roller coaster? Why is it necessary to put others in danger so you can get the
excitement?
Remedy: Think of how your would feel if you did something
that hurt someone, or think of how your loved ones would feel if something
happened to you.
Positive
Benefit: If you feel the need
to go fast, find some other way to fulfill it. Take up a fast sport like body
boarding or skiing (if not in Hawaii J ). This way you will get the rush with out putting
others into danger. Even little things like watching a scary movie will make your
heart race without the potential of hurting anyone.
(ii)
Exercise 2: Assessing
Myself as a Driver
This exercise
was difficult for me because I do not drive here in Hawaii. However I do a lot
of driving at home in Wisconsin and there I would consider myself to have quite
a bit of awareness when on the road, I believe that I am courteous to
pedestrians (because I’m one here!), I try to not tailgate, and I not use my
horn unless I need to get someone’s attention (not to yell at someone).
Nevertheless, I do get very angry at extremely slow people, people that “seem”
to go fast when I’m about to pass them and then slow down right when the
passing zone ends, and I defiantly feel peer pressure on the roads. I cannot
complete the second part because I have not driven with anyone here, let alone
any one recently. However, I have had people tell me that they feel safe when
I’m driving because I’m calm, but also that I can sometimes go on “extreme auto
pilot” and zone out.
(iii)
Exercise 3: Identifying
Wrong Assumptions
The first
wrong assumption I made was that the man got angry before realizing that he was
suppose to be in a parking place and the parking attendant was only doing his
job. I also noted that he blames the five extra security guards for calling him
in for being drunk, just because they were not there for the beginning of the
incident. It doesn’t matter when they arrived because he was still drunk and
driving!
(iv)
Exercise 4: Negative
vs. Positive Driving
Negative
Driving: “I’m angry, scared, outraged! How can they do this to me?”
Positive
Driving: “I feel angry, scared, and outraged when I think about what could have
happened.”
The first
statement is blaming the other person for his or her own feelings of anger and
outrage. He/she is accusing the other for making him/her feel that way when in
reality nobody but yourself can make you actually express those feelings. The
second one is admitting that you do feel angry, scared, and outraged, but it is
also realizing that it is because you are scared to think what could have
happened. This thought is rational and it is not putting blame on someone else.
(b) These
exercises were more difficult than I first thought. It really made me evaluate
my thoughts and actions when on the road, and how these can be simply changed
to form non-blaming, positive reactions and remedies.
(c) By sitting down and understanding the
sentence that rapidly flows out of you mouth can be a very good way to reduce
aggressiveness on the road. It is almost like a slap in the face to read all of
these lines, know that I have said the majority of them, then it is shocking to
pick them apart and realize that what I have said is degrading, hurtful, and
untrue. Also I can really see where the exercise where you name your good and
bad driving traits, and then have others name your good and bad driving traits
could be such an eye opener! Getting someone’s opinions of your driving can be
completely different inside of a car and outside of a car. Their answers would
not be persuaded by an “in the moment” reaction, they would be thought through
responses.
My Report on the Current
Generation
(1)
On
Monday April 4, 2005 Malia Tarayao did an oral presentation titled “View of
Global Road Accident Fatalities.” The three concepts she choose were 1)
Under-reporting Fatalities, 2) Fatality Forecasts, and 3) Economic Costs of
Road Accidents.
She
first explains that there are many more traffic fatalities than are even ever
reported to the police, and there are ones that do not make it into police
records. This is much more common in underdeveloped countries where the police
and insurance companies are not as structured, however there are about 2-5% of
fatal road accidents in developed countries are mis- or failed to have been
reported.
Next
she describes that it is very difficult to predict the future fatality rates.
She, and I agree completely, agree that it was shocking to realize that
fatality forecasts are so difficult to determine. She gives that example that
in Japan in the 1960’s there was a huge deterioration in road safety and
fatalities went up considerably. However, the numbers decreased by almost 50%
in the next 10 years! Yet, as many of us would have guessed, the number of
fatalities went up again the 80’s.
Her
third concept dealt with the dreaded economic costs of road accidents. She
makes a wonderful point when discussing that it is obvious that we should try
to reduce automotive fatalities because it takes away a person’s life, however
there are even more parts to consider. The economic aspect of fatal accidents
is extremely harsh. In my opinion, although it would cost a huge chunk of
change at the beginning, if money were to be put in to the prevention of
traffic fatalities it would eventually lower the annual cost.
(2)
Amy
Beeler did an oral presentation titled “What We Teach our Children” on February
28, 2005. She looked at three concepts about what we are vs. what we should be
teaching our children through our driving activities. She first explained how
children mimic adult actions and feelings, therefore mimicking road rage. I
like how she used the term “Road Rage Nursery.” She then began to look at ways
parents and others can teach emotional intelligence to future drivers. Starting
at a young age is important. This can be done by modeling appropriate behaviors
and rewarding the children when they execute a good behavior. This reward
system will reinforce the value of being a good passenger and eventually a good
driver.
She
then discussed CARR (Children Against Road Rage). This is a program that was
designed to help parents and teachers teach their children (or students) to
recognize the supporting driver (and passenger) attitudes, and then execute
them throughout their lives. These exercises can include recognizing aggression
on the road, appropriate and inappropriate passenger behavior, observing
driving, and drivers behaving badly ratings.
(3)
Kyle
Takeshima did an oral presentation of Reference 15 on April 4, 2005. I chose to
summarize his presentation because I feel that it is a very important topic that
can be easily recognized by merely reading the title: “Cell Phone’s &
Safety”.
He
began by giving cell phone statistics and the massive increases of cell phone
use by 40% per year! This is important to us because many accidents are caused
by or related to cell phone usage. Although, these cell phone related crashes
may be hard to pinpoint because most states are not required to report the sell
phone use prior to a crash, or they may not have any idea that a phone was even
a factor. Another interesting concept Kyle brought up was that although it may
seem that cell phones allow people to report accidents quicker, they may also
be too convenient and therefore many people will report that accident and clog
up the 911 operators.
Overall
cell phone use is still a major issue. Cell phones are here to stay, but it is
likely that rules and laws may eventually be imposed to reduce to risk of cell
phone related accidents.
These
student’s reports can all be related to any of my questions I answered at the
beginning of this report. They all would take a different stab at each of the
questions because they all deal with different issues concerning driving. For
example, Kyle’s report can be implemented into Jesse Chang’s proposal for
livelong education. I personally think it would be a very good idea to add some
information about teaching the proper use of a cellular telephone in a vehicle.
Also Amy’s report can also benefit Chang’s proposal, because she give many
ideas of how to implement driving education in a young child education setting.
All
aspects, categories, subsections, and areas of driving can one way or another
be linked because driving is a web of intertwined information highways!
Advice to Future Generations
Let
me tell you how good this feels to be finally done! Uff duh! (Sorry I’m
Norwegian.) It feels great to finally be on the last paragraph and scroll up
through my endless number of pages and say, “I did that!” Here is my advice to
future generations:
1. You will get angry. It’s ok. You’ll get over it.
2. You will want to throw the mouse across the room.
Don’t. We are cheap college students and you could have spent that money
elsewhere (i.e. Magoos).
3. Don’t put your report off until the last minute. I
know you will, but at least give it a week or two. You will feel much better,
and you won’t bomb a different report or test because of it.
4. If you get mad, excuse me… when you get mad or
you feel things are not going well take a break. Even if the break is until
tomorrow, don’t force yourself to do a bad job that you’ll have to go back and
fix later. However, if things are going smoothly, continue working. You will be
amazed at how much you can actually get done if you just DO it.
5. Follow the directions.
6. Discuss your problems with other classmates. I
guarantee they are feeling the same pressures as you, and by discussing with,
or even venting to someone else can make your life seem simpler.
7. Take a deep breath when you finally finish, and go
over it to make sure you have everything complete.
8. Remember this is not supposed to be an easy task. It
is a challenge that will make future challenges easier and more manageable.
9. Pat yourself on the back. You did it! Not only have
you beat your frustrations, overcame your anxiety, and beat through the urge to
quit… you have learned a whole lot about driving psychology in the process.
Good luck… and eventually, Congratulations!