Report 2:
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
Robert Lee
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonpsy22/409a-g22-report2.htm
I am answering questions 1, 3, 4, 5, 7
“The Question I am answering is 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) Throughout
this course we have been talking about our threefold self. There is the
affective self, cognitive self, and the sensorimotor self. Our lecture notes
explains to us that the affective self, “… operates the feelings and
motivations we maintain behind the wheel.” (b) Simply it means… its how we feel
and what motivates us while we’re driving. The affective self can change very
often throughout one journey on the road, because there are so many things
going on. (c) An example of the affective self would be someone who is being
highly competitive or showing dominance. For example speeding up and slowing
down when a car tries to pass you. I
believe that the affective self is what controls our physical actions and
cognitive thoughts. This leads me to the other self.
The
cognitive self, “… operates the thinking and reasoning we do behind the wheel.”
In simpler terms it means what we are thinking when problems or situations
occur. An example of the cognitive self is someone who shows inaccurate risk
assessment. For example some one who “points their finger” at someone else
before they “point” it at themselves.
Last
but not least we have the sensorimotor self, “… operates the sensations,
perceptions, and motor acts we perform behind the wheel.” These are the
physical acts and physical “symptoms” we get while driving.
The sensorimotor self is
pretty self explanatory. If you’re angry at someone who cut you off you “flick”
them off. This doesn’t limit it to your own body, but your car as well. Cutting
someone off is an example of your sensorimotor self.
(d) I
personally have many problems with my threefold self. My affective self
reflects a lot especially if I’m angry or frustrated. I tend to drive very fast
and very recklessly. It also depends on the music I listen to. If I listen to
loud angry hip-hop/rap music I tend to drive faster, but if I listen to slow R&B
songs I tend to drive slower, and not care about what’s going on around me.
I
also have a problem with my cognitive self. I like to yell at others and blame
others before I blame myself. If I almost cause an accident I usually yell at
the other person wish harmful things upon the other person. I complain that
certain people should not be able to drive and should get their license revoked
or other things of that sort.
(e) So
the million dollar question is… “How do I improve myself?” After taking this
class I found that I have to be a supportive driver. I have to learn to accept
other people’s flaws and apologize for mine. I have to learn to find the
positive out of the negative. For example, if someone cuts me off, “It’s ok.
I’m in no hurry. That person must really need to get somewhere fast.” I also
should think before I act. I should always keep in the back of my mind instead
of “flicking the bird” show aloha (a wave hi… or the shaka), no matter how bad
the negative action was.
Some
problems that I might anticipate are my mood that I bring into the car. If I
had a bad day at work or school I might bring it in the car and onto the road
without thinking. I’ve noticed that the worse my mood is after work, the faster
I get home. I can cut an hour drive home into 30-45 minutes which is very fast.
(f) After
taking this class I’ve noticed that my attitude does “stink” on the road and I
promise I will try and be better, because I now know that it affects many
people other than myself.
“The Question I am answering is Question 3”
(a) Discuss these two Web sites: http://drivers.com/ vs. Dr. Driving 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
(viii) ranking (ix) other sites that link to each. (c) Any other comments you
wish to make.
(a) Just by looking at these two URL’s you already know
that they’re going to be different. If you know anything about computers you
know that .com stands for commercial use, and .org is an organization unit.
Just by the URL alone I know that the .com is going to have advertisements all
over it.
I opened up both websites on two different windows and the
first thing that I noticed when I opened up http://drivers.com/ was that a pop-up showed up (an
advertisement). After I closed out the advertisement I noticed that the two
websites are totally different. Drivers.com is a site for auto driver
information AND drivers for computers, printers, scanners, and all kinds of
other computer things.
(b) Both homepages are very different the drdriving
homepage is very “homely” or “personal” you can tell that someone who has some
web experience had made this. On the other hand if you go to drivers.com’s
homepage you can tell that it’s very professional and is very “clean.” The
drivers.com site also has a disclaimer, privacy policy, and a copyright that is
very clear. I can’t seem to find one on the drdriving site.
After
clicking into the auto drivers link the page is still very organized and neat.
The page itself is not very long; however the drdriving page is very long. Here
are some main differences…
-
(i) Articles: I noticed that although drivers.com has a lot
of articles they are meant more for consumers. The articles on drdriving.org is
for educational purposes making it much more interesting and useful (to me
anyway (a college student)). Drdrivng.org has everything from experiments to
scientific facts.
-
(ii) Newsletters:
The only difference that I notice between the two about newsletters is…
drdriving.org doesn’t have one and drivers.com does. Honestly, I hate
newsletters they just send junk mail to your email.
-
(iii) Style:
Style-wise I’m going to have to give drivers.com a better rating, because it
has less clutter than drdriving.org. (Sorry Dr. James please don’t down grade
me… I still think your website’s cool).
-
(iv)
Probable audience: Like I said
earlier… drdriving.org is meant for educational purposes unlike drivers.com
which is meant for consumers.
-
(v) Public relations
or policy: drdriving.org has a great public relation, because you can ask
questions and eventually get a genuine meaningful answer from a professional.
Drivers.com is more meant for the money and feels like a “hollow” relationship,
unlike drdriving.org.
-
(vi)
Advertising: Obviously drivers.com
is all about making the money and setting up advertisements. They have
advertisements everywhere. Drdriving.org has AN advertisement, but that’s for a
book that helps understand concepts about the website and driving psychology.
It complements the education and the learning experience.
-
(vii) Size: I
would have to say that drivers.com is a bigger website, but there is so much
unnecessary material and advertisements. Drdriving.org has more meaningful
content and has many different links that help you to a related subject, unlike
drivers.com.
-
(viii) Ranking:
drivers.com is probably ranked higher because they paid for it. It’s a prime
example of the rich holding down the poor.
(c) Other sites that link to
each: Like I said earlier… drdriving.org links supplement to what you’re
learning about, and drivers.com is all about the money, taking you to
advertisements and crazy pop-ups.
“The Question I am answering is Question 4”
(a) Select six student reports on driving psychology
from Generation 20, as listed in the
The first person I decided to write on was Ikue
Fukushima (R1a). Her report caught my eye because she had the funny, yet
serious story, in the beginning of her site. She talks about how she has earned
her permit, but has failed the driving exam THREE times. Ikue focuses on ten very
important points throughout her paper.
I.
The Driver’s
Threefold Self: The affective self (driver’s will: goal or motivation), the
cognitive self (driver’s decision: illogical or logical decision making), and
the sensorimotor self (based on your affective and cognitive self: doing a
physical act because of the other “selves”).
II.
Self-witnessing Methodology:
Self-observing and self-monitoring yourself when/ while you drive. You can do
this by using a tape recorder/ articulating your feelings out loud
III.
Road Rage: Any
aggressive behavior behind the wheel, which can be divided into three
categories…
a.
Verbal Road Rage:
expressing their aggressive feelings into words. IE: yelling, cursing, and
insulting.
b.
Quiet Road Rage:
expressing their aggressive feelings by competing, complaining, rushing, and
resisting.
c.
Epic Road Rage:
expressing their aggressive feelings by cutting someone off, fight, or worse
case scenarios… kill someone.
IV.
Aggressive
Driving Legislation: Refers to state laws that try to stop people from engaging
in aggressive driving by handing out tickets, fines, and other monetary ways.
V.
The Driver’s
Emotional Intelligence: Level in which a motorist can drive logically,
patiently, and supportively.
VI.
The Driver’s
Emotional Spin-cycle:
1. Negative about others ==> 2. Positive about
others
3. Negative about self ==> 4. Positive about self
“The
driver's emotional spin cycle can be divided into four sections as shown in the
figure above. These four sections
consist of 1 being negative about others and the world, 2, being positive about
others and the world, 3 being negative about self, 4 being positive about
self. The first section (negative about
others) shows a person who has negative views about other drivers on the
road. Because he is a negative person,
his motivation will be negative (I do not want to stop for the
pedestrian). His negative affection will
cause his cognitive self to be negative (let's just hit the pedestrian),
resulting in epic road rage. (Sensorimotor self). On the other hand, if you have positive views
about others, you will have a positive feeling which causes you to think
positive leading to positive, safe driving.” (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/fukushima/report1.htm)
VII.
Newsgroups for
Drivers: This topic is self explanatory; this is where drivers talk about
anything that deals with driving. This includes things like cheapest gas,
driving skills, and complaints about aggressive drivers, and etc.
VIII.
Life Long Driver
Education: This topic is self explanatory as well, this talks about how people
get education about driving throughout their lifetime to increase awareness,
and decrease accidents.
IX.
Automatization of
Driving Behavior: This driving behavior is the ability to not have to
concentrate your whole effort into driving while you’re driving. You usually
develop this after you find a comfort level in driving/ when you go to
somewhere that you’re very familiar with… IE. Home, School, Work, and etc.
X.
Peer Pressure:
Everybody knows what peer pressure is, but in the driving sense it means taking
in good and bad driving habits from others including your parents.
The
second person that I chose to write about was Sayo Yoshino
(R1b). Sayo also talks about the same things that Ikue talks about. She talks
about the ten definitions for driving. Sayo also talks about the three basic
principals in driving psychology.
1. Driving is a
complicated habit which involves cultural norm behavior.
2. Driving habits can be divided into
three domains which are affective, cognitive and sensorimotor.
3. Driving habits can be influenced by
parents, friends and media.
(b) I found that reading these two
reports were actually informational and very interesting. I found it
interesting that these two people don’t have their licenses and are taking this
class, and learning about driving before they start. Which is probably a good
thing, because they can learn to become better drivers before they start.
The first person I decided to write about
for their report 2 was Shari
Arakawa-Longboy (R2a).The purpose of her report 2 was to identify her
driving style, driving philosophy, and modify it. She did some experiments from
the book and learned that she is a very aggressive driver.
The second person I decided to write
about was Jenny
Arakaki (R2b). Jenny took different experiments that was in the book, and
found that she too is an aggressive driver just like
Jenny created an experiment where she
would record her actions while in the car, and she also had passengers take
notes while she was driving to get another person’s perspective. She also had a
deal with her passengers that she would pay ten cents per every negative
reaction she had while in the car. I found this very interesting, because she
ended up owing quite a bit of money (which I found pretty funny and amusing).
Jenny found that she is more aggressive
during certain times of the day and certain days of the week. She also found
some confounding variables, for instance she didn’t want to pay anymore money
to her passengers for her negative behavior. One confounding variable that I
thought of in her experiment was maybe her passengers could have made stuff up
so that she’d have to pay out more (scandalous, but it could happen… ha ha ha).
(b) In the end, Jenny found that this
experiment helped her a lot, but she still needs more work. She felt that she
has to become a better supportive driver and she hopes she’ll reach that goal.
She reflected on how she knew she was a bad driver, but didn’t know to what
extent she was till she took this class, wrote this paper, and did her
experiment. I really enjoyed Jenny’s paper. I really thought her experiment was
very creative and her tables were very helpful in showing her results.
Last but not least we have report 3. The
first person I decided to write about for report 3 was Jeremy Kubo
(R3a). For report 3 he had to figure out the importance of lifelong driver
education and how to implement a solution to educate everyone from young to the
old.
Jeremy talks about QDC’s (Quality Driving
Circles) and how it can improve the road ways and save lives. Jeremy drew up a
proposal for lifelong driver education. He believes that driver education
should be split up into four categories.
-
Infancy to elementary (ages 0-12): Jeremy believes that during
this age the affective self is the biggest role. He talks about how these
groups of people are passengers and learn from other people’s driving habits.
-
Intermediate (ages 13-14): Jeremy believes that during this age
the cognitive self is the biggest role. He talks about children at this age
know right from wrong and can tell whose fault an accident was or something of
that sort. He also mentions that children at this age are getting excited that
it’ll be their turn soon to drive and so this is a good time to approach
self-witnessing. Self-witnessing can be useful because the children can learn
from their mistakes or others mistakes and avoid making them in the future.
-
High-school (ages 15-18): Jeremy believes that during this time
the sensorimotor self is the biggest role, because most of the people in this
age bracket are driving or will be driving very soon. He talks about how
hopefully with all the driver education that they learned from their previous
years their affective and cognitive selves will be enough to control their
sensorimotor selves.
-
Post high-school (ages 18+): This age bracket Jeremy hopes that
through all the training that the people got in their lifetime it’ll be enough
to create a safe environment to drive in for themselves and for others.
I think that Jeremy’s proposal was an
excellent proposal. Although I would probably create another category, because
I believe that the elderly should have their own category, because physical and
mental changes occur biologically and that affects driving.
The second person I chose to write about their report 3 was
Jesse
Chang (R3b). Jesse’s proposal for lifelong driver education consists of
seven categories. His proposal starts from…
-
Birth to 24
months of age: Jesse talks about how a child in this age bracket is a “sponge”
for information. He talks about how children cannot communicate verbally, but
can communicate non-verbally and can also pick up non-verbal signals. He talks
about how you shouldn’t get angry in the car or anywhere else in front of a
child, because they can pick up on that and know that something is wrong.
-
Toddler (2nd
to 3rd year of life): Jesse believes at this time children are
focused on their affective selves. He feels that parents should process the
feelings of the children and explain reactions and other things to children at
this age. This sets a good example for the next stage.
-
Early childhood
(ages 3-6): During this age children exposure from others such as peers and
people on the outside world. He talks about how parents should redirect their
behavior if it was inappropriate and find an alternative solution.
-
Middle childhood
(ages 6-12): At this age the cognitive self becomes important. At this stage
parents should teach their children why things are the way they are. Jesse
believes that parents should have their children find alternative solutions
towards negative activity in order to set a good foundation for negative
actions.
-
Adolescence (ages
12-18): Jesse believes that driving psychology classes should be mandatory
because it’s very important. He believes that it should probably be connected
with health, because it is about their health and others. He says that it
should be taught by HPD (law-enforcing figure), because they enforce the good
habits over the bad. This is when the sensorimotor self is most important.
-
Adulthood (ages
19+): Jesse proposed an idea that people in this age bracket should take a
mandatory course before getting their license to explain and teach lifelong
driver education. He also created different penalties for people who break the
law and repeat offenders. He talks about getting their license suspended or
taken away, fines, and other things of that nature.
-
Elderly (whenever
you consider yourself elderly): Jesse talks about how the elderly may have good
affective and cognitive skills, but may lack the sensorimotor skills due to
nature. He believes that a physician should examine an elderly person and
support or deny an elderly person to get or renew their license.
(b) I
think that Jesse’s proposal was a little bit more through than Jeremy’s. I
really think that making the elderly into another section was a good idea. I
know it may sound discriminating, but the fact is that as you grow older your
body isn’t what it used to be.
(c) I
really enjoyed reading the papers from the 20th generation. Their
ideas were very creative and very interesting. I really enjoyed report 2 and
how Jenny and
I
really enjoyed reading everyone’s work throughout this section of my report 2. (d)
Everyone seemed to have gained something from their reports. Some people
learned how they want to be and don’t want to be behind the wheel (report 1).
Some people learned who they were behind the wheel, and learned how to change
it (report 2). Other people learned how to establish and execute lifelong
driver education and will probably use it towards their personal lives and
maybe their family’s (report 3).
(e) This
generation really did a great job on with their reports. The presentations and
the layouts were excellent. I really enjoyed looking over this generations
work.
“The Question I am answering is Question 5”
(a) Consider Table 5 in the Lecture Notes, in the
Section on Driving Psychology Theory and Charts at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/409a-g21-lecture-notes.htm#Charts
(b) Consult the article from which the Table was taken. (c) Copy and paste the
table into your file. Now delete the examples in each cell and replace them
with your own examples that you make up. (d) Discuss why driving is such a big
problem in all societies and why no effective solutions have yet been found for
them. (e) Discuss the solutions offered by Dr. Leon James (www.DrDriving.org). What likelihood is there that his approach
will be adopted? Explain. (f) Any other comments you wish to make.
(c)
|
SKILLS (+) |
||
|
AFFECTIVE (+A) |
COGNITIVE (+C) |
SENSORIMOTOR (+S) |
|
“I better drive slowly. It’s not safe to speed here.” |
“This guy must not be going anywhere important. I think I’ll cruise too.” |
(Shaka sign). (Peace sign). (Wave hello or thanks). |
|
ERRORS (-) |
||
|
AFFECTIVE (-A) |
COGNITIVE (-C) |
SENSORIMOTOR (S) |
|
“I wish I that guy gets a really expensive ticket. “ |
“Look at this dumba$$ where did he get his license? They give it out to just anybody now.” |
(Flicking the bird) |
(d) Driving is a huge problem in all societies because
there are so many of us out there driving. Car accidents are one of the leading
causes in car accidents. In this month alone (April ’05) in
I think that driving is a big problem and has no effective
solution, because many of us don’t realize that we have a problem. For example,
I didn’t know I was such an aggressive driver till I took this class, and I did
this report. I thought I was a fairly good driver, but I found out that I’m
not.
(e) Dr.
James suggests on his drdriving.org site that we should all have a driving
personality makeover. He says that we should commit yourself, build your
self-witnessing theory, and apply self-modification techniques. Dr. James
suggests that we should read his book and then with all understanding what
we’re getting ourselves involved in we should commit to doing this makeover.
The
second step is to self-witness. He suggests using his nine zone theory and
checking off everyone that you complete as you observe yourself. The checklist
will help you with your self-witnessing. You can use a tape recorder, say what
you’re thinking about loud verbally, or you can have a passenger watch/ listen
to you while you’re in the car.
Last
but not least, Dr. James talks about there are many self-modification
techniques that are in his book, and he suggests that people should see which
one(s) that applies to them and try using that technique. He also suggests that
you should repeat these steps throughout your driving life.
“The Question I am answering is 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 on Scenario Analysis (pg. 129):
Exercise:
There is a table on pg. 130, “Driving with Emotional Intelligence: Transforming
Oppositional Symptoms Into Intelligent Remedies.” On
the left column it shows the oppositional symptoms, on the next column over it
talks about statements used in traffic, and on the right column it shows emotionally
intelligent remedies.
The point of this exercise is
to read each scenario and explain what is wrong in each scenario:
Problem:
“Now I’m stuck behind this slow driver.”
Problem with this statement: Break this statement into two parts. 1) “There’s a
slow driver ahead of me.” 2) “Great! Now I’m stuck behind this slow poke!” The
objective part is the first part, because it’s true. The second statement is
subjective it is not true, and has attitude in the statement.
Remedy: Be
sympathetic towards that person. Maybe it’s the person’s first time driving or
maybe the person had a really bad day and isn’t paying attention to the road.
Positive Benefit: If you’re in a hurry leave earlier. This will keep you and others
around you safer and you don’t have to stress out about such a small thing. You
can also enjoy this time in the car by listening to some music and relaxing.
(ii) Exercise on
self-assessment (pg. 134)
Exercise:
Think about your driving over the past few weeks and make a list of your best
and worst traits. Talk to people who have driven with you recently and ask them
to tell you what the best and worst traits are about you as a driver. Compare
the two lists and how are your perceptions different from your passengers?
Positive traits according to me: I think that I’m patient and I yield to pedestrians
better than others. I let pedestrians walk a whole car length in front of me
before I turn into a crosswalk. I hardly ever use my horn.
Negative traits according to me: I like to yell and flick people off when they cut in
front of me. I tend to fool around a lot when someone’s in the car. I don’t pay
attention to anything around me, especially when I’m mad; I let my “auto-pilot”
take over. I know this because when I’m angry I don’t remember how I got home,
I don’t remember passing certain landmarks, and other things of that sort.
Positive traits according to passenger: I always thank people when they let me in. I always
use my traffic signal. I always have my seat belt on.
Negative traits according to passenger: I yell, scream, swear, and have lots of obscene
gestures. I speed during the day, and I drive slowly at night. I’m very
impatient with everyone and everything.
Comparison:
I didn’t really realize that I was that bad and that I was an aggressive
driver. I thought I was actually pretty good. My passenger is fairly accurate
considering we go everywhere together (my girlfriend). We drive from the
(iii) Exercise on
identifying assumptions (pg. 131)
Exercise: Read
the paragraph on pg. 131 and identify the wrong assumptions the man makes, when
you’re finished check to see if you noted all these points.
Paragraph one:
He thought/ denying the fact that he was doing something wrong by being parked
on the side where he wasn’t blocking traffic. He also thought that it was ok,
because people let him go for half an hour. He also assumed that the guy
blowing his horn had it out for him, because no one else cared and this guy was
just being a jerk.
According to the book (paragraph 1):
“… he ignores the crucial distinction a safety officer must make between
someone parked in a designated parking space and someone who is not. He fails
to empathize with the officer on duty and perspective, and considers only his
own perspective.” (James and Nahl, pg. 131)
Paragraph two:
He thought that he was doing nothing wrong and didn’t care what the other guy
thought. He blew the horn back thinking that this guy was a jerk. He shouldn’t
have got out and made the guy madder. He also didn’t have a right to get mad at
the public safety officer; he was just doing his job.
According to the book (paragraph 2): “… he fails to note the significance of his ‘blowing
the horn back’ as a gesture of noncompliance. He then compounds the
oppositional behavior by leaving his car and confronting the officer in a
belligerent manner. His focus is egocentric (‘he blew the horn to tell me, when
eh could have pulled beside me to ask me’) and ignores the officer’s official
role and legitimate behavior. He focuses on style and symbolism, not substance
and function.” (James and Nahl, pg. 131)
Paragraph three:
Although he was wrong he thought he was right. He’s very stubborn and thinks that
this shouldn’t have happened and that the public safety officers had over-reacted and that he
didn’t deserve all of the trouble he’s going through. Even as he writes this
letter he still thinks that he’s right.
According to the book (paragraph 3): “…he has not backed down and continues to escalate,
failing to focus on his legal state of intoxication. Clearly, even as he wrote
the letter he failed to come to terms with his oppositional thinking, its
symptoms, and its consequences.” (James and Nahl, pg. 131)
I think I did a fairly good job at noting all the points in
this story. I think the guy is an idiot. The funny thing is that something of
this sort happened to cousin of mine and till this day he thinks that he
shouldn’t have gotten busted, and shouldn’t have gotten the DUI.
IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(iv) Exercise on negative vs. positive driving (pg. 122)
Exercise:
Look at the table on pg. 123 and come up with an explanation for the items: Why
is one subjective, false, and injurious while the other is objective, true, and
peaceful? After that try and find words you would use in that frame of mind.
Table:
|
Driver Competence skills |
Negative driving |
Positive driving |
My driving |
|
Being concerned about consequences vs. giving in to
an impulse |
“I just want to give this driver a piece of my mind!
I just want him to know how I feel. |
“If I respond to this provocation, I lose control
over the situation. It’s not worth it. |
I know what he did is wrong, but it wouldn’t make
any sense and wouldn’t be right if I were to yell at him about it. |
(b) The exercises were actually not as bad as I thought it
would be. It was very educational and sort of fun. (c) These exercises helped
me become more aware of myself as a driver, especially the exercise with what I
thought was positive and negative about my driving and what my passenger
thought was positive and negative about my driving. I found that exercise very
interesting. (d) I did these exercises with my girlfriend and it taught her and
me to be more patient with others and with each other. (e) We have to learn to
help each other out when there is a stressful situation. This will help us
“cool down” a problem that could escalade.
My Report on the Current Generation
The first person that I chose was Kyle Santos. I chose his
second oral presentation that he presented on
and how to become one. He
talks about how you have to understand that each car is an individual with
their own story. He talks about that in order to become a supportive driver you
must be more accepting, understanding, and tolerant.
Kyle also talks about a system that the National Motorists
Association proposed. They wanted a rear window light panel- named “Envoy.”
This panel includes three buttons that printed out words such as… “help,”
“thanks,” and sorry. Kyle foresaw a problem in this, because somebody could
probably hack into the “Envoy” system and make other words, obscene words.
Last but not least, Kyle talked about how to train people
to become a supportive driver. He talks about how we should want to help others
and not hinder them. We don’t know what’s going on in other people’s minds. He
also talks about how kindness is contagious.
I agree with Kyle’s outlook on being a supportive driver.
As I talked about throughout my report that being a supportive driver is key,
and that it’ll make the roads much safer, and much friendlier.
The next person I decided to write about was Brandi McWade’s,
third oral presentation, “Changing Road User Behavior.” She presented this
topic on
She talks about how she chose the concept about legislation
because it’s an important part of changing driver’s behaviors. She talks about
how legislation creates laws that influence what people do and how they act.
For example, speed limits and DUI.
Brandi talks about reinforcement. She talks about including
incentives/ rewards for good behavior instead of discouraging bad behaviors.
She found that this was a good idea because it seems that it’s an effective way
of getting people to behave the way they want.
Lastly, Brandi talks about education and passing on the
skills and knowledge to persuade people to drive safer. She talks about how
education begins from the very beginning. Parents should teach kids what’s
right and wrong. Brandi believes that this concept is very important because
it’s a method to change people’s behavior and helps keep the roads safer.
I agree with Brandi’s presentation, because everything she
says is very true. I believe that positive reinforcement works better than
negative punishment. She also proves my points about lifelong driver education that
I talk about earlier in my report.
The last person I decided to write about was Dorcas
Cashman’s second oral presentation on, “Recognizing, Observing, and Recording
Road Rage and Aggressive Driving.” She presented this on
Dorcas
goes on talking about three different exercises in the book. The first exercise
is to help recognize aggression on the road. The objective is to help children
define the concept of aggressiveness in public places. It’s also to sensitize
children to their own aggressive experiences in public places. By doing these
things it enhances children’s awareness of aggression.
The second exercise is to observe driving. The objective
for this exercise is to help children focus on driving etiquette and safety. It
also helps children realize the bad consequences of dangerous driving. She went
over some of the behaviors on a checklist. This is to help teach them right
from wrong by observation.
The last exercise is about DBB (Driver Behaving Badly).
This is to make children more aware of passive exposure to driving lessons. For
this exercise, children are to write down observations while watching TV. After
a negative observation parents are to discuss what happened and that it’s
wrong, and why it’s wrong.
Dorcas made a lot of good points and I agree with different
exercises. I think that this is a great approach towards lifelong driver
education. This shows children good from bad, and what not to do and what to do
in certain situations. All of which is covered throughout this report.
Advice to Future Generations
To succeed in this course you need to be much disciplined.
You cannot procrastinate or you will be left behind in the dust. Do your
outlines and your reports accordingly. Practice your oral presentations,
because practice does make perfect. If you find yourself in a jam with the
internet portion…. Breathe… it’ll be ok… just try again later.
You can expect to get a lot out of this class. When I
enrolled in this class I thought I was going to learn about road rage and what
caused it, but I learned more than that. My speaking skills got much better, my
writing got much better, and I learned more than just about road rage
psychology… I
learned general psychology,
and the biggest thing I got from this class was all the web work that we had to
do. I learned how to make a webpage, and learned how to post things up on the
internet, which is probably a very useful tool.
The last bit I leave to the future generations is……. GOOD
LUCK!!! READ CAREFULLY!!! DON’T PROCRASTINATE…. TRUST ME!!!!!!!