Report 2:
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By: Kyle Santos
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/409a-g22-report2.htm
I
am answering Questions 1, 4, 7, 3, & 5
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)
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.
The charts and tables referred to in this question are
contained here,
for your reference.
(b)
Using your own words,
describe the three behavioral domains and levels of a driver (nine cells).
A term commonly used in this course is the “three-fold
self” and deals with the following three interactive domains of driving
behavior: the Affective Self, the Cognitive
Self, and the Sensorimotor Self. The Affective Self operates the
feelings and motivations that influence the way we handle ourselves behind the
wheel. The Cognitive Self operates
what we actually think and the way in which we reason while driving. The Sensorimotor Self operates the
sensations, perceptions and physical acts performed while driving. These three domains play an integral
part, each in its own way, to our overall driving habits and personality.
There
are also three different levels (zones) that make up our overall driving style. These levels are Responsibility,
Safety, and Proficiency.
Proficiency deals with our level of skill in each respective aspect of
our threefold self. So, that
roughly means our ability to control and maintain respect for rules and for
ourselves (Affective Proficiency), our overall knowledge and awareness while
driving (Cognitive Proficiency), and our correctness in action and response
(Sensorimotor Proficiency).
Safety
deals with just that: how our domains operate in terms of overall safety. Affective Safety involves how safe our
emotions allow us to be. Will we
be aggressive and angry or defensive and neutral? Cognitive Safety deals with how we actively think in terms
of safety. Are we accusatory or
unbiased? Do we project negative
thoughts upon other drivers or do we respect each individual as just that? Sensorimotor Safety deals with our
physical exchanges with other motorists: do we speed up to close the gap on a
driver trying to merge into our lane or do we kindly and patiently slow to make
the exchange as without incident as possible?
Responsibility
is a bit more abstract than the others.
Affective Responsibility is keeping your emotions in check as to be
positive and moral person.
Cognitive Responsibility is being an overall positive person with
positive active thoughts of yourself and other drivers. Sensorimotor Responsibility is
basically enjoying the act of driving and other drivers.
(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.
|
Skills (+) |
||
|
Affective (+A) |
Cognitive (+C) |
Sensorimotor (+S) |
|
There are a lot of kids around here; speeding would
be dangerous. |
I should drive more slowly and with a bit more
caution than usual. |
Do more visual scanning and decrease my driving
speed. |
|
Errors (-) |
||
|
Affective (-A) |
Cognitive (-C) |
Sensorimotor (-S) |
|
I’m going to be late for my class. |
The speed limit may be 45 mph, but I’m sure I can
get away with 55 – 60 mph… |
Speed up and drive a bit on the hostile/aggressive
side. |
(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.
|
Affective Level |
Cognitive Level |
Sensorimotor Level |
|
Treat others like I
would like to be treated. |
Remind myself that
each driver is an individual with his/her own story. |
Drive in accordance
with other drivers to promote a sense of unity. |
|
Don’t be as critical
of other drivers. |
Remember that I make
mistakes, too. |
Recognize an apology
and ignore one that’s not delivered. |
|
Want to be a better
person on the road. |
Think of how I enjoy
being nice and giving to people when outside of a car… |
Wave, smile, be kind. |
|
Release of panic due
to time constraints. |
Plan to leave earlier
for a deadline as not to put myself in a rush position. |
Set alarms to leave
on time and be more proactive in my punctuality. |
(e)
Discuss the
problems you anticipate in carrying out such a plan successfully
I think a main problem with any such endeavor would be
that it’s almost impossible to self-evaluate one ’s self all the time. Most problems we as people have are
habitual; we usually don’t even know they’re happening when they’re
happening. Starting off by tape-recording
our vocalized thoughts is a good start, however. After that, though, you really need to be cognoscente of
what you’re doing, how you’re feeling, and what you’re thinking most, if not
all, of the time. That’s downright
difficult to do.
The Question I am answering is 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.
(b) Summarize each of the six reports. Be sure
you put a link to the report you are referring to.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/kubo/report1.htm
Jeremy
Kudo wrote a nice, informative report 1.
He prefaced his report with a few comments on how he enjoyed the class
and learned a great deal about his own driving through the writings of past
generations. Apparently, he had a
very close friend of his die in an automobile accident and this course struck
close to home for him.
He
started off the body of his report with some key definitions of which included:
the threefold self, road rage, aggressive driving legislation, and others. He clearly defined each term, which I
found to be helpful on some as of yet unclear terms. He even included some references to past generations when
defining the terms, which shows some pretty dedicated research. He then finished up with a
autobiographical breakdown of his own driving. I think his concerns are probably very similar to most of
the drivers on the road. We all
have a tendancy to loose our patience when we drive. I think the little anecdote about his daughter did a nice
job of breaking down what’s more important on the road: humanity.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/fukushima/report1.htm
Ikue
Fukushima’s report contains the same definitions as Jeremy Kudo’s, which are
always nice to read again. There
are some great lessons to be learned just by reading definitions of terms we
think we know so well. I sometimes
puts our own self-concept into perspective. I also enjoy the fact that people use their own life stories
in their reports; it really show you that they learned something.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/arakawa-longboy/report2.htm
This
report by Shari Arakawa-Longboy helps you identify your driving style and
philosophy. This is done through
the use of self-assesment – a skill I think lost by most people, yet vitally
important to our happiness.
Through this self assessment, you can discover your emotional
intelligence and learn what steps are needed to control your road rage
tendencies. She talks about
recording your voice while driving, which sounds like a scary proposition for
me. I can have some pretty
negative thoughts about other drivers.
Fortunately, I hardly ever act upon my internal frustrations.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/arakaki/report2.htm
Jenny
Arakaki also performed a driver makeover through the use of self
assessment. She recorded her voice
and reviewed her thoughts as a driver.
She discovered she was a “scofflaw”-ing driver (what a great word) and
far more aggressive when she drove in the afternoon as opposed to the morning. She will continue her self-assessment
“therapy” to become a better driver.
Again, nice graphs.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/sayo/report3.htm
Sayo
Yoshino began by recollecting her success with report 2. She found that she was able to address
many problems in her driving partner, which lead to a better, more
conscientious driver on the road.
She then began her discussion on lifelong driver education. I think a great point made here is that
a driver’s education does not stop once a license is issued. In fact, I think the more refined and
difficult lessons to be learned will come with each stage of one’s life.
She
mentions the need to boost education in certain affective, cognitive, and
sensorimotor areas throughout a child’s life. She talks about the influence, both positive and negative,
parents/adults have on children.
She
finishes up with her ideas for a life-long driver education model which spans
from infancy to older adulthood (60+).
Her ideas are somewhat idealistic and not unlike other ideas I’ve read,
but the intent is good and even if we keep the spirit of a model such as her’s
alive in our life, we would be better off.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/concep/report
3.htm
Chris
Concepcion also worked on the idea of a model for lifelong driver
education. He discusses the role
environment plays in our education, from adult’s interaction with other drivers
to what we see on TV. and at the movies.
Basically, we are very impressionable at such formative years.
The
concept of an evolving educational process is the strongest aspect of this
report, in my opinion. We are
always changing, both physically and mentally. So, it’s surprising to me that people have little problem
understanding the need to teach young people differently from adults, yet don’t
seem to understand the need for the same attention to be paid to the difference
between adults and the elderly.
(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.
The ideas expressed in these reports were, for the
most part and in my opinion, pretty common among most other reports I’ve read
through most generation. The
definitions were nice to read and the self-assessment techniques appear to be
quite useful. I admire their
patience in writing their reports; they did what looks to be a good amount of
research and took on some challenging assignments (listening to yourself curse
at other motorists must not be that easy on your ego). Some of the data supplied in graph form
helped visualize what may sometimes get lost in words, so I thought its
application was very effective.
(d) What did they gain from doing their reports?
What did I gain, how about a headache! All that reading on a computer screen
kinda made my eyes hurt. But
seriously, it was nice to read that so many people got “their money’s worth”
from this class. I think
self-assessment is such a powerful tool in all facets of life, not just
driving. I think, since it
displayed apparent success, I may have to give this SA trick a whirl.
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) 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.
(i) Exercise on Scenario Analysis: This is something I’ve always tried to
do when stressful situations arise.
There are times in which I get upset and get pretty illogical in
traffic. I will quite often
comment on how there always seems to be traffic in
(ii) Exercise on Self Assessment: Well, I said I’d try it and now I have
no choice. For me, the idea of
reflecting on my negative traits seemed to be a bit easier than my positive
traits. I think it’s because we
never notice or get in trouble because of things we do that are right. I noticed some tendencies to speed, be
impatient (with other drivers and with traffic signals), and always seem to be
late for something. Passengers
pointed out some other things, such as wandering eyes, non-attentive driving
styles, and jerky starts and stops.
I definitely never pay too much attention to these areas since they are
extremely subconscious. However, I
acknowledge their impact on my overall driving and understand that I need to
correct them to be a better driver.
I have made a conscious effort to be more cognoscente of all
my activities while driving.
(iii) Exercise on
Identifying Assumptions: I thought
this was an awesome story! It
really showed just how we rationalize any situation to sympathize with our
side. We can turn any angle around
to make ourselves easier to relate to and sympathize with. I probably did not see most of those
assumptions because I would’ve thought the same way that guy did. This is something we should all keep in
mind.
(iv) Exercise on
Negative vs. Positive Driving: I
perceive this exercise as really our tendency to “project to protect”. It is so easy to take our pain,
fear, excitement, and sadness and push it onto others to keep us from feeling
blame for a situation. Why would a
complete stranger try to make you upset on purpose? Now, this, in some strange situation, could be true. However, we have no real way of knowing
this and any assumption on our part would be projecting our emotions on someone
else for the pure purpose of protecting our own emotions.
(b)
What were your
reactions to the exercises?
These exercises were actually pretty insightful. I will sometimes think along these
lines, but not usually in such an organized fashion. I think my favorite exercise would have to be the assumption
one because we all do it almost every day. I know it’s something I need to pay more attention to.
(c)
Discuss how these
exercises help you to become more aware of yourself as a driver.
I would have to say the main reason there are so many
problems with drivers all around the world is that we are all so unconscious
while we drive. I think by adding
the concepts these exercises represent into our everyday live, we would all see
a substantial raising of our understanding and control over what we do.
(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?
Well, other drivers don’t seem to be too keen on the
idea of self evaluation, or at least not in my experience. When I tried this, most of the time the
answer was “I don’t do that” or “some people are just a$$holes”. They don’t seem to grasp the deeper
significance of the denial attitude and the problems it can create on the
road. However, trying to explain
the concepts certainly helped me understand things better for myself.
(e) Any other comments you wish
to make.
I think these exercises are some of the better things
I’ve done in this class. They
really struck a chord within me and I will try to apply the concepts more
thoroughly to my driving and beyond.
The Question I am answering is 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)
Discuss these two
Web sites: drivers.com vs. drdriving.org by first describing their
overall appearance and purpose.
I’ve done computer
work for the better part of the last 7 years. My tasks were mainly system based, but I do have a lot of
experience breaking down the fundamentals of websites. So, forgive me if I get a bit picky.
The
most obvious difference between the two sites has to be site design. The organization and style design of
drivers.com is simply more advanced than drdriving.org. I will elaborate a bit more about site
design later on, but it is apparent that drivers.com paid a group to design its
website, whereas drdriving.org was probably a one-man operation. Although, this one man did do a nice
job.
(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.
(i)
As far as content goes, drdriving.org contains, what appear to be, far superior
articles. Drdriving.org’s articles
appear to be more research based and exploratory, whereas drivers.com contains
a lot of surface-level articles about tire pollution and car technology. These articles may be important to
mainstream drivers, but when it comes to the psychology of safe driving, they
are virtually pointless.
(ii) The issue with
the newsletters is much the same.
The content level of drivers.com is just not up to par with
drdriving.org. Drdriving.org is
all about making a difference and trying to change what is a problem for many
people. Drivers.com just seems to
give the audience what it wants to hear.
It tries to be interesting and keep people coming back for more. Not that drdriving.org isn’t in any way
interesting, it’s just that the site is all about information and reform, which
can be boring with all its statistics, charts, and theories.
(iii) One place
where this is very obvious is on the home page. Drdriving.org’s homepage is simply far too big. Homepages are your doorstep to your
website, so there should be little in terms of content on the homepage. It is very common to a “top stories” or
“recent news” heading which contains short blurbs of important information with
links to the full articles.
Drdriving.org has a lot of info on the homepage, which I feel could’ve
been allocated to other pages, which would’ve made the homepage a little friendlier.
(iv) The apparent target audience of
drivers.com seems to be mainstream drivers. There are a lot of shallow articles on “what happens to
stolen cars” and “new tires that will reduce air pollution”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of a
cleaner Earth, but those articles have nothing to do with being a safe
driver. Those articles are put
online to be safe and inviting to a prospective audience, not as much to really
change a problem.
(vi) The target audience becomes even
clearer with the use of advertising on drivers.com. They’re simply all over the place. Ads for different types of books, for trucker schools, for
job searches and more are littered all over the homepage. As for drdriving.org, there are a lot
of ads, but they’re all for the same product: the author’s book. That’s not such a big deal, seeing as
how it’s his website.
(vii,
viii) Overall, I feel the goals of these two websites, despite their similar
subject matter, are just completely different in terms of purpose, direction,
and responsibility.
Drdriving.org’s goal is to educate, inform, and make a difference,
whereas drivers.com is out to be just another website. The content is still a bit admirable,
seeing as how you’re not going to make a lot of money with a website dedicated
to driving. However, there just
doesn’t seem to be a lot of fresh, innovative, deep content on the drivers.com
website. Despite the quality of
design and the polished professional appearance of the site, drivers.com is not
a website I think I would ever visit again unless I specifically had to. Drdriving.com has interesting and
insightful content which may come in handy at various points in my
education. The commercial goal of
drivers.com is apparent in its limited and selective content and its broad
reach in search engines.
Although, drdriving.org is
pretty easy to find and that’s a good thing.
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.
(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.
Table 5
Emotionally Intelligent Driver Personality Skills
|
Driver Competence Skills |
Aggressive |
Supportive |
|
Not |
Emotionally |
|
|
1. Focusing on self vs. blaming others or the situation |
"Those damn stop
signs seem to pop out of nowhere just to piss me off!" |
"Boy, I must need more sleep or something because I’m getting pissed off at inanimate objects!” |
|
2. Understanding how feelings and thoughts act together |
|
"I wasn’t
paying attention and I got startled” |
|
3. Realizing that
anger is something we choose vs. thinking it is provoked |
"They’re all trying to make me made, aren’t they" |
"I seem to get angry pretty quickly." |
|
4. Being concerned about consequences vs. giving in to impulse |
"That guy tail-gated me, so I’m going to give it right back to him" |
"Two wrongs
don’t make a right, or something like that." |
|
5. Showing respect for others and their rights vs. thinking only of oneself |
|
|
|
6. Accepting traffic as collective team work vs. seeing it as individual competition |
"There’s no
way I’m gonna let that fool drive faster than me" |
"There’s no
reason to drive fast just because someone else is. That would probably cause more problems." |
|
7. Recognizing the
diversity of drivers and their needs and styles vs. blaming them for what
they choose to do |
"Man, I hate
it when people write lesson plans and papers while driving, especially while
eating cut-up, bite-sized bits of food!!!." |
"These
drivers need to be looked out for.
I wouldn’t want to get around them when they make a mistake. Besides, I do some pretty unsafe
things sometimes, too" |
|
8. Practicing positive role models vs. negative |
"This guy’s
rich and probably thinks he owns the road. Why else would he drive so slowly?" |
"Maybe this
guy is old and is driving extra-cautiously. I can respect that." |
|
9. Learning to inhibit the impulse to criticize by developing a sense of driving humor |
"All this
traffic makes me mad. Damn, I
will tailgate everyone in the world!" |
"Ah,
traffic. It sure is making me
grumpy. That reminds me of a
joke. A man walks into a bar…. OUCH! Hah, that’s funny. I’m happy now" |
|
10. Taking driving seriously by becoming aware of one’s mistakes and correcting them |
"I so don’t ever make any mistakes while driving. Not in infinity years!!" |
"Well, even I make mistakes from time to time. I should just try to ensure that I don’t make the same mistake twice." |
(d) Discuss why
driving is such a big problem in all societies and why no effective solutions
have yet been found for them
Driving is a serious problem no matter where you
go. Where you find cars, you’ll
certainly find bad drivers driving them.
I would have to say the reason there is such a problem and the reason
there are no effective solutions are one in the same: people just aren’t very conscientious when behind the wheel.
It’s pretty obvious we aren’t our normal selves while driving. I’m a very patient person but when I’m
driving, I have virtually no patience whatsoever. Nice people turn into no-courtesy-having robots whom are
always in a rush. We all just go
into some sort of automatic mode while driving and we forget that the other
cars are people, just like we are.
So, when it comes to addressing the problem, we all dismiss it as
someone else’s problem, not ours.
We would never drive poorly; and when we do, it’s someone else’s
fault. This problem will never be
solved until we as individuals can take a long look in the vanity mirror and
say to ourselves “listen, I think I make to many mistakes while driving. I don’t think it’s healthy for me to be
so worked up all the time just because there’s traffic or a inconsiderate
driver. Life’s too short as is.”.
(e)
Discuss the solutions offered by Dr. Leon James (www.DrDriving.org). What likelihood is
there that his approach will be adopted? Explain.
Dr. James’ answer to this driving crisis we must live
with is to adjust our threefold self to create a more satisfactory driving
persona. One would have to adjust
there affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor skills through the clever, yet
obvious-sounding use of self-reflection.
One would first have to acknowledge the problem, witness the incorrect
persona in action, and modify that personality trait to make oneself a safer
driver.
Again,
people just don’t realize they have a problem.
They see other drivers driving poorly, being rude, and being unsafe. They never recognize those problems in
themselves. Unfortunately, in
order for the average individual to realize they have some sort of problem, a
serious life occurrence must take place. Many smokers don’t quit smoking until they have
emphysema or cancer. By then,
however, it’s far too late. In
relation, drivers need to be in a serious accident or have some close to them
be in one to make any difference.
Speeding tickets aren’t enough to slow down most speeders. The problem is deeper than just the
activities on the roads: it’s in one’s ability to self-govern one’s own actions
and truly understand and be comfortable enough with one ’s self to admit to having a problem.
My Report on the Current Generations
The three orals I will evaluate were written by:
Robert Lee – Oral #3
(4/18/2005)
Jayson Dicho - Oral #2
(3/14/2005)
Robert Lee
spoke of the difference between driver’s education for young people and elderly
people. I agree with the idea of
an ever-changing concept of driver education. It is quite foolish to think that teenagers learn the same
as adults and that adults learn the same as the elderly. Robert made references to the decay of
our physical attributes as we get older and the consequent special needs and
dangers that elderly drivers present.
That, in contrast, to the prime physical condition the young are in and
how that is advantageous. On the
other hand, he pointed out that the elderly have a lot of driving experience,
which is invaluable. Consequently,
the young are often foolish and inexperienced. His viewpoints hit really close to home with most of what I
said on the same topic earlier in my report. I stand behind the idea that we will always be evolving, so
education must do the same.
Jordan Shirk
spoke of the heighten use of cell phones by drivers and its possible outcomes
on a driver’s overall safety. The
article she read contained very old data which reflected a different time of
electronics use by drivers. Even
then, though, there was no apparent correlation between cell phone use and
traffic accidents. This topic is
obviously an important one to debate and is currently a hot issue in many
states. The fact is there is no
conclusive evidence to push the opinion either way; cell phones are a
distraction, for sure, but they can’t be accurately linked to any increase in
traffic accidents. This brings up
a point that I’d like to make: we all need to know our limits and what we can
and can’t do. Some people need to
feel undistracted while driving to be a competent, secure driver. Others just need to be relaxed. A law prohibiting cell phone use while
driving would prove to help some while inconveniencing others. The only law that would really make
everyone happy would be one that made everyone do what was truly best for
them. That would be an impossible
venture, however, and it must be left up to the state and it’s people to decide
what is best. To top it all off,
she read some obscure poem by some obviously deep, insightful person; I rather
enjoyed it.
Jayson Dicho
presented a topic we as drivers often overlook: the supportive driver. He started off by commenting on the use
of the car as a terrorism device by the driver. This at first made no sense, but eventually I understood
that we expect our passengers to be a certain way, listen to what we want, and
shut up about any problems they have with our driving. This is a horrible thing to do. Our passengers have rights, just as we
do. We should always drive with
their well-being in mind as courteous people do. He also spoke of the opposite: the irritating
passenger. This is something I
think all drivers understand all too well. We all have stories of the horrible backseat driver who gets
on our nerves for an entire road trip.
It is just as important, as passengers, to respect the stress we could present
if we don’t act responsibly towards the driver. These concepts, I believe, were not really covered in my
report. I really do believe that
the driver-passenger relationship is one of cooperation and should always be
respected by both parties. Jayson
relayed some personal stories that I think we all related to in some way. This just proves how many things we
take for granted.
Advice To
Future Generations
If
I can offer any bit of advice to future generations, let it be this: listen to
what, I’m sure, every other report is telling you to do: don’t
procrastinate. This class can be
quite a pain if you wait to do your reports a day or two before they’re
do. This is a writing intensive
course; there is going to be a lot of writing in these reports. Don’t find out the hard way, get to
work early.
Also,
get to know your classmates. They
often have good insight to concepts you may not understand and can help you if
you get stuck on certain problems.
We all like to think we know everything, but realistically, we know very
little. Our shared knowledge can
help us get places we’d otherwise not get too. If not for that, just do it for the friendships. I met some really great people in this
class which made all the work more than worth it for me.
Have
fun and keep your mind open to new opinions and learning experiences. That way, you’ll get the most out of
this class and any other you take.
It’s been an interesting semester, and to my fellow classmates: WHEW!!!
Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/classhome-g22.htm
My Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/santos/home.htm