My Fourth Outline
Driving With a Healthy Mind
This is a presentation of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving
By: Dr. Leon James & Dr. Diane Nahl, Prometheus Books, 2000; Pgs. 57 - 66
By Kyle Santos

Instructions for this oral presentation are found at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/g22-oral.htm 

  1. Introduction to concepts
    1. Gender Effects: Differences in RR across the genders.
    2. Driving While Impaired:  What Physical and emotional impairments mean to drivers.
    3. Driving Emotionally In-Control: Regulating feelings can improve driving

 

  1. Gender Effects
    1. Men, not surprisingly, reported higher instances of Road Rage and aggressive driving.
    2. Men experience more negative, unconstructive emotions when behind the wheel.
    3. Men just get into more accidents than do women, although women are becoming more accident prone.

 

  1. Driving While Impaired
    1. Impairments consist of both physical and emotional factors.  Both can contribute to driving aggressively or in rage.
    2. Some physical impairments factors include: alcohol, illegal and legal drugs, fatigue, pain or disability
    3. Driving is a skill that requires coordinated body movements and acute judgment.
    4. Emotional impairment a little harder to manage because of its spontaneity.
    5. Stress is major emotional impairment.  We can hardly operate ourselves efficiently while under stress, let alone a car.
    6. Types of Emotional impairments: Anger, anxiety, depression, disrespect for law and others, denial and ignorance.

 

  1. Controlling Emotions while driving
    1. Two main components: Self-appraisal and self-regulation

                                                     i.     Self appraisal: accurate self monitoring of emotions and our expressions thereof.

                                                      ii.     Self regulation: acquired skill of regulating intensity and expression of one’s emotions.

    1. We must be emotionally aware of ourselves.  We must accurately gauge our moods.
    2. Three mental control techniques:

                                                     i.     Postpone immediate satisfaction

                                                      ii.     Avoid the “victory” of punishing through revenge.

                                                        iii.     Redirect negative emotions to something less hostile.

 

  1. Conclusion:
    1. We all know that physical impairments can cause problems.  We sometimes forget that emotional distress can be just as dangerous and create just as many problems for us as drivers.  The self appraisal and regulation are key to being not only better drivers, but better people.

 

 

Helpful Links:

http://eqi.org/toc2.htm

http://www.drivers.com/topic/36/

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s99/thompson/report3.html

 

 Homepage:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/santos/home.htm