Outline of My First Oral Presentation

Driver Self Improvement

This is a presentation of Driving Lessons, Pages 21-34, by Dr. Leon James

By: Malia Tarayao

Instructions for this Oral Presentation are found at:

Concept One: Gender Differences in Aggressive driving

This is the idea that men and women differ in their aggressive driving behaviors.

A study by Dr. Leon James has shown that more men report behaving aggressively in driving than women and have road rage symptoms more regularly.

I chose this concept because I found the results shown in the study to be very interesting.
What was most noticeable to me was that just because of the aggressiveness of male drivers and increased aggressiveness of female drivers, it is said that it is more of a trend and cultural norm.
It is also said that the increase in aggressiveness in women has to do with the increased amount of women in the workplace.
My initial reaction to this was that yes, I think there is a difference between male and female drivers, however, I don’t know if it is a gender issue as much as it is a personality issue.

I think that there are both men and women who are aggressive drivers, there are also both men and women who are not. And there are also more aggressive women than man. I believe it has to do more with an individual’s personality type than their gender.

Concept Two: Developments in Driver Safety

I chose this concept because I found it interesting that even with all of these improvements, the rate of injuries and deaths have stayed level for some time now.
I found it particularly interesting that when there is something to make things safer, people always find the need to do something to counteract that safety feature.
My initial reaction was one that people can be really stupid.
I agree with this concept. I think people need to realize how dangerous they are when they increase the risks they take.

Concept Three: Three domains of driving norms

This is the idea that there are driving norms in affective, cognitive and sensorimotor areas.

Affective norms of today: valuing territoriality, dominance, and competition, accepting impulsiveness and risk taking.
Cognitive norms of today: inaccurate risk assessment, biased and self-serving explanations of driving incidents.
Sensorimotor norms of today: automatic habits, errors of perception (distance/speed), inattention to performance due to fatigue, sleepiness, drugs, or boredom.

I chose this concept because it applies to all drivers.
What I found very important was that driving includes things such as taking risks, making mistakes, and losing emotional self-control. This means that drivers need to be trained in risk taking, error recovery, and emotional control under emergency conditions.
My initial reaction to this was that I don’t think that most people think about preparing or training for emergency situations. I think that people focus on the basics of driving and not much on themselves as a driver.
I agree that people should be prepared for emergency situations, and should be prepared to stay emotionally strong.