Report 1
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By: Melanie Baldueza
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/409a-g24-report1.htm
a) My Understanding of the 4 Tables
Table 1 discusses the positive and negative attitudes a driver may experience while on the road. It illustrates what domains of the threefold self would say in a given situation. The affective self involves the driver’s motive of a goal. The cognitive self involves the driver making judgments or decisions in a situation. The sensorimotor self involves our actions that we take when we think everything through. All of these domains makes-up our driving behavior.
Table 1: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/baldueza/baldueza-table1.htm
Table 2 talks about the behavioral zones of driving. There are three levels of driving behaviors. Level 1 focuses on “proficiency”. This deals with the driver’s focus while driving. The driver must be calm and alert, be always aware of what is happening around them, and have control of their car at all times. Level 2 focuses on “safety”. Safety means the driver must avoid getting into trouble or danger. It also means that the driver must be able to recognize possible trouble on the road and be ready to solve these problems. The driver must always be careful while driving. Level 3 focuses on “responsibility”. This term refers to the driver being responsible for their actions for hurting or placing other people in danger. Zones 1-9 represents the driver’s skills and zones 10-18 represents the errors of the driver.
Table 2: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/baldueza/baldueza-table2.htm
Table 3 illustrates how to change our driving style. There are two stages in becoming a supportive driver. The first stage deals with our aggressiveness on the road. We must try not to be an aggressive driver but be a supportive driver. It breaks down what our affective, cognitive, sensorimotor selves are thinking and responding in the situation. The first step in changing the aggressive tendencies is to accept change and not be resistant. We must accept criticism about our driving, try to control our anger towards other drivers, try not to make fun of others because of their driving, and try to put our positive motives on the road. The second step is to learn how to fairly rationalize situations on the road. This means we must learn to think from the other person’s point of view, it is not always their fault. The third step is to be civil towards others. This means signaling when you want to change lanes or turn, waving thank you, smiling, not swearing, not rushing, and not acting aggressive to your passengers. To be a supportive driver the person is balanced, thinking rationally, not in competition with others, and trying to be helpful to others. The first step is to be always supportive towards other drivers. This means understanding and being forgiving towards others’ for their errors and weakness, feeling sorry for my rude behaviors and actions, feeling positive for being showing nice actions towards others, and thanking others for giving advice on our driving. The second step is to analyze driving situations rationally. This means we must recognize and know our own driving errors, analyze the behaviors of other drivers rationally, and to change our errors by recognizing and trying to modify them. The last step is acting in a cooperative manner. This means saying nice things towards others, predicting the other drivers’ needs to be helpful, and being relaxed and happy while driving.
Table 3: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/baldueza/baldueza-table3.htm
Table 4 talks about an approach to change a driver’s negative habit. The approach that was discussed in this table was the AWM Approach. The first step is to recognize that I have a negative habit in my driving. The second step is to witness myself doing this negative habit. The last step is to change the negative habit. When you repeat all of these steps toward that certain habit, the habit will then decrease in frequency. The table also talked about the basic principles in driving psychology. Driving norms are broken up into three domains which are affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. Each of these driving norms is responsible for a different aspect in our driving. The affective driving norms are negative and anti-social. Some examples of this are being disrespectful towards others, expressing dominance, and competition as a good driving style, and not accepting the diversity of the drivers’ skills. Social and cultural methods must be used to decrease the attractiveness of these aggressive norms and to increase positive and cooperative drivers. The cognitive driving norms are not accurate and not adequate. Some examples of this are not assessing the situation correctly, being biased in explaining driving incidents, emotionally illiterate, and not accepting responsibility in a situation. To avoid this, the driver must be willing to train and improve themselves by changing their old ways. They must learn how to manage their behaviors behind the wheel. The sensorimotor driving norms are not adequate and not mature. Some examples of these are forming habits while driving, perceptual mistakes, and not paying attention while driving. To improve this area, one must commit to changing their ways all their life to have more competent driving habits.
Table 4: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/baldueza/baldueza-table4.htm
b) Main Principles of Driving Psychology
The main principles of driving psychology are being emotionally intelligent, becoming a supportive driver, and recognizing the threefold self. To me emotionally intelligent, we must be more aware of our thoughts and feelings while driving. When we observe our thoughts and feelings we learn new information about ourselves as a driver. If a person is not emotionally intelligent they cannot recognize that they are being aggressive driver. They also do not feel any responsibility for causing danger or trouble which can lead to injury to others. From being emotionally intelligent we can become a supportive driver. To be a supportive driver we must remember to always try to support other drivers on the road, analyze driving situations rationally, and behave in a cooperative manner. The threefold self includes our affective self, cognitive self, and sensorimotor self. The affective self deals with our feelings and motivations while driving, the cognitive self deals with thoughts and reasoning, and the sensorimotor self deals with actions. When all of these are combined it creates our driving behavior.
c) The Three Domains of Driving
The three domains of driving are the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. Each deals with a different aspect in our driving behavior. The affective domain is in charge of our feelings and motivations while driving. The cognitive domain is in charge of thoughts and reasoning behind the steering wheel. The last domain is in charge of what we do physically.
Driving Errors
When I am running late, I tend to drive a little bit faster and criticize others of their driving skills on the road. I place blame on others when I am late. My excuses are there was a lot of traffic because the driver in front of me was driving too slow or that there was an accident and others are rubbernecking. In my mind it is not my fault, but in reality I should have left a little bit earlier to avoid all of these situations on the road.
Driving Skills
While driving, I do not answer my cell phone. This is a skill because I am focusing on the road and nothing else. I believe when you multi-task while driving you tend to lose focus and concentration which I do not want to do.
d) Driving Personality Makeovers from Previous Generations
Driving Personality Makeovers – Should I Let Them Cut In?
By: Dustin Telles
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f98/telles/report1telles.html
The author of this report defines the term of driving personality makeover. The definition that he came up with was a way a person helps themselves to become a more considerate, law obeying and non-aggressive driver. The mini-self modification experiment he came up with was to decrease his anger towards people who wait till the last minute to cut into an onramp. When this happens to him he swears and tries to speed up so the car will not have enough space to cut in front of him. To change his habit, he asked his passenger to remind him to leave a little space just in case this happens again. After a while, he got used to this new positive habit and his friend did not have to remind him as much anymore because he thought of an excuse for the other driver’s actions.
Driving Personality Make-Overs
Is it for Me?
Do I really need to Change?
By: Jocelyn Manibusan
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/manibusan/report3.html
The author of this report also started it out with a definition of a personality makeover. She defined it as a process that deals with self witnessing, planning and carrying out a behavior, and taking responsibility for our actions. In her mini-experiment her passenger in the car actually gave her a criticism about her driving. Her passenger informed her that she followed the car in front of her too closely in every situation. It didn’t matter it she was in traffic or if the traffic was flowing well. She asked her passenger to remind her to leave a little more space in front of her so she wouldn’t be too close to the car. To help herself out, when she saw she was following to close, she would say out loud “Jocelyn you are driving too close again; allow some distance from the car in front of you”. She accepted criticism from her passenger and it made her a better driver.
e) Driving Personality Makeover
Whenever I am in traffic, I tend to be very critical about other drivers’ skills on the road. I tend to get irritated and talk out loud in the car when I am driving to and from school. I usually point out all of the mistakes of other drivers. Like, “you are not supposed to change lanes over there”, or “get off your cell phone”, or “use your blinker.” The more I see the more I get I want to get home faster, so I don’t have to go through it. So, for me to have more positive attitudes, I asked my passenger in the car to remind me not to say anything critical about the other driver in the car. Instead I have to say, “they have a good reason for doing that.” Whenever I am in the car by myself, I have to remind myself to be not so critical about the other drivers around me. From class I remember that the driver’s goal is to have control over their car at all times. After a few days, I noticed that I was calmer behind the wheel. I was not as irritated in traffic.
f) What I Learned so Far in Driving Psychology
So far in this class, I learned that everyone has aggressive tendencies in their driving. To change that, we must learn how to become a supportive driver. This cannot be learned in a day, but instead it is a lifelong process that takes practice. Before this class, I did not know that the threefold self plays an important role in our driving behavior. Each domain is responsible for a specific part in our driving. All of this made me a better driver because I am more aware of my affective and cognitive self. For the future generations that have to write a report start early. Don’t leave everything to the last minute. Also, look at the previous generations’ work to get an idea what direction you want to go into. You have this to help you out, so use it. One tip to look things up in google is to use quotes (“ “) , I think the term is a Boolean search, when you want to look up things. This searches for that grouping of words. My advice in teaching this to college students is to come up with some everyday examples, extreme examples, and try to explain them as best you can.
Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/baldueza/baldueza-home.htm
G24 Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm