PSY 409A Driving Psychology, February 20, 2006

Mixing Formal and Informal Situations While Driving

By: Melanie Baldueza

 

Peter Rothe, Editor (2002). Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press) Nash, Jeffrey. E and Brinker, Gary D. Family and Friends: How Intimate Social Life Contributes to Risky Driving. Pages 65-75

 

Instructions for this outline:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/g24-oral1.htm 

 

I.                    Socializing while driving

a.       Intimate social life

                                                               i.      Difference between formal and informal settings

1.       Feel and act differently in certain situations

2.       Follow rules in a formal and more lax in an informal setting

b.       Form and content

                                                               i.      This is to explain intimate social interaction

1.       Limited to certain people

2.       Content deals with our emotional side which can be dangerous

3.       The more intimate the interaction, the more vague the meanings and the rules will generalize to other places of social life

4.       How we operate the car, depends on who and what is happening in our social life

5.       Engaging in social activity reduces our physical skills and judgment

c.       Mixed or confounding social forms

                                                               i.      Refers to the way the meanings of interaction are organized according to what people take for granted as appropriate in a certain situation.

d.       Intimate form

                                                               i.      Number of people talk with each other in special ways that carries a lot of emotional that needs much more attention to understand

1.       Having friends in the car and having a heart to heart conversation while driving distracts the driver

e.       Social Form

                                                               i.      Driving a car

1.       Others can mold and influence the content of the interaction within it.

2.       Being able to perform depends on age, reflexes, and intelligence

3.       Because people think it is easy to drive a car, car companies are selling items to add to your car to distract you.

4.       Mixing rules of driving with the rules of being young can be dangerous

f.        Formal and intimate forms when combined can confound each other

                                                               i.      Creates an act of driving, a mixed form that may be alienating by its very character, encouraging such emotion as road  rage

                                                             ii.      Formality, informality clash

                                                            iii.      Attention to one interferes with the other

                                                           iv.      As one matures and has more experience, it becomes easier to do both

                                                             v.      Mature drivers do not mix forms as much

II.                 Community and Traffic: Doing a Survey

a.       Survey was done to measure actions, knowledge and attitudes toward local traffic situations and driver behaviors

b.       Young drivers more likely than older drivers become more angry and frustrated while driving

c.       At risk for crashes are young drivers, because the meaning of driving depends on the degree of involvement in peer social life

                                                               i.      Tend to be more attentive to social activities such as socializing and impressing their friends in the car, than following the formal rules of driving

                                                             ii.      Young drivers are more likely to do more than one social interaction while driving, which is a distraction while driving a car

d.       Females “mellow” when they become more mature, aggressive tendencies decline each passing year

 

Related Links:

 

1.  http://www.engr.uconn.edu/ti/Research/jhr04-298_03-5.pdf - Factors Affecting Young Driver Safety

I chose this link because it is a study that found that young teenagers tend to cause more accidents as the number of passengers increased in the car.  This confirms that mixing formal and informal situations while driving will distract the driver and we should keep socializing to a minimum in the car while driving

 

2.  http://www.marc.org/transportation/safety/inattentive.htm - Inattentive Driving

I chose this link because it talks about the driver not paying attention to their driving.  It talks about that some drivers to other things while driving, such as talking on their cell phone, changing radio stations, or eating their lunch.  It also gives you tips on how to reduce your inattentiveness while driving

 

3.  http://ppc.uiowa.edu/driving-assessment/2005/final/papers/53_Skaarformat.pdf - Gender Differences In Predicting Unsafe Driving Behaviors in Young Adults

I chose this link because it is a study that suggests that young female drivers cause more crashes than their male counterparts.  This is something different from the article, because they list the males being more likely to cause accidents.  But this study actually disagrees with the finding of the study in the article. 

 

My 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