PSY 409a – Driving Psychology, February 6, 2006

PSY 409a – Driving Psychology, February 6, 2006

Road Rage 32-43

By Leigh-Taina Look

James, Leon and Diane Nahl, Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare, Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2000, pages 32-43.

Instructions for this activity are found at:

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

Instructor: Dr. Leon James

I. Types of Rage

a) Parking lot rage

b) Sidewalk rage

c) Surf rage

d) Air rage

e) Neighbor rage

f) Shopping mall rage

g) Workplace rage

h) Cafeteria rage

i) Customer rage

j) Keyboard rage

k) Desk rage

II. The Anger Choice

a) Carol Tarvis

1) Describes Darwin’s theory of human aggression as a biologically programmed response no different from the rage reflex of animals when they are attacked or threatened

2) Thinks this model is too simplistic for humans

A) Threat does not always elicit anger and anger does not always elicit aggression

3) Humans have judgment and choice

A) Expressing anger is a learned habit

4) Anger is a habit that can be modified to restore human choice in provocative situations

b) Recent medical research concludes that venting increases stress and depresses immune system functioning

C) attaching an event to our self-esteem can result in road rage, feeling insulted, wronged disrespected, and demeaned

III. Emotional Literacy

a) Depression is a symptom of our hurt self-esteem

b) Social conflict is a symptom of the prejudice and lack of education that tear a community apart

c) The three-step program for lifelong driver self-improvement

1) Teaches drivers to become aware of and to monitor the sequence of their emotions and thoughts behind the wheel

2) Monitoring thoughts while driving is to acquire systematic information about oneself

d) Without emotional literacy, a person won’t be able to recognize aggressiveness not feel personal responsibility for any conflicts

e) Caging rage is a civilized necessity

f) Social organization of traffic can be achieved through methods of sociality and mutuality

1) Not individuality, competition, and defensiveness

This site is interesting because it offers an aggressive drivers test. There are four headings in the test that AAA finds important to road rage. The four headings are anger, impatience, competing, and punishment. Each category consists of ten questions that have the ratings of: never, sometimes, often, and always. After the end of the quiz, a score is calculated and tells the rating of each category. The site then gives you solutions to the categories it found you have the most problems with.

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/enforce/aggressdrivers/aggenforce/toc.html

This site is the internet handbook of a plan for an aggressive driver enforcement program. The plan includes involvement of prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement agencies. The site also proposes that outreach programs be introduced to the public so that there is awareness of aggressive driving. Finally, the site has examples of aggressive driving enforcement programs in different states such as Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Oklahoma, Ohio, Arizona, Maryland, and more.

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/road-rage.html

I found this site interesting because it is about preventing road rage. The three steps to prevent road rage are to: 1) stay in the car, 2) do not respond with an angry gesture or action, and 3) keep a “sorry” sign in the car and use it when needed. I think the “sorry” sign is very creative way of preventing road rage. The site also explains why it is important to make a “sorry” sign and exactly how a “sorry” sign should be made.

My Homepage:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2006/look/look-home.htm

Class Homepage: