Report
2
My Understanding of Driving Psychology
By: Derrick Stevens
Instructions for this report are at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/409a-g24-report2.htm
I am answering Questions 1, 3, 5, 4 and 2
QUESTION #1
(a) Give a brief review of our two textbooks:
The two books that I will be discussing are titled “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving Steering Clear of Highway Warfare” written by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl and “Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer” edited by J. Peter Rothe. The first book written by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl gives a unique insight to the psychological aspect of driving otherwise known as “Driving Psychology”. This notion of Driving Psychology was started by Dr. Leon James when he noticed that he was ignoring his family’s feelings by being an unsupportive driver. The first text begins with a brief story about how Dr. James became irritable toward his grandmother because of her reactions toward his driving. This would be a prime example of a term called unsupportive driving because Dr. James was not able to adjust his driving skill to give comfort his passengers. Thus the premise of the book was born. Together Dr. Leon James and Diane Nahl made an attempt to educate others of what problematic features Road Rage can have.
Through extensive research and gathering of information from media, interviews, public discussions and government agencies the book was divided up into three different sections. These sections are Conflict Mentality, Driving Psychology, and Future of Driving. The first section explains that we as drivers are emotionally driven and some of our emotions while we drive can lead to negative thoughts behind the wheel. These thoughts act as a pollutant to our cognitive self. (REFER TO THREE FOLD SELF) This decreases the enjoyment of our driving and increases the likelihood of stress and maybe even a collision with another vehicle. The major emphasis of this book is that the focus on road rage driving is not being adequately addressed. The reality is that there are around 42 thousand traffic fatalities per year due to driving accidents.
Dr. James and Nahl provide questions and exercises in
our text that are very attention-grabbing because it makes you aware of the
unaware. This unique approach helps you understand that your emotions are
constant and very influential. The second part of the text talks about
emotional intelligence and ways to avoid aggressive driving. Being
emotionally intelligent is illustrated as being aware of your feelings at all
times and how they can help or hurt you in different situations. There
are various forms of road rage that affect pedestrians, other drivers and
passengers. The authors of this book have included the Three Step Driver
Self Improvement Program.
The basics of this program involve the AWM (Acknowledge, Witness, and Modify) approach. In this approach the driver acknowledges that their driving skills or errors can affect other people. Witnessing your habits by self reporting and self observation can help you monitor your driving behaviors. After we witness our behaviors we can then modify and build a more adaptive driving style. Behaviors are stubborn habits and need to be changed one at a time.
The third and final part of the
book talks about different government methodologies and programs that were
proposed to congress that will reduce the rate of motor vehicle accidents. The
Department of Transportation has proposed NEXTEA,
the national Economic Crossroads Transportation Act of 1997. This would
allow the allocation of federal funds to be used as rewards for states that
have improved transportation infrastructure and safety. The authors have
proposed K-12 programs, CARR (Children Against Road
Rage), and QDC’s or (Quality Driving Circles).
The K-12 program helps build driving knowledge through a curricular level from grade school and up through high school. The CARR program is a family prevention activity with children to help them avoid adopting an aggressive driving mentality. And finally the QDC involves support groups within the individual social network that will encourage life-long driver self improvement.
The second book (“Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer”) that we used in this class draws upon many different areas of study. Despite numerous amounts of effort, the reality is that there are many people dying on the road. J. Peter Rothe argues that we must address this problem by asking different questions. The solutions that we are seeking are obviously not working so we must find new solutions. Experts in the field of psychology, sociology, education, engineering, medicine, and law have put there insight and research into this book. This book seeks to encourage interventions from diverse points of view to prompt debate and hopefully provoke action. The book is broken down to three sections Personal Sub- Systems Institutional Sub-Systems and Technical Sub-Systems.
The first section of the book focuses on the maintenance of the individual driver. The World Health Organization or W.H.O defines health as not only the absence of sickness but also a complete state of mental, physical, and social well being. Health directly affects traffic and the many sub-systems that support it. Drivers today think that they drive alone and that what they do does not affect the actions of others on the road. But that is the opposite because everything that we do behind the wheel can and will affect the actions of others. Individual drivers can be greatly impacted by their physical, mental, and social well being. The balance of these three health areas can make driving a more positive experience.
The second section deals with the Institutional Sub-Systems. From a socialist aspect, the underpinnings of society are placed in institutions where we can learn from and incorporate into real life. We learn from these settings because we trust the powerful influence that it has over us. This section examines how the everyday interactions of individuals in legal, education, media, and economic systems influence our driving habits.
Section three discusses the Technical Sub-Systems or technological advancements that are being employed to decrease traffic accidents. These advancements are also being used to help improve emergency systems response time as well. It is argued in this section that speed alone is not the only factor when it comes to accidents. Other conditions, like driver/vehicle conditions, physical environment and time of day contribute both to the probability and severity of an accident. Technology is constantly improving. More cars are being equipped with standard airbags, reactive brakes, and steering, and roll cage reinforcement. This section will express a very up to date technological standpoint of improving driving systems.
(b) Select
Chapter 8 on Supportive Driving (by James and Nahl) in
the Road Rage book and Chapter 14 on Driving Skill by (by
Chapter 8 shares with us the term supportive
driving. Dr. James and Nahl explain supportive driving as the act of being able
to adjust to the needs of other drivers. Intolerance and stereotypical
thoughts about other drivers is a common denominator of road rage
drivers. It is explained that the only way to cure this entrapment of
emotional feelings, is that a driver must be tolerant of others. This includes pedestrians and
passengers. Each individual has his or her own level of skill. They also
have their own level of risk and error. It is also normal for everyone to
evaluate any given situation differently.
We cognitively process each activity that we encounter in our own unique ways. James and Nahl note that there are some things to remember when you recognize a situation in need of tolerance. These are the local driver versus the visitor, large vehicles versus smaller ones, healthy, able- bodied drivers versus those who are challenged, sober drivers versus those under the influence, young reflexive versus the older less capable, skilled versus unskilled, the self confident versus those who lack self confidence, and cool drivers in control of their emotions versus road ragers. This adaptive thinking allows us to perceive a driver who is not alert or driving slow as someone who is in pain or ill. Perhaps somebody that is changing lanes at slow pace is of short stature. This supportive mindset helps thwart of stereotypical thoughts and prejudgments about a certain age group, or social class.
Chapter 14 on driving skills by Lonero talks about what driving skills are and the three
contextualized areas of skill.
Incorporating these conceptualizations helps create a more broad
definition of skill. Skill is a learned
ability to perform a particular task effectively and efficiently. Just about every human trait can be seen as a
trainable skill. Lonero
states that researchers argue that driving is a complex skill that should
present the idea of driving to non-experts that driving is a very serious
event. The three conceptions are
traditional pre-industrial, modern “human engineering” and post modern “human
re-engineering”. These conceptions
incorporate the hierarchal distinction between real time and broader driver
skills. This chapter is very important
because it not only describes skills that we need now but it looks into the
future for solutions of keeping up with the new technology being developed
everyday.
(c) Discuss what ways these ideas can help
solve society’s problems
Supportive driving is very important
because it attacks societal traffic problems at the individual level. We must change our individual habits so that
we may positively influence others. The
act of helping out other drivers or pedestrians is beneficial to society and
healthier for the individual. Some
commonalities of drivers today are biased and stereotypical thoughts of other
drivers. Dr, James says that by
getting past our stereotypical thought process we enable ourselves a luxury of
driving in a more stress free environment.
Supportive driving gives us a reason to control our emotions. When someone is not driving the way that you
would prefer them to drive we can use a supportive framework or mindset to
validate the possibilities for their driving errors. Something that you
perceive as skill may be perceived as an error to someone else.
Every human skill has a capacity or
limit that we cannot change. When we are
driving there are certain situations that can overload our cognitive and
physical capacity to perform the skills necessary to evade a dangerous
setting. This approach of human
engineering helps us to understand that we are human and cannot compute every
variable at once. We can only deal with
the most immediate and potentially dangerous variable at any given time. With that being said, it is important to
broaden our definitional perspective of skills and errors. In a human-engineering sense driving skills
also involve the mental activity needed to maintain awareness and manage a
vehicle in many different conditions. Once we have a grasp on human-engineering
we can confront the notion that our skills involve the driver’s functionality
within their own social network. This
network can include self control and values-management skills.
(d) Describe any resistance that you
experienced regarding this whole orientation including:
(i) The idea that how you drive is a moral issue
(ii)
The idea of lifelong driver education and mandatory QDC’s
The argument of driving being a
moral issue is very feasible. Smoking
and Aggressive driving can be looked at in the same light. We are slowly trying to convince people of
what all the adverse affects of smoking can be.
In the same sense we are trying to improve driving behavior because both
of these activities kill. A person who
advocates smoking and testifies that he or she has participated in this
activity for years without any ill effects would say that it is their birth
right to do what they please. In the
driving spectrum the same argument can be given. If an individual really believes that his or
her driving is not doing harm to anyone else they may be less receptive to
learning programs. They may also believe
that it is his/her right to drive in a manner that suites them. A mass media campaign should be launched so
that the public would be aware and have a feeling of moral panic. Their just isn’t enough coverage or moral
entrepreneurs pushing the issue of driving kills.
The idea of a lifelong driver
education and mandatory QDC’s
are some of my favorite programs. I
believe that if this program is institutionalized it would sky rocket and
definitely help out our traffic costs. The costs that occur are physical,
emotional, and economical. People tend
to overlook the emotional and physical costs that driving accidents can
inflict. Instead the focus is put more
on the idea of economical costs to the damaged vehicle or property. This trend of driving ignorance can be put to
an end if these programs are mandatory.
The reality right now is that people see the word life-long and write it
off as a commitment that may be to overwhelming. Not everybody wants to keep going to school
when they feel like they are already proficient in their own skills. These programs help to explain that driving
is a skill that acquires knowledge overtime.
(e) Describe the reactions of friends when
you tell them about driving personality makeovers.
As
I interviewed my family members I noticed that a personality makeover was ideal
for them. I interviewed my younger
brother and inquired about his driving habits.
He told me that he will speed occasionally if the situation called for
it. My mother reported going slow in the
fast lane when she felt like some people were driving to fast. I informed them about how to recognize these
driving habits by witnessing them when they occur. I informed my mom and brother that their
behaviors can have a large impact on drivers that they confront on the road. I
also told them that this impact can directly affect how they drive. Speeding is never a productive behavior
regardless of the situation. They told me that it is a good idea for everyone
to be more courteous on the road.
Overall I had genuine and positive reactions to my proposal of a “driver
makeover” plan. I am glad that I had the
opportunity to point out some maladaptive behavior that otherwise might not
have been noticed.
QUESTION #3
(a) Summarize three students report www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups
The reports I have chosen are: 1. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups/newsgroups13.html
2. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups/newsgroups15.html
3. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups/newsgroups16.html
These students reported on the
newsgroup forum and the benefits of participating within them. I noticed that some of the comments that the
students made about the forums suggested that people within the forums were
looking for some kind of comfort from others in the newsgroups. The newsgroups cover forums from love and
long distance relationships, driving, angry drivers, wine, surfing, and
culture. Most people join these newsgroups because it gives them a sense of
belonging to a group that they can relate to you.
(b) Discuss your reactions to what they
did, their ideas, methods, explanations, and what they gained from their
reports.
The methodology was simply to join in some of the groups and
participate as a member. Usually the
student found a group that they could relate to so that they could give some
informative feedback within the newsgroups.
Overall these students learned how to access different styles of
newsgroups and the ways that people use these groups for socializing,
entertainment, and gaining information.
Some of these students also show some of the posted material that they
left on the websites. This was really
informative to me because I learned a lot more as to how people react in this
medium. I have been in chat rooms long
ago when I first started to learn about the online world and this is very
similar.
(c) Now go to some driving newsgroups by
Googling “driving newsgroups”
I visited this newsgroup (Time to tackle
work related driving death toll) and read all of the postings. The postings were informative and
interesting. I enjoy the newsgroup forum
because it offers alternate explanations and points of view. It also puts you in direct contact with
people that care about the same morals and principles that you hold true. Another great aspect of the forum is that you
have to the chose of choosing a new topic or starting a unique forum that can
elicit new thoughts and feelings from members and new members to be.
Question #5
(a) Our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive
Driving has checklist exercises in several chapters. Do the following four
exercises:
(i) Exercise on
Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings on p. 65-66
(ii) Exercise on Are You an Aggressive Competitor on p. 104-5
(iii) Exercise on Positive Driving Behaviors on p. 212-3
(iv) Exercise on Your Passive Aggressive Road Rage Tendency on p. 88-9
Some of the statements that I a put a check by:
-
I don’t have
respect for drivers who forget to turn off their blinkers.
-
I am a gap
closer and don’t let vehicles in front of me.
-
If I had a few drinks
and feel alright I take the chance and drive home anyway.
-
I’m driving in
the left lane in heavy traffic and trying to switch to the right lane. The
driver closes the gap and I miss the exit.
This proves that he purposefully kept me out.
-
I make gestures
and facial expressions to myself to show my disapproval of pushy drivers.
-
Creating
positive mental scenarios and avoiding pessimism.
These statements are
consistent with my attitude before I started this class. I filled in these exercises before I began
this paper. These exercises represent a
driving personality that I am actively trying to correct. I realized soon after I started taking this
class that I retained a lot of bad habits that could potentially hurt my
physical, emotional, and economical well being.
I think that these exercises are very helpful to other people who want
to determine what kind of driving personality they have. Most of the behaviors that I am accustomed
too, have been learned by my peer influences. I can recall the exact episode
that caused me to be intolerant of people who forget to turn off their
blinkers. My parents do not drive aggressively.
I think that my habits are reflective of my personality. This is a term that I call “Driving
Temperament”. I coined this term because
I think that a lot of people drive in congruence of their particular
personality. I like to be in control of everything that I do. I feel comfort when I put myself in a
positive environment that will enable me to accurately assess a situation.
This influences how I interact with people and
drivers on the road. The last statement
that I marked shows how I am using this class to avoid driving pessimism. I also used the breathing technique that Dr.
James suggested in a recent event that I have experienced. This past week I was
rear ended by someone in a fast food drive through. By employing a deep breathing technique I was
able to ward off any hostile feelings and attribute her mistake to an accident. This technique helped me avoid unnecessary
stress that could have snowballed into something bigger.
(c) Do some of the exercises
with another driver you know. How do they help you understand some principles
of driving psychology mentioned in the book? Discuss and illustrate with
specific examples.
Take the exercise : Click
here
As I shared these exercises with family and friends
I then realized that these charts and questionnaires give a quick scan of a
person’s driving personality or a snapshot of their habits on the road. It also gives a brief look at that persons
three fold self. By using these
exercises I realize that everyone has a root habit. This means that every cognitive judgment is
found to be mirrored after some kind of experience that the individual has
internalized. The schemas that we build
play a large part in the interpretation we make of a particular episode. In my case I was influenced by peers during a
critical time when I was learning how to drive.
I was able to see some of the affective responses that my younger
brother portrays during his driving. He
said that “he frequently feels good” when he gets somewhere fast, beating his
own record.
This gave me a look
into his young mindset of competition and disregard for the norm. I then explained to him that this is a
thought process that in turn affects his sensorimotor errors. And by thinking in this manner he reinforces
maladaptive habits that could hurt himself or more
importantly others. The Road Rage book
is very effective in assessing individual risk.
When we become more aware of the risk that we place ourselves in I think
that aggressive driving will decline.
QUESTION $4
(a) Consider Table 5 in
the Lecture Notes, in the Section on Driving Psychology Theory and Charts at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/409a-g24-lecture-notes.htm#Charts
Read the article from which the Table was taken. Copy and paste the table into
your file. Describe the Table in your own words: what is for, what it says,
what it shows.
|
Table
5 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The above comes from: www.drdriving.org/articles/driving_psy.htm
My Version of The
Table
|
Table
5 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The above comes from: www.drdriving.org/articles/driving_psy.htm
My version of the table gives an alternate scenario for each step of emotional driving. I showed this table to each of my brothers and then ask them some brief questions. I told them that one of the most effective ways to counter road rage is to have a strong sense of emotional intelligence. I used examples of situations that have aroused my emotions on the road. Each step corresponds with a maladaptive and adaptive level. I used the DVD example because of the new technology being issued with cars today can contribute to already dangerous road conditions. It is a becoming a societal norm in most states to drive with a cellular phone in one hand and the steering wheel in the other.
More
than a million people worldwide die each year because of transportation-related
crashes. To highlight this problem, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) is joining forces with the World
Health Organization (WHO), other U.S. federal agencies, and public health
and transportation partners for World Health Day.
Question 2:
(a) Discuss these three Web sites: drivers.com vs. drdriving.org
vs. a third one you select that you find related to these two. What are their
main differences? Be sure to consider at least the following areas
listed below. In your answer, keep the sub-division as indicated below. Be sure
to answer each one. In order to write a good answer you will need to consult
some articles as to how to evaluate a Web site. Goggle the words evaluating
Web sites or pages and learn how to do it. Give a link to the article if
you find one that's helpful.
(1) content of articles
(2) content and tone of newsletters, when present
(3i) style of the site
(4) probable audience
(5) public relations or policy, etc.
(6) advertising (if any)
(7) size
(8) ranking (see Google or Alexa)
(9) Other sites that link to each
(10) ...
The website that I chose was Doctors For Designated
Driving. The reason why I chose this
site was because I believe that people in a moral campaign should command a
certain level of respect. In this case a
doctor that advocates designated driving is a powerful message. It is a message that comes from a very valid
and credible source. It is very rare
that the public would question the morality of a doctor. Because they are in the business of helping
maintain healthy and proactive lives.
The style and content of the three websites
are simple and easy to navigate. The
content is informative and innovative.
Each site has put a great deal of time into the detail aspect. The font is legible and appropriate. News letters in the DFDD site give
information detailing the program and its objectives. A target audience may vary from site to
site. Drdriving, and Drivers.com
have amassed a very large fan base. It
supports ideas and inquiries of a broad spectrum of readers. DFDD’s mission
statement is that they will be on the forefront of promoting driving safety by
helping establishments that serve alcohol transport their quest and party to
their designation safely. Each
establishment is recognized through press releases and media of their effort to
promote designated driving. This way
everyone is benefiting from a program headed by people of prestige.
There
is not a lot of advertisement on these three pages and size is of manageable
content. The ads by Google were expected
of the dot.com sites and the dor.org site did not have any advertisements. Overall these sites are beneficial and eye
opening. Statistics and rankings suggest
that drdriving.org and drivers.com average about 270,000 hits per site. The DFDD site is growing in size with a 5/10
page ranking by Google.
Add a Section called
"My Report on the Previous Generation." Select two students from G22
and two from G23, and summarize what they did for their Report 2. Their class
folders are at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/
and www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409af2005/
In this student report Beeler explained
thoroughly the aspects of some to the tables listed in the class website. Amy gives a brief but excellent explanation
of the Three Fold Self. She discusses
the problems that may arise when participating in a driving makeover plan. Amy said that change is the hardest thing to
do because habits are engrained in us.
She also says that when we attempt to change things and it does not
happen right away we tend to give up.
Dicho also discusses the web tables that are
available at the class website. In his
demonstration he showed good knowledge of the material and its intended
applications. Dicho’s
review of the two websites drdriving.org and drivers.com were interesting. He said the drivers.com had a more
professional appearance but I disagree. Because the style of websites today are
changing so fast, I think that what might have looked professional then is not
as professional now. The drdriving.org
website looks to be more professional to me.
In Amano’s report she talked about
monitoring her informational behavior.
This report was interesting because it gave an insight of how relevant
gathering information is to any individual.
Amino learned how to gather information online by using search indexes
and how to develop her own website. This
class has increased her online literacy through these exercises of navigating
and making websites work to her advantage.
In my experience with this course I can definitely say that I too, have
profited greatly form the knowledge that I have learned.
Hiura gives a brief description of the class
textbooks in her report. Hiura supports my idea that the drivers.com site was non
professional looking. I think that
websites have one chance and one chance only to grab the visitor’s
attention. If they do not do that they
may lose that visitor forever. Hiura also explains table 1-4 in her report. The method that she uses is the re paste
method. By pasting the tables in her
report she was able to show the reader that this is how the table is
interpreted.
Advice to
future generation
My
advice to the future generation is to never procrastinate. You should apply this course to your real
life also. It helps you make the class
more applicable to your everyday life.
Therefore it makes every class session exciting and relevant. Most of the projects will take you on an
average of 3-4 hours. It is also very
important to get your web file up and functioning as soon as possible. This will allow you to manage your time and
delegate you assignments to fit your schedule.
This class is very informative and educational. I am definitely more
aware of my driving self and I plan on carrying out my personality makeover
plan. So prepare, prepare and prepare.