My Report on the Early Generations

1. Generation 1's Carol and Beverly
2. Generation 2's Kendall and Michelle
3. Genartions 3's Braden and Nancee

(i) How do their reports differ from your report?

(ii) How is the theory or content similar?

(iii) How do you evaluate their level of understanding of driving psychology?

(iv) What advice do you have about improving the generational curriculum (e.g., new topics, different exercises or activities)?

I am answering Question 3

(a) Search the Web and the University of Hawaii Library Electronic Resources of full text journals to find out what is known about how cell phone use affects people's driving. Summarize some of this literature. Be sure you have articles from both the Web (articles, news, statistics, etc.) and the University of Hawaii Library Electronic Journals Databases at http://zu7lq2cc9q.search.serialssolutions.com/ . Give the full reference and link for each article.

III - Cell Phones and Driving (from the UH Library Electronic Jounrals Database)
ABC News: Why Cell Phones and Driving Don’t Mix
Driving While on Cell Phone Worse Than Driving While Drunk

In general the three articles agree that cell phone use is very hazardous and can be even more dangerous than driving drunk. One of the obvious reasons stated within the three articles has to do with multitasking and when using a phone it involves taking your eyes off the road and sometimes people become too absorbed in the conversation at hand rather than their driving environment. A study conducted by researcher Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah explains that based on their results people who converse on the phone put others at risk as well.

In their simulator people who were driving while on the cell phone were 5.36 times more likely to get into an accident than a non-distracted driver. The study also expressed that compared to drunk drivers, a person conversing on the phone seemed more sluggish rather than aggressive therefore reducing reaction time by 9% in terms of braking and 19% in picking up speed after braking. Due this realization of cell phones and driving a lot of states have taken actions to outlaw the use of cell phones while driving such as New York.

(b) Use the theory in the Lecture Notes to explain what drivers need to learn about themselves in order to be able to handle the proper use of cell phones while driving. Is it better to train drivers to use cell phones properly or is it better to outlaw the use of any cell phones while driving? Discuss the solutions.

In order for drivers to be able to handle the proper use of cell phones a driver needs to understand the threefold self so that they can understand how others feel when they are not driving appropriately with a cell phone. This should put the awareness to want to drive safer for their self and for others. By engaging in the threefold self they will learn about their own driving taxonomy and if they can actually handle driving with a cell phone or not based on their affective self.

However I think it is probably better to put some sort of law against cell phone use whether it is outlawing it all together or making it mandatory to have a hands-free set in order to use the cell phone. A lot of new cars such as the 2007 Camry will have a built in blue-tooth so that you can answer your phone and speak through it through a driver’s radio. I think this is a safer route and a good alternative rather than banning cell phones together.

I am answering Question 4

(a) Contrast our two textbooks: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving (James and Nahl), and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer (Peter Rothe, Editor).
(i) Name some ways they are similar, and some ways they are different.
(ii) Would either text be suitable for high school students?
(iii) Would the books be suitable for driver education?
(iv) How do they compare to some of you other textbooks?

(b) Discuss in what way these ideas can help solve society's driving problems. Be specific: describe the main problems (use some statistics) and how some specific ideas in these two books can help solve those problems.

(a) Contrast our two textbooks: Road Rage and Aggressive Driving (James and Nahl), and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer (Peter Rothe, Editor).
(i) Name some ways they are similar, and some ways they are different.

The purpose of PSY409a is to learn and acquire information about the driving self, and the environment that affects the driving self. Through learning about the driving self, a student acquires the knowledge about a supportive driver who helps to increase safety for the self and the public, and the aggressive driver who drives for the self and endangers the safety of others.

In order for a student to acquire this understanding and knowledge, a student needs to engross themselves with the writings of Dr. James and Dr. Nahl through Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, and the collection of articles of Peter Rothe’s Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. Both readings teach the student about how the effects of road rage is like an obvious epidemic but is easily overlooked.  By understanding the various elements that generate road rage, the student comes to understand that safety is the main concern that will help to reduce this “epidemic.”

Both readings give the reader insight about how their environment (conditions, other drivers’ mental thinking, personal health (sick, drowsy, etc.), etc.) affects their driving while they are behind the wheel. The reader is informed about the importance of safety and how their driving affects others on the road. They learn basically that even though safety comes down to each individual driver, such as themselves, it has a huge impact on how others will act toward them. Also, both readings inform the reader that driving safe is not just for themselves, but for everyone around them as well and how it is not an easy task to accomplish (it is not an over night thing).

However, the way the authors deal with trying to get the message across is different. You could think of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving as strictly a psychological approach and Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer as a sociological approach. Road Rage and Aggressive Driving looks strictly at the individual and how their goals (affective thought) affects their cognitive reasoning and sensorimotor actions.  This in turn can either add for peace and safety with the moving community or it could trigger an unsafe scenario.

Through Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, the reader learns about their “reptilian” (unsupportive) driving actions and how it can cause harm to others and not just themselves. The reader learns about the driving taxonomy so that they can create their own ideal supportive (emotionally intelligent) new self if they choose to change for the better cause.  Through learning about the driving taxonomy, the reader engages in the threefold self where they learn about their own goals, reasoning, and why they engage in those actions.  A lot of times the reader is shocked that they may actually engage in such action until they try out the self-witnessing technique or choose to actually listen to what their passengers have to say about their driving. This is usually where the book is able to take hold of the person and guide them into learning more about what a supportive driver is and how they can make the change for the better.

Then there is the sociological-like approach taken with Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. This book is a composite of many authors who has conducted research on different aspects of driving that has some sort of influence on traffic safety. Since most of the readings are research based, it is written by viewing society as a whole and not specifically just the individual. The articles backs up it’s findings or ideas with a lot of statistics based on groups of people and are not so much case-study like as in the Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book.  Through this book you can automatically see how much of an impact our driving has in society through statistics given rather than trying to grasp the understanding through the threefold self in Road Rage and Aggressive Driving.

(ii) Would either text be suitable for high school students?

Together both readings cover a wide range of ways to hand out information to the public to absorb. A lot of people will be more inclined to change or find interest in hard facts like the many statistics that are given through the articles found in Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer. Even though Road Rage and Aggressive Driving includes statistics as well it is more like a self-help book where a person needs to admit that there is a problem that they need to fix.

A lot of people or high school students have a pride and superiority complex which may prevent them from taking to the Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book as they would with reading statistics from the other. They may think that the threefold self does not really have to do with any part of their driving and may find it ridiculous if they have not been exposed to the different fields of psychology.

However there is the rest of the student body that would not mind reading about things that could help to make them a better driver and would probably find fun in engaging in the different activities or thought processes of moving towards being a supportive driver. These students may read the Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer book and ask how they can have a hand in trying to make traffic safer with out having to wait for legislature to pass new acts or projects.

Overall, I think both books would be suitable for high school students because the information presented between the two books provides a wide range of ways to absorb the information and to catch the attention of the readers. You also don’t really want to have just one style of ‘teaching’ where it forces students to take to one way and that’s where you loose them. Both books would provide a different style that students can grab onto and follow with after experiencing both. It gives them choices, and high school students like to be able to make their own choices.

(iii) Would the books be suitable for driver education?

Still coming from the same note as Part ii, I think both readings would also be suitable for driver education as well, especially the Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book. In this case, these books provide the Driver Educational Instructors with a wide range of information that they can choose to engage their student’s driving thinking while in class and behind the wheel. Driver Education generally teaches the statistics of accidents so that is why you “(ex.) wear your seat belts at all times.” Usually students learn about safety but they don’t really know why they should really wear a seat belt because maybe they never did when they were growing up so they see it as a hindrance.

With the aid of Road Rage and Aggressive Driving the instructors can teach their students that driving safe begins with themselves and then can tie it into the statistics and reports that they may use from the internet or  Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safer to “scare” or enforce the thoughts of safety. By explaining to the students that ALL of their actions have an effect on not just themselves whether they are with passengers or not, but the other drivers around them as well maybe they will be more inclined to listen to the instructor while on the road instead of “talking back.”

For instance, my friend’s father has his own driver education school and he told us a story one time of a student that he had a road lesson with:

“I told her to make a left turn at the next light and instead of slowing down and taking the turn easy, she proceeded with the same speed and tried to make the turn with one hand. I had to step on the break and tell her that is not how you should be taking that turn, and you should use two hands.”

His student responded with, “But my dad drives like that.” My friend’s father further explained to her why she should be turning the wheel with two hands and slowing the car down while on the turn. He thought that she understood, but she did it again a second time. This showed me that even though you may teach students about safety through statistics, etc., they do not really care. In order for her to change her ways, he had to “scare” her by explaining that if this unsafe act continues her session would end.

(iv) How do they compare to some of you other textbooks?

In comparison to my other textbooks, Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safe is like any textbook in any field of study. It provides information that they want their reader to remember or find interest in and they try to capture their attention with statistics. While Road Rage and Aggressive Driving presents its information and theories more like Behavioral Psychology. It provides theories of behavior modification with the self specifically and has a huge theme on cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring in behavioral psychology involves the assumption that individuals interpret and react to events in terms of their perceived significance, like in the Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book, the affective self.

(b) Discuss in what way these ideas can help solve society's driving problems. Be specific: describe the main problems (use some statistics) and how some specific ideas in these two books can help solve those problems.

Each year 6 million people are injured and more than 40,000 die in car accidents according to Road Rage and Aggressive Driving. 62% of people say they have been tailgated within the last year, 48% received rude gestures, and 21% have been purposefully blocked to prevent the proper maneuvering of their vehicle. A lot of people fear that the overall behavior of drivers are getting worse each year and feel that is a problem that needs to be dealt with. Through both readings this can be accomplished through the want to change by the individual and by outside “forces.” Individually would be through the AWM (Acknowledgment, Witnessing, and Modification) approach and

The AWM approach to driver self-modification can be learned through the Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book informs the reader that driving habits are acquired subconsciously and are built upon a habit over a habit, so the current negative habit needs to be broken down by the comments that help it to exist, through the threefold self. Once a person acknowledges that they have a problem to fix they need to “see” themselves in the act. This can be done through tape recordings of their verbal accounts. The last step involves the modification process.

After engaging in the AWM approach the driver is ready to create their new driver taxonomy and to practice fixing each skill to become a supportive driver. However in order for all of this to work the person needs to have learned and understands the threefold self and how it plays a role in their goals, thoughts, and actions in order to create a new and better “counter” self.

If the need to change does not initially occur, “outside” forces can step in through a program called Mission Possible at Work mentioned in Driving Lessons: Exploring Systems That Make Traffic Safe.  This is one way to get the community involved and everyone around that person to encourage and help them out. It’s almost like how someone who has a drug problem, they try to get the friends and family involved to help the person out. What happens in this program is every month a boss holds seminars for their workers to discuss driving issues that they want to discuss whether it is something they’ve heard about or experienced. At the end of each meeting the boss closes it with a short presentation on driving safety.

This type of meeting is to help encourage people to talk about their issues and to bring about awareness to others. These meetings are created in hopes that the person will open up and speak about the issues discussed and learned from work at home, or with other co-workers. This is one way that people could possibly engage in life long driver education, which is a goal that is suggested by both books that society should embrace.

I am answsering Question 5

(a) Search Google News section http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=  for "road rage."
(i) Describe what you see. Make a numbered list of the methods or instruments drivers have used to assault each other. Include the links to the stories you analyzed so readers can see the whole story when they want to.
(ii) Is this something you you and your friends knew about? Discuss the argument some people make that road rage is an expression of media hype and there is no real increase in such events.

(b)
(i) Using driving psychology theory from our two textbooks, explain what's going on with drivers everywhere.
(ii) Connect what you found in the news with the problems and solutions you discuss in Question 1.

(a) Search Google News section http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=  for "road rage."
(i) Describe what you see. Make a numbered list of the methods or instruments drivers have used to assault

• a dog crosses the street in front of a car and the dog’s owner receives a 12” kitchen knife to the throat
• a person cuts off another driver and opens fire on the car
• a Denver driver punishes slow freeway drivers by tailgating them and then pulling in front and dynamiting the brakes
• a Garden State Parkway toll taker was fired for shooting paintballs at a van because he was stuck behind a slower-moving vehicle in the left-lane
• a driver was forced to break and moments later at a stop another driver that was following behind pulls up next to him and gets out of the car and tries to punch the driver who suddenly used his breaks
• an elderly man was hit by another driver and the driver who hit the elderly man gets out of his car, punches the elderly man in the face and then grabs a taser gun from his vehicle and uses it on the elderly driver
• one motorist cut the other off and exchanged “words” with each other which proceeded in a car chase, possible gun fire, and ended with one vehicle (Maxima) that “careened off the pavement, slammed into a tree then demolished a front porch of a home…the car then veered sharply across the street and slammed into the front stoop of a house”

(ii) Is this something you you and your friends knew about? Discuss the argument some people make that road rage is an expression of media hype and there is no real increase in such events.

My friend and I knew that some road rage vigilantes used gun fire, their fists, or their car as a weapon. However a few of these headline stories, such as the knife to the throat because the victim’s dog got in the way and the taser attack on the elderly seem very extreme.  It is almost as if everyone is trying to live out the video game, Grand Theft Auto.

I asked him why he felt that these events occur more frequently or are more extreme. He felt that it had to do with the media, media in general. Sometimes when things are viewed on the news it is almost “glamorized” that it sticks in a persons head and they copy the event, or they see it in movies or read it in stories. And even though movies and stories are fictional, they live out those stories. I later explained to my friend that some people say that “road rage is an expression of media hype and there is no real increase in such events” and I asked if that is a possible thought to consider. He still stuck with his same answer and I agreed with him.

(b)
(i) Using driving psychology theory from our two textbooks, explain what's going on with drivers everywhere.

It seems that a lot of drivers are engaging in the “self-justification” train of thought. Therefore their affective goal is that if another driver engages in an unjust act towards “me” then I have the right to punish. So in basic form their affective goal or motive is retaliation and self-justice to project their self.

This could have been triggered by the influences of media that put fertilizer to the already “aggressive” seed that existed from when they were small. Like I mentioned about my friend’s father’s driver education student who engaged in unsafe acts because her dad does so probably does it even more if it’s encouraged in movies or tv shows for pure entertainment. People live with the thought that if “he” did it and got away with it then it’s okay for me to do it too.

The rise of aggressive acts can also be due to the rise in traffic due to over population of different areas around the United States. I remember reading something or hearing something from the media that before a person knew that they could drive (for example) at 6am and 3pm to avoid traffic. Now, the free flowing hours is at 4am and 6pm. This shows that there are more people on the road and commuting to work and home during the “peak hours.”

As for the increase of severity that an attacker chooses to use against the victim could be due to society not realizing how severe these situations are becoming. The news glorifies the act and people remember them, but no one really tries to understand why or that this one act can trigger 10 more acts later down the line that are either the same or a hybrid of the old act. Society is not educating each other, they are just “shrugging-off” the event. Thinking it’s a “one-time” thing. People realize that there is a right and wrong but when they are in the situation and don’t have control of their emotions, the last thought that hung in their head is the thought that they will most likely act out. It’s almost like turrets syndrome. The person knows that blurting out profane words, or the twitching of their head is not the norm and they think about it a lot to not do it, but they end up doing it subconsciously anyway because that’s the only thing that occupies their mind.

(ii) Connect what you found in the news with the problems and solutions you discuss in Question 1.

The lack of education that society has been embracing with each of these “rare” road rage attacks could probably be dissolved through work places engaging in Mission Possible at Work meetings. Especially if there was a recent report in the news of an extreme attack, the boss or employer can sit down with their employees and discuss why this might have happened, how it could have been avoided, etc. The employees can then take something home with them and share it with their family or another co-worker. A lot of times things are not discussed from the news because people don’t understand the situation and think that it has no prevalence to them, the “it can’t happen to me” attitude and it is just brushed off.

Then through the Mission Possible at Work meetings, especially after there is a road rage headline, the employer’s mini-presentation can incorporate aspects of the threefold self as reminders of how everyone affects everyone on the road and this is what could happen examples can be explained. After refreshing the threefold self, the employer could give their employees an assignment to thing of another aspect of their driving that could be similar to how the headline incident occurred and how they could change it and why. This would make the employees engage in AWM and learn more about their driver taxonomy.

I am answering Question 6

(a) Select some student reports at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups 
(i) Describe what they did – their ideas, their method, and their explanations.
(ii) What did they gain from doing their reports? How do their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues?

(b) Now go to Google Groups search  at
http://groups.google.com/grphp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wg&q=
Type in "Leon James" (use the quotes).
(i) See if you can corroborate the conclusions of the student reports which were done several years ago. What were people's reactions to driving psychology issues I raised?
(ii) Why did they respond this way? What is your conclusion?
(iii) Is this still going on the same way in the electronic discussions? Check some 2007 entries in the discussion on "women drivers".

(a) Select some student reports at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups 
(i) Describe what they did – their ideas, their method, and their explanations.

Ema
Janice Kam
Greg Suguitan

These students were required to a specified newsgroup (http://www.liszt.com/news) area online and to engage themselves in various topics. Their task was to review the messages listed by the public and to also try to post a few themselves and to see if others have responded. In their newsgroup report they picked out postings that were of interest and comment on them. Their comments in regard to a specific posting involved their own personal opinions and what should have happened or what that person in the posting should have done. In other words the students seem to be expected to provide insight to these postings in regards to what they have learned throughout the semester. For example, Ema copied a posting about a near vehicle and pedestrian accident that happened to the poster. An in that specific posting the writer asked if she was correct in thinking the way she taught. Ema’s comments answered her question and explained that when driving you need to be aware the entire time regardless if the pedestrian can’t be seen that well. And she went on to comment about her thoughts on society and this issue.

(ii) What did they gain from doing their reports? How do their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues?

I think a lot of them found it to be fun, and how it was a good way to express their thoughts and ideas about other people’s thoughts. I also think that it may have been an eye opener for some. Janice did not realize that speeding was such a problem where it became outlawed in a state. But then she realized that if it is that serious of an issue then it must be important and serious. I also think that the students were able to obtain a sense of feeling that other people out there are concerned about others behaviors and how it affects society, especially when it involves driving.

But as for the earlier generations, newsgroups main purpose seemed to be a way to engage their self in the new technological world found it to be a good transition. Greg mentioned that he found news groups to be very informational and a good outlet to learn of other “hidden” issues in society. The earlier generations too I thought gained insight about the world around them and themselves. Like the later generations it seemed like they were either surprised of the mentioned event or were able to relate. And even though they either were unfamiliar or familiar with the topic at hand, they still gave their own insight about how they felt. Overall I think these students also realized that newsgroups is a way to be able to post their own personal feelings without being censored so much as they could be in a face to face discussion.

(b) Now go to Google Groups search  at
http://groups.google.com/grphp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wg&q=
Type in "Leon James" (use the quotes).
(i) See if you can corroborate the conclusions of the student reports which were done several years ago. What were people's reactions to driving psychology issues I raised?

Based on looking up reactions of other people to issues raised by Dr. Leon James, I agree with the conclusions of the past student reports (newsgroups) that a lot of the postings have to do with personal feelings. Some people seemed shocked at the proposed ideas by Dr. Leon James but then went on to “bash” them because most of them felt the ideas to be absurd and it did not pertain to mainlanders because Dr. Leon James if from Hawaii. There were a lot of cussing and ranting by especially male posters as well.

(ii) Why did they respond this way? What is your conclusion?

I think a lot of these people react this way because it is new information that seems foreign to them and most of all it probably goes against their own “norms” about how the driving society works. At the same time depending on what type of driver they are, Dr. Leon James’ ideas probably attacks their moral pride and so they are on defense. Such as the guy that was cussing and swearing that Dr. Leon James does not know what it’s like to drive six hours from Milwaukee to Cleveland in a blizzard. The C.R. Kreiger expresses that it is guaranteed that you would feel a little stressed and people who don’t experience it will never understand.

(iii) Is this still going on the same way in the electronic discussions? Check some 2007 entries in the discussion on "women drivers".

It does not seem like the verbal abuse is prevalent in the electronic discussions that involve the topic of “women drivers.” For the postings that I was able to find for 2007 involved more of postings of information found in the news and commenting about those. These sharing of thoughts and feelings are more serene, calm, and aim towards being informative to the other rather than yelling and cussing out another person. I believe in general that people are still expressing their own personal thoughts and concerns but for this specific topic the postings in general seem to have more control over their self. It’s almost as if they are more mature.

I am answering Question 7

(a) Find a road rage newspaper story on the Web that gives enough detail that you can reconstruct the interactions between the people involved. Now do a scenario analysis of events. The Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book gives some examples (see the Book Index under "Scenario analysis:. There is also an example in the Lecture Notes in the Section on Charts at Table 7 -- see
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy26/409a-g26-lecture-notes.htm#Charts 

(b)
(i) Try to reconstruct the interactions by making a list or table of the steps, as illustrated in our textbook.
(ii) Apply driving psychology principles to explain what's going on at each step and how it influences the outcome.

(a) Find a road rage newspaper story on the Web that gives enough detail that you can reconstruct the interactions between the people involved. Now do a scenario analysis of events. The Road Rage and Aggressive Driving book gives some examples (see the Book Index under "Scenario analysis:. There is also an example in the Lecture Notes in the Section on Charts at Table 7 -- see
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy26/409a-g26-lecture-notes.htm#Charts 

(b)
(i) Try to reconstruct the interactions by making a list or table of the steps, as illustrated in our textbook.

(ii) Apply driving psychology principles to explain what's going on at each step and how it influences the outcome.

From scene 1, it shows that the driver who felt that he/she was cut off they viewed it as the negative connotation of being “cut-off” where it is an attack against himself and his safety. This shows that the driver-B’s affective goal is to protect his self and apply self-justified “retaliation.” Since the driver has this belief that he/she believes that he/she has the right to punish that driver-A which is why the driver engaged in scene 2.

Scene 2 also shows that driver-A does not have emotional intelligence and probably has the same affective motive or goal of driver-B. For driver-A, since placed in this scenario, driver-B felt threatened from driver-A’s attacking words and engaged in these exchange of words to back him/herself up as a form of protection.

Both of the drivers seem to engage in self-righteous justification to engage in unsafe actions in scene 3, where they engage in a car chase. This seems to be the start of a combination of different epic road rage intents. Scene 3 and scene 5 shows that driver A and B has become the aggressive competitor where neither driver could stop themselves from engaging in the race. It was probably done to show that one is better than the other and is the better driver where it would be gloating proof that either:

1. CarA should never have cut off CarB because the driver of CarA is actually a terrible driver and that’s why it cut CarB off
2. CarB should never have spoken out like that because CarA is the better driver and it would not have seemed like a cut off if CarB was paying attention and knew how to drive

Scene 4 was mentioned as a possibility but not confirmed, but if it did take place, then the passenger of that car also has the same affective motive of driver A and B where if you attack me, justice must be served. So the passenger found it logical to pull out a gun and shoot at the other car because they deserve to be punished. Punishment is the extreme in this form of epic rage.

Scene 6 explains that it seemed like at least one of the vehicles did not attempt to slow down or due to their justification of having to win attitude, they tried to take a turn at a speed that was not safe and it led into Scene 7 where the Maxima begins to swerve into prefectures.

In scene 8 it seems that perhaps the Maxima does not really realize the danger that he/she has put themselves and the public in by not trying to stop their car that has already crashed into tree and front porch. This shows that perhaps this driver is still caught in the aggressive competitor mode where he/she believes that he/she is not out of the race yet and so tries to veer the car the other way because he/she wants to win. If the car was able to get back onto the “path” without having to engage in scene 9 then maybe they thought it proof that even though the car got damaged, etc., I’m still better than you because of that fact.

Overall if at least one of the drivers did not engage in the affective motive that they have to project themselves and punish those who threatened their safety, the Maxima would not have been damaged, and the tree and two houses would not have been damaged. Also, if there was a shootout, then there would have been prevention of bullets flying from a car and possibly hitting an innocent by-stander or adding to the damage. These steps are very good examples of what can happen from a misinterpretation of actions and how it could end in tragedy because these drivers did not have emotional intelligence. Tragedy whether it’s the loss of life or severe damage to property.

Advice to Future Generations

My advice is the same from my first report. In report 1 I explained that it is important to stay on task with the readings. The topics in general are easy to understand where a student could possibly miss reading a few sections here and there and still be able to participate based on past knowledge, or other media (ex. News, or radio) that may have discussed the issue spoken about in class. The importance of keeping abreast with the material is because of how the two required readings and the lecture notes constantly overlap with each other. Since this occurs it makes it easier for a person to understand terms or ideas that constantly come up in class as well as gaining a better understanding of the threefold self.

The threefold self is an important concept to grasp because it provides the student with a better understanding of why another driver engaged in that action or why he/she as the student engages in that type of driving. This has helped me to understand why I drive the way I do and why I could not understand how others can drive recklessly for now reason. I account a lot of those unanswered reasons to what they viewed while growing up in the back-seat of their parent’s car. Through this class I’ve learned that there are a lot more societal driving issues than I was aware of.

I’ve come to realize that road rage is a big deal and in order to help alleviate this issue it needs to begin with the self. You, as a driver needs to want to change for the better and through doing so you could also be able to share your own growing experiences with friends and families to help lead them in that direction too. If people just hope and wait for the government to take action, which they eventually do, it would take too long and by then the rise of “extreme” road rage accidents may become the norm.

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Tiffany Akiyama © Spring 2007