Supportive Driving
Should Be Our Goal
Report 5
Jackie Bartold, Holly Saiki, Alicia Raatz
Psy 409a, Spring 2008,
Generation 27
Dr. Leon James, Instructor, University
of Hawaii
Section
1. Lecture Content
By Jackie
Bartold
Concept
The overall
theme of the lecture was the extensiveness of aggressive driving throughout all
cultures of the world. Because this behavior is so ingrained, previous efforts
made to change behavior such as driversÕ education and media have fallen
considerably short. First we looked at the steps towards becoming a better
driver and then examined possible methods for change.
Levels
Our driving
practices can be characterized in the three different levels:
In order to
create change we need to first understand why drivers practice the aggressive
driving mentality. The next step is to obtain the defensive driving mentality,
which involves not being aggressive and to predict other driversÕ mistakes. The
final step is to obtain the supportive driving mentality, where we think of
others needs as well as our own. We must find out how to obtain this mentality,
as it is the safest way of being a driver. Supportive drivers understand that
cooperation is required for driving to be successful.
Success vs.
Failure
In order for
practices to be successful they need support social behavior including
affective and cognitive aspects in addition to sensory motor. This is why
programs that effect driversÕ thoughts such as replacing negative and critical
thoughts about other drivers with positive thoughts are successful. In contrast
to programs that involve surveillance whether it is cameras or police do not
work. Surveillance is an external threat that does change sensori-motor
behavior and cognitive aspects in the short term, but does not effect the
affective feeling about driving and therefore does not effect long term
cognitive and sensori-motor behavior.
Why must we
change?
Aggressive
driving is the biggest killer, even more than wars and famine and because it is
an abuse of other road users, passengers, other drivers, and pedestrians.
What will
help this change?
We need to
acknowledge the fact that the media, videogames, and other social influences
portray aggressive driving as socially acceptable and therefore train us to be
aggressive drivers. We also must come to the realization that we cannot force
someone to change. It is up to the individual to be a supportive driver, and
knowing this we can design programs to encourage the concept of supportive
driving.
Other ways to
Cause Change
Conclusion
Aggressive
driving is tremendous problem that extends throughout all cultures. The
solution requires starting at the affective level because it leads to behavior
in the cognitive and sensori-motor levels. We must become supportive drivers
because aggressive driving is extremely dangerous. Luckily, there are a variety
of methods that may be used to make this change. Because these values are
taught at a cultural level it will require a lot of work to change behavior,
but it will be well worth it when countless lives are saved.
Section
2. Team Presentation on the Readings
Road Rage
Chapter 8
By Alicia Raatz
The first part of the reading group talked about the book
Road Rage Chapter 8. Supportive
driving is an accommodating style that emphasizes adjusting to the great
diversity of highway users and steering clear of the emotional entrapments of
road rage thinking. Not all drivers can be treated alike. Supportive drivers
must accommodate them by accepting the reality of unfamiliar drivers and
adjusting their driving to suit the situation. Less experienced drivers make
more mistakes and can be less predictable. Recognizing and accepting a
diversity of drivers and styles is adaptive as well as supportive. There are
many different types of diversity such as local drivers versus visitors, large
vehicles versus smaller ones, healthy drivers versus ill, in pain, or emotional
upset drivers and young drivers with excellent vision and quick reflexes versus
those who are older, slower, and less capable.
Drivers must constantly keep track of each other in order to
avoid collisions. In the late 1980Õs, The National Motorists Association
proposed seven new motorist signals:
Supportive driving focuses
on facilitating other driversÕ efforts to accomplish what they want instead of
competing against them. If you adopt and practice a supporting driving
lifestyle youÕre protected from the road rage of other drivers because youÕre
committed to putting up the least sail in their angry wind. Rage doesnÕt build
up when the drivers refuses to justify it.
There are three philosophies
that determine how people drive:
1.
An
aggressive and hostile style (ÒDonÕt mess with me!Ó)
2.
Feeling
alienated (ÒItÕs everybody for themselves!Ó)
Most people have never
even thought about their driving Òphilosophy.Ó People just donÕt like to admit
that there might be something very wrong with our driving; itÕs always the
other drivers who need to change their attitude and behavior. Dr. Leon recommends switching roles
whenever possible, alternating between being the driver and the driving
partner. By repeating the cycle several times or making it into a regular
practice, you obtain experience that builds emotional intelligence. Researches show that several weeks
later the social influence of the partnership driving team began to have an
effect on this driver.
Chapter 13 of Driving
Lessons: Revisiting Communications and Traffic Safety
By Holly Saiki
Introduction
I must admit that I find that
writing this report is rather surreal since I was the one who did the oral
presentation of this chapter, but I will do my best to remain as objective as I
possibly can while focusing on the main points of this chapter. Now the whole
overarching framework of the chapter focuses on reducing the problem of driving
crashes by developing a cost-effective communication campaign that targets
specific groups rather than just being a generic campaign that targets the
whole public. Some of the points covered in this framework will focus on how
language and communication can contribute indirectly to a lack of driver
responsibility, effective methods of communicating safe driving, the active
viewer and the difficulties of the process.
The Active Viewer
The section focuses on how
the media and other conglomerates help to create a passive consumer that does
things in a prescribed way and takes no active duty in improving themselves and
taking responsibility for their actions. The writer believes that this has contributed
to the publicÕs lack of responsible driving ethics. They state that in order
for a revised driving plan to work, the drivers must become engaged in
improving their behavior and actively contribute to its development; thus
becoming both good citizens and Active Viewers.
I knew in a general way
about people being passive consumers and how harmful it was, but I never really
thought about it in concert terms in relation to a subject like driving
behaviors. Still, I like the idea about making the passive consumer an active
one so that there is a better chance that the revised driving campaign will
have a real lasting effect. People have to want to change and be willing to
work hard on changing and a good driving campaign will use that fact to their
advantage.
Indirect Methods of
Language and Communication
The two points that stood
out for me when I read the section is how the structures of language and the
aesthetics of driving may contribute to the rate of driving crashes indirectly
through driver beliefs. With the former, reports of car crashes are most often
phrase in terms like ÔaccidentsÕ or that the weather and bad road conditions
were a ÔfactorÕ in a car crashes. These words may subtly encourage drivers that
the ability to prevent car crashes is out of their hands and determined only by
fate; thus the drivers may not practice good road safety rules and increase the
chances that they will get into a collision with another car.
The latter focuses on
driving as a magical act that symbolizes freedom. The functional actions of a
car become an aesthetic expression, it must flow beautifully and be free, and
anything that prevents it is an enemy and must be punished. This sort of
aesthetically-bounded thinking encourages bad driving behaviors by portraying
fellow drivers that interrupt the smooth, beautiful flow of the driver as
enemies of freedom who must be punished.
What I liked about this
section was that the writer points out the indirect influences our culture may
have on our driving behavior while also empathizing the importance of
developing a new aesthetic and language structure that stresses personal
responsibility for oneÕs actions on the road. It is perfectly fine to be aware
of the things that influence your behavior and still realize you have to take
responsibility for your actions. It is something that I personally believe in
and which has helped me to live a good life and find personal happiness in my
goals.
Effective Methods of
Communication
The chapter focuses on how a
Driving Safety program can reach the hearts of the public and get them to
change their driving values. The methods they recommend are programs that
empathize the personal factor in driving. The revised Driving Campaign focused
on the emotional consequences of unsafe driving and the pain of being
responsible for the pain and suffering of another person. Those methods managed
to get people to think about their own bad driving habits rather than the
threat of the driverÕs own death.
They also talk about how
both the government and the community must focus on lowering the rate of car
crashes, supporting both the top-down and bottom-up approach at the same time;
a method that I personally like because it encourages everybody to be
personally responsible for their actions rather than forcing one group to carry
the weight of other peopleÕs mistakes. I also think the revised Emotional
methods are useful, but I do worry that the campaign may focus too much on
shock to the point that people are scared of driving. The important thing is to
encourage good driving skills, not make people afraid of driving.
Questions and
Recommendations
The chapter also raises
important questions about wherever a change in behaviors leads to a change in
attitude in driving. It brings up an example that when the media budget was
spent, the rate of traffic fatalities went up quickly from 39 to 70 per month,
showing that changing driving attitudes is much more difficult than one would
believe. However, the writer doesnÕt lapse into despair, but uses the questions
that are brought up to encourage people to improve upon and implement better
driving attitudes. The writer offers some well-thought out suggestions at the
end of the chapter as well as more penetrating questions.
Conclusions
The chapter is well-thought
and tackles the subject without oversimplifying things or giving in to cheap
moralizing or insulting political rhetoric. The questions raised in this book
will encourage discussion and serious thought.
Article 10
By Alicia Raatz
The last part of the
readings was Article 10, the Theory of Risk Homeostasis. A homeostatic engineering device is
modeled after processes that naturally occur in living organisms, and any
engineered device is likely to be much less complex, less resourceful and
adaptive. Living organisms learn from past experience, so they never behave in
exactly the same way from one point in time to another.
When the expected
benefits of risky behavior are high and the expected costs are perceived, as
relatively low, the target level of risk will be high. The target level of
accident risk is determined by four categories of motivating factors:
The level of traffic accident risk that is perceived
by the individual person at any moment of time derives from three sources: the
person's past experience with traffic, the person's assessment of the accident
potential of the immediate situation, and the degree of confidence the person
has in possessing the necessary decision-making and vehicle-handling skill to
cope with the situation.
Road users consistently monitor the perceived amount
of accident risk, compare this with their target level, and attempt to reduce
and difference, be it positive or negative, between the two. Any action that is performed after the
choice has been made carries an objective likelihood of accident risk, be it
greater or smaller. The sum total
of all the performed actions, along with the objective risk of each of them,
determines the traffic accidental loss.
There are three types of skill that have an effect on
the level of risk perceived and the action performed: perceptual skills,
decision-making skills and vehicle-handling skills.
The Social Psychology of Driving
The second part of article 10 was The Social
Psychology of Driving. It was a
website about conformity. She
talked about how you are what you drive.
Whatever kind of vehicle you drive represents how you are as a driver.
To successfully and safely reach one's life
destinations you need the ability to successfully predict the behaviors of others
at least partly and control those directed behaviors toward one's self. A person with the internalized
moralities: would say "I never exceed 55 miles per hour because that's not
right and because there is an energy crisis."
With conformity, you can predict the behaviors of
oneself, and others. The rules and
norms of the road assist in predictive abilities on the road. There are two different types of driver
identities, the independent identity and the social identity. There are also two different types of
driver, the one with personality and the Good Samaritan. This concept has
intrigued many scientists to do more research on the topic.
Section
3. Team Presentation on Exercises
By Jackie
Bartold
(a) The Main
Ideas
The team pointed
out cultural norms and driving attitudes, by referencing the number of views
the videos had received, ratings, and comments left by viewers.
(b) Team
Interpretation
The team
selected a couple of Google videos from the list of 10 under the exercise
section and then selected videos from YouTube video, played brief clips of
these videos in class, summarized them, expressed their own opinions of the
videos and shared user comments posted on Google about the videos. From the
amount of views and user comments they were able to conclude that people have a
fascination with driving, speed and risky behavior, that extends across
cultures.
(c) Better
Justification
They presented
the videos well including not only their own thoughts, but included the
comments of other video viewers. They provided proper justification.
(d) Success
of the approach
Overall, the
presentation was a success. The most successful component was the showing the
videos during the presentation. We were able watch the videos right before they
talked about them, which made their opinions and comments more interesting and
inspired my own feelings and thoughts about these videos. It was also extremely
beneficial that they shared viewers comments to the videos not just their own
or their friends comments.
(e) Improvements
to the instructions
The team did an
excellent job presenting these exercises, so I would suggest including in the
instructions some of the strategies they used such as playing short clips of
the videos for the presentation. This increased interest in the presentation by
breaking up the speech, but refreshing our memories about the videos so we
could think about the videos as they were sharing their thoughts and ideas. In
addition the instructions should include sharing comments made online about the
video. These comments show important attitudes about driving that extend beyond
the presenterÕs own view and friends view.
(f)
Limitations
One limitation
is the whether the videos have been altered. In the India it appears that the
video has been sped up. In the Russia video in one of the crashes a second
truck comes from out of nowhere. Such questionable images distract from the
main focus of the exercise, since I find it hard to analyze videos that might
be fake/altered.
(g) My
Experience with the Exercises
After viewing
all the videos all I have to say is wow. After watching the India video I was
happy that I lived in America with lanes, stop lights, and cross walks, even
though I feel like they are a burden sometimes.
The video of the
Humvee clip with American soldiers was very offensive. They were definitely
exhibiting the power trip involved with being a soldier and driving such a
large vehicle. All I could think
is that no wonder other countries hate us so much. Their experience with
Americans is jerk American soldiers who think it is funny to bully people
around.
I also was very
offended by the video of the motorcycle in traffic driving in between lanes and
on the shoulders of the road. It further glorified aggressive driving with the
title including ÒSexy drivingÓ and the music background to set the mood.
After viewing
the 10 links posted under the exercises, I went to YouTube to view other videos
of stunt driving. After enjoying the video presented in class about the Hyundai
stunt driving, I looked it up on YouTube to watch it again. I was in awe of the
driving presented. Stunt driving is extremely cool, but I did not actually want
to perform these stunts myself, nor purchase a Hyundai to do them.
Section
4. Annotated Web Links
By Holly Saiki,
Alicia Raatz, and Jackie Bartold
1) The Pot and Driving
Campaign
http://www.potanddriving.cpha.ca/
I
was curious to see if there were driving campaigns that focused on the dangers
of driving under a drug influence that wasnÕt alcohol. This web page shows that
there are other dangerous substances that can affect your ability to drive
safely.
2) Targeting the Social
Drinker is Just MADD
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/balko-021209.html
Driving
campaigns are run by people and people are quite capable of making mistakes and
fighting unneeded battles. This article focuses on MADD and the some of the
questionable things they have done in the pursuit against drunk driving.
3) Parody of MADD Canada
Commercial
http://www.getmobilized.ca/maddness/2006/12/parodies.html
ItÕs
a fact of life that people will parody things they personally find offensive
and problematic anti-drunk driving campaigns are one of them. This link shows
some very funny ads poking fun at a MADD commercial using disabilities to scare
people into not driving drunk.
4) Malaysia Starts 5-Year Plan to Cut Accidents, Proposes
Airbags
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aHVz8RzSqUTY&refer=asia
I
was quite curious to see how other countries handle Driving Campaigns. ItÕs
quite interesting and helps broaden oneÕs mind to the rest of the world and to
help develop an other-based way of thinking, which will most certainly help
improve oneÕs driving behavior.
5) Watching Car Crashes
http://www.totalcarcrashes.com/
This
website shows actual car crashes.
It shows what can happen if you are not careful on the road and if you
are an aggressive driver yourself.
6) Statistics and facts
of media violence
http://www.lionlamb.org/media_violence_video_games.htm
This
website lists different facts and statistics but it also gives links to other
articles that are related to the topics. It talks about the game Grand
Theft Auto III. This is a violent game that promotes aggressive driving
and overall violence.
7) Driving Tips
http://www.smartmotorist.com/driving-guideline/driving-tips-from-driving-experts.html
This website
provides various tips and suggestions provided by driving experts from around
the world. This site is
interesting because it offers suggestions from many different places indicating
that aggressive driving is a worldwide problem, not just in the United
States. All are great tips that
may help someone become a better, supportive driver on the roadways.
8)
Motorsports Driving Academy
http://www.precisiondriving.net/
If the Hyundai video inspired you, take the next step and sign up
for precision driving classes. The fact that these driving schools exist
displays the great interest in risk and speed.
9) Aggressive
Driving Issues Conference
http://www.aggressive.drivers.com/
A website dedicated to the first global web conference on
aggressive driving issues. Proof that aggressive driving is a worldwide problem
that must be met with worldwide solutions.
10) Emotional
Intelligence
http://www.smartdriver.co.nz/Articles/Emotional
Intelligence.htm
The idea of supportive driving is not only a concept considered in
the U.S., but a concept in spreading throughout the world as seen on this New
Zealand webpage.