End the Rage
Report 5
By: Chad Honda, Malia Blumhardt and Alicia Raatz
PSY 409a, Spring 2008, Generation 27
Dr. Leon James,
Instructor, University of Hawaii
Class
Home Page
Section 1: Lecture
Content
Lecture Notes are from
Chapter 8 in Road Rage & Aggressive Driving by Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane
Nahl and Chapter 13 of Driving Lessons by Jorge Frascara
Cultural Values and
Society
In the Driving Lessons book, chapter 13, there is an analysis of what it would take to change cultural values. The media messages are not good enough to change the value of driving. This is particular true for practices of driving that societies engage in and the style and thinking (the Threefold Self) of the driver. There are three levels of the Threefold Self that is characterized by its content and they are:
At the bottom, is driving (aggressive) level. Where in order to change we need to understand why most drivers are aggressive drivers.
Second level, defensive driving is not supposed to be aggressive but is supposed to be predictive of other drivers that are making mistakes and what those consequences are for other drivers.
Last level, supportive driving, which is also known as altruistic driving, is where we need a positive attitude toward culture
Cultural Attitudes
The cultural attitude, attitudes that is socialized during childhood, is learned as you grow up. For example, anger in a relationship to parents is regulated with cultural practices and has a cross-cultural presence. The cognitive and socialization is also affected which we need to have to be able to think.
How to be a more supportive driver
On page 208 of Driving Lessons, the author Jorge Fransca, recommends a communication campaign strategy to reduce risk on the road and to be a more supportive driver. They are:
On Risk: to reduce the social value of risk-taking and to teach risk-perception and risk-reduction skills
On Perception of Reality: to increase road users’ ability to assess their driving skills properly, the car’s ability to maneuver and the severity of the risk faced. During Dr. James lecture he mentioned that it’s a good idea to educate drivers on their skills and what can happen when you lower you abilities to drive properly and/or to maneuver you car.
On Personal Value vs. The Value of Things: persuading people to value themselves independently from their car and their driving style. An example of this is how people act when driving certain kind of cars. If a person has a Benz then they will think they “own” the roads and can just cut in and out, merge right in front of you, etc. because of the type of car they drive which in this case is a Benz which is known for “rich” people cars thinking they can do whatever they want since they have money.
On the Value of Responsibility: to promote the ideas that driving is a responsible act and that responsible driving has a high social value. An example, when driving and we want to switch lanes it is known for the other driver to leave space in order for us to move into that lane. But of course, we are responsible for the things we do on the road and if the other driver does not give room to move into the lane and we cut into that lane anyway we are responsible for our actions and also responsible for the other driver’s safety as well.
On Competition vs. Cooperation: to discourage competitiveness and aggressiveness in driving and to encourage cooperation toward a better traffic flow
On the Emotional Component of Driving: to reduce the
emotional involvement that dangerous drivers invest in driving. We know
that they are drivers out there who just get your “goat” and therefore you
emotions can run high but we can’t take things personally while driving.
If we do take things personally and get all emotional about it, then we are
only making driving more dangerous.
Section 2: Team Presentations on
By: Alicia Raatz
Road Rage
Chapter 8: Supportive Driving Pages:
167-189 Authors: Dr. Leon James and Diane Nahl
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 1980’s, The National Motorists Association proposed seven new motorist signals:
· Apology: two fingers in the V position with the palm out
· Slow down, danger ahead: turning your headlights on and off
· Lane courtesy: turn left directional light on and off 4 to 6 times
· Pull over for problem: point in the direction of problem, then signal “thumbs down”
· Light problem (Check your lights): open and close your hand touching your thumb and fingers together.
· Need assistance: make the sign of a “T” with your hand on top of each other
· I understand (Thank you): “thumbs up” or “OK”
Supportive driving focuses on facilitating other drivers’ efforts to accomplish what they want instead of competing against them. If you adopt and practice a supporting driving lifestyle you’re protected from the road rage of other drivers because you’re committed to putting up the least sail in their angry wind. Rage doesn’t build up when the drivers refuses to justify it.
There are three philosophies that determine how people drive:
· Level one: Oppositional driving philosophy involves:
o An aggressive and hostile style (“Don’t mess with me!”)
o Feeling alienated (“It’s everybody for themselves!”)
· Level two: Defensive driving philosophy involves:
o Treating all drivers the same (“You must always be wary and suspicious”)
o Maintaining a competitive attitude (“It’s me against them”)
· Level three: Supportive driving philosophy involves:
o A supportive attitude toward other drivers (“ everybody makes mistakes sometimes”)
o Tolerance of pluralism (“everybody has to drive and I support democratic motoring”)
Most people have never even thought about their driving
“philosophy.” People just don’t like to admit that there might be something
very wrong with our driving; it’s always the other drivers who need to change
their attitude and behavior. Dr.
Book: Driving
Lessons Chapter 13 Revisiting Communications and Traffic Safety Pages:
193-210 Author: Jorge Frascara
The second part of the reading was from Driving Lessons
Chapter 13. Motor-Vehicle accidents are major health and safety problem.
In the last decade, 51,300 people died in road crashes in
There was a research done in
Many other aspects can change the behaviors and attitudes of the drivers such as:
· Language, culture and the car
· Driving as communication
· Understanding and acting
Some questions that can be proposed are:
· How can we constantly increase the circle of partnership involved in the process?
· What are the specific actions that will promote a revision of driving, materialize that revision and establish new cultural paradigms?
· How can we recognize leaders, followers and our potentially most supportive partners?
Some recommendations for communication campaign strategies are:
· On risk: reduce the social value of risk-taking
· On perception of reality: increase road users ability to assess their driving properly
· On personal value vs. the value of things: persuade people to value themselves independently from their car
· On the value of responsibility: promote the ideas that driving is a responsible act
· On competition vs. cooperation: discourage competitiveness and aggression in driving
· On the emotional component of driving: reduce the emotional involvement that dangerous drivers invest in driving
Article 10 (a): The
Theory of Risk Homeostasis
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 expected advantages of comparatively risky behavior alternatives
· The expected costs of comparatively risky behavior alternatives
· The expected benefits of comparatively safe behavior alternatives
· The expected costs of comparatively safe behavior alternatives
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.
Article 10 (b) 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
Presentations on Exercises
By:
a) and b)
The main ideas presented by the team were to analyze YouTube videos that dealt with aggressive driving, driving in traffic, etc. in different countries. It was to compare the difference in driving from here to other countries.
The first video showed was in
The next part of the presentation was to find YouTube videos on street bike cursing, bad driving stunts, staged and real car crashes and similar videos. The ones they presented where also interesting and disturbing. One of the videos showed a motorcycle going over 160mph on a regular road, not a freeway or anything, and then on the freeway was going even faster. What was interesting is that the YouTube viewers commented on the videos saying they love to watch these kinds of videos and also these crashes weren’t bad at all or that driver of that car made it happen to themselves. In today’s society, we tend to view these kind of videos as a form of entertainment rather than trying to reduce road rage and aggressive driving on our streets, roads, freeways, etc.
(c) The way that they presented the videos was good. They first started with what the video was going to show and then gave their opinions on it. But the presenters could have spent a little time on their own opinions about the video and relate what was shown in the video to the content of the course.
(d) The success on the approach they used for doing this presentation was the explain the video and let the class know what they are about to see, show the video and let others gather their own opinions and/or interpretations about it and then finally give their own opinions about it.
(e) The instructions and procedures for this exercise are pretty straightforward and clear. This time it gave accurate instructions on what is wanted from this exercise.
(f) Limitations on this type of exercise I
don’t think there is any. It is good to know and see how other drivers in
other countries are driving and if they are having less road rage and
aggressive driving maybe it’s something we (
(g)The first words that came out of my mouth when I watched the first couple of videos was “holly……” I guess that already explains what happened. I was totally shocked that other countries drive like that with no care of anything for others. It seemed that the more videos I watched each one seemed to get worse than the previous one.
Section 4:
Annotated Web Links
By:
1. BadDriving.com
(http://www.baddriving.com/)
a. This website gives a lot of videos on bad driving, what happens when people drive badly, blogs, forums, etc. on all aspects of bad driving.
2. Next
Gaming Scapegoat: Bad Driving
(http://kotaku.com/gaming/research/next-gaming-scapegoat-bad-driving-245113.php)
a. Site for gamers and it talks about how people who play games are more aggressive drivers and basically blaming these types of people who are driving badly and causing problems on the road. Can also blame the creators of these types of games, who are aggressive drivers themselves, and then creating more aggressive drivers from those who play these games.
3. Driving
India Crazy
(http://web.iitd.ac.in/~tripp/media/trippnews/theweek13july03/CoverStory-Behaviour%20Driving%20India%20crazy;%20July%2013,%202003_%20The%20Week.htm)
a. “Heavy traffic, poor infrastructure and absence of a road
culture bring out the worst in drive. A zip through metros…” Is a
good way to put driving in
4. Quality
Driving Circles (QDCs) and Lifelong Driver Education
(http://www.drdriving.org/articles/qdc.htm)
a. Dr. James goes into depth about what QDCs are and how exactly they work. This site provides helpful information that may lead you to joining a QDC. Ultimately, this information should encourage you to want to take action and develop better driving behaviors.
5. The
Role of Personality Characteristics in Young Adult Driving
(http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1855292)
a. This journal article relates to the driving norms section discussed in the lecture notes. The driving of young adults in linked closely to the non-driving lifestyles and behaviors of the young adult. The research indicates change in personality is necessary when trying to change driving personality
6. Watching Car
Crashes
(http://www.totalcarcrashes.com)
a. 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.
7. Statistics and
facts of media violence
(http://www.lionlamb.org/media_violence_video_games.htm)
a. 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.
8. Driving
Tips
(http://www.smartmotorist.com/driving-guideline/driving-tips-from-driving-experts.html)
a. 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
9. Penalties for
Driving Drunk
(http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/drive/a/aa082797.htm)
a. There are many drivers out there are drive without knowing what they are doing. They are unaware of the risk they are putting on other drivers, passengers, etc. This site talks about the penalties about drunk driving
10. Facts about
Driving Risks
(http://www.monroecounty.gov/p/ts-SaveFriendContestFacts.pdf)
a. Talks about driving risks and goes into more detail about making drivers more aware of their driving and what are doing.