Aggressive Driving & Impaired
driving
By: Kyungmin Jenny Chung,
Angela Park, Alicia Raatz
PSY409a: Report 6
Spring 2008, Generation 27
Dr. Leon James, Instructor,
University of Hawaii
Section
1 Lecture Content
By: Angela Park
It
is pretty safe to say that most people agree that aggressive driving is and has
been becoming more and more of a problem. This problem is not exclusive to the
Some
states have started the graduated licensing program where newly licensed
drivers have two years of ¡°conditional driving.¡± Whether it be that they cannot
drive at night, drive with other teenagers in the vehicle, etc. This is
enforced in hopes that the accidents that the younger and more inexperience
drivers contribute to the national average will be reduced. On the other end of
the spectrum, it is extremely important to consider the proficiency of older
drivers. Are they sustaining as safe and capable members of our roadways?
Especially with all the factors that are introduced into the picture (that
aren¡¯t present for other drivers) such as the drugs and medications that the
older drivers are on, the diseases and illnesses (especially Alzheimer¡¯s
disease), and declining vision and hearing.
However,
it is not only the younger and older drivers that contribute to our
astronomical accident rates. The average driver with no particular medical
condition still can be impaired through drugs, intense emotions, fatigue, and
alcohol. It is imperative that drivers find whatever personal methods work for
them to maintain alertness from falling asleep at the wheel or simply not being
focused on the road in front of them. One more subtle attempt to improve the
attitudes that drivers have towards driving is to make a mandatory license
renewal test where the drivers actually need to improve their scores to keep
their licenses. This is to send the subliminal message out that we need to be a
society of drivers who are constantly striving to improve our driving.
Alcohol
related problems deserve another paper! It is important to know the severity of
it. There are 100,000 alcohol related deaths with 40-50% ending up in
fatalities. Drunk drivers are even seen as ¡°evil¡± because not only are they bringing
themselves down, but putting other people¡¯s lives in danger and bringing them
down with them. Alcohol is dangerous because it boosts the confidence of
drivers. Drivers then don¡¯t plan accordingly to their state of impairment
through efforts of rationalization. For example, ¡°My home¡¯s only five minutes
away. What could possibly happen in five minutes?!¡± As
scary as this may sound, apparently drunk drivers are a lot better at driving
than one would expect. On average, a drunk driver can make about 3,000 driving
trips before finally getting caught (whether it be
through the police or through an accident). This relaxed attitude towards drunk
driving can be attributed to the lack of education. People simply aren¡¯t aware
of the physiological effects that alcohol has on them. Hopefully with the new
programs attempting to change this, there will be a decrease in the nonchalant
attitudes towards drunk driving. Also, now that bartenders and restaurants are
partially responsible for their patrons that drink and drive from their
establishment, we can only hope that there will be a decrease in the amount of
alcohol served to obviously drunk customers. One area that cannot be changed by
laws however is the family backgrounds of young teenagers who drink and drive.
Many teenagers are scared to call up their parents on nights when they are
unable to drive to explain about their impaired state. Instead of spending the
night until they are sober, these teens feel pressured to take the risk of
driving home in fear that if their parents were to be told that the teen was
drinking, the teen would be punished.
Aggressive
driving and auto-related accidents are a societal problem. We as a society must
therefore collaborate together to stop it. Whether it be
through more traffic laws, more strictly enforced traffic laws, a change in the
mentalities that we have towards driving, efforts to stop breeding generation
after generation of aggressive drivers through modeling, or any other method
that we can and have thought of, a problem of this magnitude cannot be changed
overnight through one concrete change in policy. It will have to be through
collaborative and varied changes in all areas of society.
Section
2 Team Presentations on Readings
By:
Alicia Raatz
Road
Rage
Chapter
10 the
War against Aggressive Driving
Pages:
219-235 Authors: Dr.
Leon James & Diane Nahl
The
first part of the readings was on the book Road Rage chapter 10, The War against
Aggressive Driving. People die on
our highways at an annual rate of five times greater than wars have killed
The
grant program known as ¡°Section 402¡±
of the U.S. code would reward states that have integrated safety plans by
giving them new funds for transportation infrastructure and safety
programs. The Highway Safety Act of
1996 authorizes the U.S. Department of Transportation to fund traffic
improvement programs, including funding safety improvements in emergency
medical services, police traffic services, roadway safety, speed control, and
motorcycle safety. Some advice given to motorists about
aggressive driving is making every attempt to get out of their way, put your
pride in the backseat, and wear your seatbelt. Reducing incidents of aggressive driving
behaviors could save us money and we could enjoy freedom from injury, peace and
security. Early $7 billion has been
allocated over the next six years to fight the epidemic on the nation¡¯s
highways.
Some
tricky psychological issues may be involved in making distinctions between
aggressive driving infractions and nonaggressive violations. An example is that just because a driver
is stopped for speeding doesn¡¯t mean they were driving aggressively. The concept of educational motorists
while enforcing the law is taking hold in police departments. In CA, there are billboards and
announcements with messages that remind motorists of the importance of
following the rules. The government¡¯s new attitude is that
aggressive driving enforcement must be a priority to everyone on patrol. The war against aggressive driving is
intensifying and needs to be controlled.
Driving Lesson
Chapter
15: Breaking the Crystal Ball: Participatory Action Research & Traffic
Safety in the School
Pg: 231-2 Author: Clay Lafleur
The
second part of the readings was from the book Driving Lessons chapter 15, Breaking the Crystal Ball. Participatory
action research is a social and practical form of inquiry. It is a way of thinking and acting that
supports evidence-based conservations designed to bring about social change
that reflects a significant community concern. Some
characteristics of participatory action research are that individuals are no
longer marginalized, it involves working with others and the focus is on
informing local practice rather then make truth statements. We experience a discrepancy between our
practice and our expectations. We do not begin to inquire until we suspend
out current actions because of the raising of a question. In participatory action research, we
are conscious of making an existing action. In most instances, the problem is the
problem. An example is a dangerous
crosswalk by a school may become a school problem worthy of inquiry. Changing our actions is always part of
the participatory action research process.
With this research we gain better understanding of the situation and
feel more confident about the effort to understand. A
culture of inquiry can help each of us embrace different ways of knowing. Inquiry should be nurtured through
participation and result in informed decision-making that improves
practice. There are seven questions
in this research. The first is what you are researching. You need to know what is being
investigated clearly. The second is why you are doing the
research. The commitment is
decided by how important the results are. The third question is what difference
your research will make. This
research examines issues and makes evidence based decisions that lead to
responsible actions. The forth question is should you do the
research. Inquiry often
includes a number of moral and ethical issues. The
next question is how you can make the research scientific and comprehensive. Some tips in doing this are to create a
plan in advance, ensure you have support, and consider using complimentary data
sources. The sixth was what the equity issues are. You have to make sure your research is
fair and bias-free to the participants.
The last question is how your
research can improve the situation.
The goal of purposeful research is action. Inquiry is a way of creating new
contexts for interweaving beliefs and actions. Participatory action research is a way
of thinking, feeling, and acting.
The
last part of the readings was the article called The Fast and the Furious. Psychologists are studying what makes
some people more prone to ¡°road rage¡± and how to keep them from becoming a
danger on the road. In a study of
10,037 police reports about traffic accidents, the AAA foundation found road
rage contributed to 218 deaths and 12,610 injuries. Road rage incidents increased nearly
seven percent each year within the study.
High-anger drivers differ from low-anger drivers in 5 key ways. They
engage in hostile behavior, aggressive thinking, they take more risks, they get
angry faster, behave more aggressively and they had twice as many car accidents
in driving simulations. These
people experience more anxiety and impulsiveness. Congestion and slowdowns seem to
increase anger, but only for some drivers.
It appears to be a mix of temperament and environment that light the
fuse for aggressive driving. A
combination of cognitive and relaxation techniques have shown promise for
reducing road rage. People who want help can attend eight
therapy sessions in either relaxation or cognitive-relaxation. Relaxation works on breathing techniques
and cognitive-relaxation works on other methods. Both work on skills to better control
anger while visualizing situations.
Psychologists are considering mandating anger-reduction programs for
aggressive driving.
Section
3 Team
Presentations on Exercises
By: Kyungmin Jenny Chung
a)
Summarize the main
ideas presented by the team.
Binge
drinking used to mean drinking heavily over several days. Now, however, the
term refers to the heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time.
Today the generally accepted definition of binge drinking in the
b)
Describe what they did
and how they interpreted it.
(1) The team
summarized four articles on Binge Drinking by College Students
(2) They then interpreted the results and revealed what they indicate about the
mindset of college students.
Malia¡¯s results indicated
that: Binge drinking, common among
college students, is associated with impaired decision making. ¡°Stable high-binge drinking, starting at a
pre-college age, is related to diminished decision-making abilities, as
exemplified by preferring short-term rewards over long-term losses,"
Jenny¡¯s
results indicated that:
Study:
College Breeds Alcoholism
College Drinkers
o 1999 Harvard study
revealed that 44% of college students engaged in binge drinking in the past two
weeks.
o Binge drinking is defined
as consuming 5 drinks within 2 hrs for men and 4 drinks for women.
o Fatal alcohol-related
injuries increased from 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001 (National
Institutes of Health).
The Study
o Timberlake, lead
scientist, and his colleagues followed nearly 9,000 students, including 855
sibling pairs.
o Students ranged from 7th
through college, 12-24 years of age.
o Students were questioned
about the amount of alcohol consumption and the regularity of binge drinking.
o They were asked in 3
intervals—the start of the study, 1 yr later and 6 yrs later.
The Results
o By the end of the study,
66% of college students admitted to binge drinking compared to 53% of their
non-college peers.
o Scientists found a link
between college attendance and an increase in alcohol consumption far greater
for identical twins than other siblings.
Sheena¡¯s
results indicated that: Many people do not
think about the negative side of drinking. Although they think about the
possibility of getting drunk, they may not give much consideration to being
hung-over or throwing up. We all may know from experience that excessive
drinking can lead to difficulty concentrating, memory lapses, mood changes, and
other problems that affect our day-to-day life. But binge drinking carries more
serious and longer-lasting risks as well.
(3) The team then informed the
class on:
Why binging is so attractive?
What college students are getting out of it? What consequences could be faced
in their future careers and married lives? As well as, how could binging affect
students¡¯ full potential as human beings?
Sheena
found that:
College presidents agree that
binge drinking is the most serious problem on campus. Students who were binge
drinkers in high school were three times more likely to binge in college.
Liquor stores, bars, and alcoholic beverage companies make drinking seem
attractive and fun.
Binge drinkers cited the
following as important reasons for drinking:
A higher percentage of binge
drinkers than non-binge drinkers reported having experienced alcohol-related
problems since the beginning of the school year. Frequent binge drinkers were
21 times more likely than non-binge drinkers to have:
Bing drinking is associated
with many health problems, including but not limited to:
The US Department of Health
and Human Services found that alcohol poisoning is a major consequence of binge
drinking. Alcohol poisoning is a severe and potentially fatal physical reaction
to an alcohol overdose. When excessive amounts of alcohol are consumed, the
brain is deprived of oxygen. The struggle to deal with an overdose of alcohol
and lack of oxygen will eventually cause the brain to shut down the voluntary
functions that regulate breathing and heart rate.
(4) As well as:
How does drinking and driving
affect college students? How does it affect other adults in our society? What
customs in our society encourage drinking and driving? Why are people not being
more alert to or conscious of the dangers of drinking and driving?
Jenny
found that:
One of my friends died from a
head on collision with a drunk driver. I have seen the grief from both sides,
when my college friend caused an accident by drinking and driving. Drunk
driving affects all of us. The consequences are horrifying. We see it on the
news, in the paper, on the road, from a friend and in the worst case in the
emergency room. Every day we take a risk when we step out on the road. Its sad to say that even elementary children want to taste
alcohol because they think it looks cool. We have succeeded in our campaign.
Alcohol is advertised, encouraged and sold every day on television, on movies,
at events and games. We are surrounded by it and yet there is little, many
times no education on preventing drinking and driving. A simple drink
responsibly sign does not hinder drunk drivers.
(5) The team also discussed
binge drinking with friends and reported back to the class.
Malia: Interviewed
three people she knew. The first person believed that with binge drinking there
is long-term effects as far as health when younger, but the consequences of
binge drinking can last a lifetime. Consequences can vary from getting into a
car wreck and killing someone to getting someone pregnant while wasted. He felt
however, that if binge drinking had long term effects on all college students,
than you would expect to see at least ¨ö of all college graduates failing to be
successful.
The second person she interviewed
came from a French family. She believed that there needs to be more family
discussions about alcohol. The third person she interviewed thought that if
binge drinking wasn¡¯t such a social activity, than it would be considered
alcoholism.
Jenny:
Many friends weren¡¯t aware of their actions. They just do it because its what they¡¯re inclined to do, its what¡¯s around them.
¡°We¡¯re just having fun.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a few drinks.¡± My
friends think its just natural. They become defensive
and say I don¡¯t know how to have fun. Its difficult
when peer pressure kicks in. That popular bandwagon is even more sparkling and
easy to get on than ever. A few of my friends quit drinking after one of our
close friends died from binging and other alcohol related accidents. Its all
fun and games until someone loses, loses their friend, their job, their
dream¡¦their life. I have lost friends due to drinking, I have friends who lost
their scholarship due to drinking and poor grades, I
have friends who are still struggling to fight alcoholism after college.
(c)
Describe some of the ideas that needed a better justification or greater
amplification.
The girls provided
ample information about binge drinking. They were well prepared and it was easy
to see they knew what they were talking about. The only downfall that the girls
had a little trouble with was explaining what exactly binge drinking consisted
of. The class was a bit confused with the definitions that they had offered.
So, a working definition of binge drinking would have probably helped with a
better justification on their presentation.
(d) What was the
success of the approach they used?
Their approach was
successful because they followed the exercise directions to the tee. They made
sure to cover all the points thoroughly. Using personal experiences as well as experiences of friends were
relatable. Asking the class was a little helpful.
(e) What improvements
are needed in the procedures or in the instructions?
The instructions of this
exercise were written clearly. It would have been helpful to have had more
information on the biological effect of binge drinking on college students.
(f) What are the
limitations of these types of exercises?
The only limitation of
these types of exercises is that it may be hard to stretch the class
presentation for thirty minutes. Most of the information was self-explanatory. Because of the variety of opinions and experiences of
people, there is no one right standard of this issue. Their difference in
standards, cultural differences as well as different effects of it should be
taken into account.
(g) Describe what
happened when you did some of the steps of the exercises
Upon doing this
exercise, I found that everything was not too hard to follow. One of the
problems
I had was with the first article. The link provided didn¡¯t lead me to the
extended version of the article. Also, generally people
don¡¯t really have an idea of what the ¡°binge¡± drinking really look like. When I
asked around, people pretty much had their own standards and were kind of
confused of the common standard of it. Ironically, people who even know about
binge drinking, and the consequences of it, are not really worried about the
outcome of it. They are taking it a lot less seriously than I thought they
should.
Section 4: Related Web Links
By: Angela Park, Jenny Kyungmin Chung
This
article is about the retesting of drivers over the age of 75 in
This
article was about the significant reductions that this fairly new program of
graduated licensing has presented. Many teenagers feel that this program
¡°sucks¡±, yet no one can deny the 20% teen related auto crashes in some cities.
Statistically, there is a higher risk for teen drivers and even more of a risk
for male teen drivers. Despite the attempts to change the dangerous ways that
teenagers drive, there has been no significant reaps of benefits. This explains
the thinking behind graduated licensing: if you can¡¯t change the way they
drive, change the circumstances in which they drive in.
This
link is a list of different links that give you an abundance of all sorts issues and topics related to drunk driving. Whether it
be the dangers of drunk driving, laws on drunk driving, consequences of drunk
driving, victims of drunk driving, new breathalyzers on cell phones, and all
sorts of statistics and actual cases of drunk driving. This site is good to
learn pretty much anything you want to learn about drunk driving.
This
site presents the cold hard facts and statistics of drunk driving in the
This site presents
various facts about binge drinking, as well as the seriousness of the issue. It
also shows some of the effects of binge drinking, also its
impact it has on other students and the reasons why students engage in
binge drinking.
This site talks about how
the families left behind from the accidents that were alcohol related are also
the victims of it. It talks about how this serious problem is affecting so many
of us in our daily lives. It has
links connected to sites that has stories of family who are left behind as well
as treatments to help the drunk driving problem.
This Oklahoma DUI Law
defense attorney¡¯s site has many interesting stories of drunken driving related
accidents. This is a commercial site of these two competent attorneys but this
site also has an interesting overview of the serious problem that prevails in
our time. Some of the criminal court case stories are interesting to read and
think about.
This alcoholism rehab
site has numerous facts and sources about the issue. It has many related links
that are helpful and useful. From causes of alcoholism, alcohol detox, alcohol abuse, to alcohol treatment, it effectively
displays some of the key facts about the issue.
This article had many
interesting related links with great articles including ¡°Alcohol is alcohol is
alcohol¡±, ¡°Alcohol awareness month¡± ¡°Tips to pop: how to open a champagne
bottle¡±, ¡°How
to avoid hangover¡±,
¡°How to host a responsible cocktail party¡± and ¡°Underage drinking¡±.
This site belongs to the International
Drunk Driving Prevention Association. IDDPA is to prevent drunk driving, to assist
the victims of such accidents, and support legislative effort to achieve this
goal and encourage the development of technologies to prevent drunk driving.