A Look into Road Rage: Exploring Aggression and
Driving with Rage Report 1 Holly Saiki, Kelli
Kajiwara & Abigail Huliganga PSY 409a, Spring
2008, Generation 27 Dr. Leon James (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/leon.html
), Instructor, University of Hawaii Class Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy27/classhome-g27.htm SECTION 1: Lecture Content 1. Driving Research Inward The section focuses on the research done on the cognitive
processes of the private thoughts of the individual and how it is linked to the
private thoughts one has when they’re driving. The Self-Witnessing technique is
used as an attempt to gain reliable data on the ongoing events that are thought
in the private mind of the driver. I think it’s quite brilliant that the thesis
can successfully use the theory of the control behavior of inner speech and
apply it to something seemingly down-to-earth as road rage. It also shows that
a good cognitive theory can adapt itself to any real life subject with a little
care and thought. Although I wish that the news article attached to the end of
the section was at least indirectly related to the situation at hand. 2. Driver Self-Witnessing The section focuses on the driver’s self-image of their
motor skills and what details they focus on. It then talks about the method
being used in the Driving Psychology Scale, Self-Witnessing, and how it’s
different from the usual self-assessment scales; namely that the former yields
data that is ongoing rather than retrospective. The self-witnessing reports are
measured based on the three distinct areas of inner human behavior: affective,
cognitive and sensorimotor. While the section is clear and concise, the
transition between paragraphs is jarring and the news article seems out of
place there. 3. The Driver’s three-fold self The section states the modern definition of Behaviorism as a
unified theory that deals with external and internal aspects of the self. It
talks about how the acquisition process of basic skills and errors are done
through the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor sectors. The writing style is
a little dense, but it does state the information in the direct manner.
However, I wonder if this section is really all that necessary. I think it
should be merged with the Driver Self-Witnessing section and rewritten with a
new section title. 4. The Driver’s Affective Self The section basically analyzes the affective component of a
driver’s verbal statement in greater detail. It is followed by a YouTube clip
showing an example of Affective driving behavior. The analysis was well-thought
out, but I wish that the teacher could have put in more examples of the
affective components of the driver’s verbal statements. I really liked the
video clip and thought it was a perfect example of how our affective self
affects our driving behavior. 5. The Driver’s Cognitive Self The section analyzes the cognitive component of
the driver’s
verbal statement in greater detail. It is followed by two YouTube clips
of a UK driving test. The analysis here is just as good as the last
one, though I would love to
see more examples. The clip is okay, but it’s not quite as affective as
the
affective behavior clip. 6. The Driver’s Sensorimotor Self. The section analyzes the sensorimotor component of the
driver’s verbal statement in greater detail. It is followed by a YouTube clip
of a Video driving lesson. My critique about the example is as the same as the
other two, but the clip is a brilliant demonstration of how verbal
self-witnessing may be done. 7. The Mental Health of Drivers/the Driver’s threefold
self. The section says that the inner world of the driver is one
replete by agitation and extreme emotions and impulses caused by minor acts. As
a result, drivers are capable of violent thoughts and feelings as well as the
physiological signs of high stress. It analyzes a driver’s transcript of a
driving incident, focusing on the stress and panic the driver felt at the time.
It is followed by another example showing that driving episodes can act as mood
changers and then it focuses in detail about the negative reactions that are
frequently mentioned by the witnesses. These are extreme physiological and
emotional reactions and extreme irrational thought sequences. It is then
followed by a clip of driving conditions in India. A news article follows up
focusing on a motorist who killed another driver in self-defense. The driver’s
transcript is well-analyzed and the news article relates perfectly to the
subject at hand. However, the video clip didn’t really show us the mental state
of the Indian drivers, all it showed us were the driving conditions the country
usually has. The second section focuses on driver compliance, which is
based on the driver’s efforts to comply to rules, norms and roles of driving
behavior. Driver compliance is also a threefold self based on affective,
cognitive and sensorimotor compliance. Non-compliant drivers are rude, callous
and insensitive to the needs of other drivers. The three stages of social
influence that Kelman studied, (obedience or external compliance,
identification or compliance by conformity to others and internalization or
internal compliance.) is adapted within a driving network which shows the
levels of internalization the driver must go through in order to become a
mature, safe driver. The Driver’s threefold self is summarized and then the
rest of the section focuses on the goals and class work of the course. It ends
with a clip comparing the impact damages between a Smart car and a regular
small car. The section was well-analyzed and informative, but I think the only
purpose the clip had was to indirectly show the price one pays for road rage by
showing that the damages a car can handle would be fatal to human passengers. 8. The Development of Driving Expertise This section focuses on the three fold self of Driver
Compliance in greater detail. Several examples from self witnessing reports are
used to show the different levels of compliance. Both video clips and a news
article showing how road rage leading to a five car pile up are shown. There
are also tables which organize in greater detail the information shown in the
previous sections. There are also links to more road rage videos on YouTube.
The tables are very helpful, but I think they should be put at the end of the
notes in order to organize it better. I also think the background music for the
car crash video was a little inappropriate as real life car crashes are in no
way glamorous. 9. Needed Research The last section talks about further research that is needed
in certain areas of Driving Psychology; one may do further research into the
conditions that foster the greater internalization of compliance in driving
behavior or one can use the driver’s error score to evaluate the various
intervention programs for driver improvement. This section is a decent
conclusion to the lecture notes and a good starting base for those students who
wish to study certain areas of Driving Psychology in greater detail. SECTION 2: Team Presentation on Readings Today’s presentation was presented by Megan and Jackie.
They covered three sections from the following readings, chapter 1 in Road
Rage and Aggressive Driving, chapter 3 in Driving Lessons and
article 1 found on the class website. Driving Lessons Chapter 3: Dealing with Stress,
Aggression and Pressure in the Vehicle Pages 21-49 Driving is both predictable and unpredictable.
Predictability on the road is like maintaining steady speed in one’s lane
creating safety, security and usually escapes from disaster. Unpredictable
events for example are impulsive lane changes without signaling, which creates
danger stress and frequently crashes. Driving is seen as a sign of independence and freedom. We
can go wherever we want, wherever we please. Yet, we do encounter restrictions
and constrictions that prevent us from going to where we need to. In the book
as well as in the presentation, they discuss fifteen emotional challenges that
provoke hostility and aggressiveness on the road. Here are a few examples: Men, Women & Driving When it comes to negative emotions behind the wheel, rage,
impatience, danger, violence and competition are experienced more with men than
with women. Women have more positive emotions than men do while driving.
However, growing number of women engage in each aggressive driving behavior WHY? There is an increase in women in the workplace, more women
are stuck in congested traffic experiencing the same stress and frustration as
men but also have more stops to make by taking children to school, sports,
lessons and also have to run errands like shopping and going to the bank Driver Self-Witnessing In both the lecture and the reading it is mentioned that
practicing self-witnessing and understanding the threefold self was important
to becoming a better driver. The concept of self-witnessing is to observe your behavior
as you drive to become more aware of your actions. In the book, a driver would
speak out into a recorder while they were driving and would later listen back
and log the behaviors they had while driving. I tried this on myself and I
found that I am quite vulgar when driving. In public I do not swear often but
in the car, while in traffic, I tend to curse obscenities often to vent out my
frustration. I also found myself having an imaginary fight with the person who
I felt cut me off on the road talking to myself as if I was talking to that
person. I would say to myself “Come on, stupid, hurry up and change lanes
you’ve been signaling forever you dumb s***!,” I had never classified myself as
an aggressive driver but it became obvious while doing this self-witnessing
that I use driving as a way to vent my anger which could eventually become
dangerous. The Driver’s Threefold
Self In class, there was some discussion on the Threefold Self
which includes three domains in a person’s activity: affective, cognitive and
sensorimotor. Road Rage & Aggressive Driving Chapter 1:
Driving in the Age of Rage Pages 21-45 This chapter explores the idea of rage and how aggression is
found everywhere including on the road ways. Although
there is no agreed upon definition for road rage it is often referred to as an
extreme state of anger that often precipitates aggressive behavior. Factors for
aggressive driving: traffic congestion, feeling endangered, being insulted,
frustration, time pressure, fatigue, competitiveness and lapses in attention.
Although cars and roads are safer, medical emergency operations are faster and
better, the annual death toll remains around forty thousand per year while the
yearly toll in crash injuries has reached six million per year. A Worldwide Phenomenon, Not Just America In the reading and presentation it was noted that
road rage
is not just a national problem but a global one. Several examples
were given
in the book of different countries around the world describing road
rage incidents.
I could relate to this section because I also thought that road rage
was only
found in America until I had the chance to visit other countries.
In the Philippines, especially in the busy capital of Manila, there is
not clear indication of lanes and I
remember seeing cars just going anywhere they please. It is
constantly
congested and often takes hours to get to a destination that would
usually take
a few minutes if people just followed the rules of the road. When
I was there,
I got the feeling that everyone felt that they “owned” the road and
felt that
other people were in their way and didn’t care how they were going to
get to
where they needed to go, even if that meant they were going to be
aggressive. Driving and Our Health Negative thoughts behind the wheel act like mental
pollutants, decreasing the enjoyment of driving and increasing its noxious by
products---stress, higher blood pressure, frustration, pessimism and less
effective mental productivity that influences health, workplace and family life.
Driving has become and emotional irritant that daily contaminates their mood. According
to research in the United States and Sweden, the longer the commute, the higher
the blood pressure and commuters facing congested drivers have greater incidence
of absenteeism. I agree with this research and could see how longer commutes
could result in higher blood pressure. I live in Hawaii Kai and my boyfriend
lives in Ewa Beach. On days where I would commute from his house to school or
vice versa I almost always end up in a bad mood. Fort Weaver is always backed
up in traffic and I often become irritated because my back will start to get
sore, people try to squeeze into my lane and a thirty minute drive turns into
an hour and half commute. When I leave from my house in Hawaii Kai, I don’t
feel the same pressure and feel comfortable driving to school because the
distance is shorter and I am only in traffic for a maximum of twenty minutes. Venting, Good or Bad? Venting is not a good thing---although it is believed that
it is good to just “let it out” it actually increases stress and depress the
immune system functioning. The new message: Anger kills Driving Lessons from Childhood What I found most interesting is the idea that the way we
drive starts as we grow up. We learn how to drive from our parents from the
way they maneuver on the road down to even their attitudes on the road ways.
If our parents react to a traffic situation in rage and act in hostility we are
going to be more prone to using those same behaviors when we learn how to
drive. The Expanding Age of Rage In the reading, Debroah Tannen explores the concept that we
live in a culture of disrespect. She explains that one of the prominent
characteristics of “the argument culture” is the use of war metaphors. On the
road ways people usually express phrases such as “maniac, stupid fool, slime
ball” or worse. When someone enters our lane, we refer to it as “cutting me
off” instead of referring it to someone “entering our lane”. The cultural of disrespect is not only limited to the road
ways but also to other places where people express their rage such as: Parking lot rage Sidewalk rage Surf rage Air Rage Neighbor rage Shopping Mall Rage Workplace rage Cafeteria rage Customer rage Keyboard rage Desk rage So I Am An Angry Driver, What Can I Do? In this chapter it is evident that rage is something that is
reinforced to us by our culture. Luckily there are ways to help us control
that rage and help us become better drivers: Emotional intelligence: Stop to think before reacting.
Don’t always think the worst. Try and thing “Maybe the guy has an emergency”
or “that could be my grandmother”—not everyone is always out to get you and
taking the time to think could really save you and the situation from getting
out of hand. Advice from a traffic safety organization (found on page 39,
Road Rage) Article 1: Drivers Behaving Badly on TV, Movies, Cartoons, Music Videos,
Car Commercials: DBB Ratings from the Generational Curriculum (1997) In these articles, it shows how the media influences the way kids depict how
to drive even before they learn how to. There is no doubt that television is a
major impact on our culture. Children spend a lot of time in front of the
television and watching reckless driving, road rage and aggression while
driving on their shows will influence how the perceive how to drive. At a
young age it will be difficult to differentiate between reality and fantasy and
I believe that it is up to the parents to show them the difference between a
good driver and a bad driver. There should be some emphasis that what they see
on T.V. is not safe and would cause accidents in real life. SECTION 3: Team Presentation on Exercises In first lecture of Driving Psychology we discussed the
important topic of the threefold self. The team presentations on the readings
and exercises did an excellent job of presenting useful information to the
class. The team presentation on exercises, students 4, 5, and 6, presented an
overall general view of the definition of the threefold self. The team
described each domain of the threefold self. They each presented statistics in
which they found in the exercises. Each of them asked questions that reflected
upon the surveys and allowed room for questions and answers from the audience.
The team’s main focus of the overall presentation was defining the threefold
self and how understanding this concept could benefit us in operating a
vehicle. The team started off the presentation in
introducing the concept of the threefold self and defining all three domains.
The three domains of the threefold self are the affective self, the cognitive
self and the sensorimotor self. On the blackboard the group wrote down
examples of each specific domain. The examples included what people actually
say or do through the process of the threefold self. The team said that the
affective self is consisted of hostile feelings, the cognitive self involves
biased thoughts and the sensorimotor self expresses aggressive actions. They
also explained the steps we should take in order to understand the three fold
self through self-witnessing. First you acknowledge the situation, then
witness it and finally modify the situation. The affective self is basically
the initial feeling that hits you when in an uncomfortable situation. They
explained how the affective self is hostile feelings but it could be any type
of feeling you are experiencing at that very moment. After the driver
experiences feelings then it is the process of thoughts and reasoning through
the cognitive self. The sensorimotor self involves things we actually see and
hear. Through self-witnessing we have to get through every stage first before
moving on to the next. We first need to recognize the feelings we are
experiencing, move on to how we could approach the situation, and finally we
could act upon the event in an effective manner. The team mentioned a lot of statistics from the
website of exercise two about the importance of self-witnessing the threefold
self. This will stress the importance of being aware of your surroundings
while driving on the road. The group mentioned how important it is to
understand the threefold self in order to change yourself as a driver. Ideas
that needed better justification or more thorough analysis was when they talked
about the statistics they found online. Some of the questions they asked were
straight from the survey, but they could have gone into more detail of
explaining each question and how it related to the threefold self. This would
give everyone a chance to learn about real life events that occur through
self-witnessing of the threefold self. The team was successful in their approach by
explaining the self-witnessing of the threefold self different ways. They used
the blackboard to give examples of each domain of the threefold self. They
also printed out statistics and showed everyone what the leading cause was for
car crashes during the years 1990-1994. The leading accident for car crashes
was not signaling when changing lanes and coming in second was speeding. They
explained how motorcycles are the most dangerous out there on the roads. The
team asked the class questions regarding what we thought of the statistics and
also gave us a test about an overall summary of the presentation. The procedures and the instructions of exercise
two was very straightforward. We mainly have to visit a driving website about
the statistics on driving. The instructions were basically trying to get the
person to look at two things which was the statistics on the website and the
threefold self. What the instructions also could have mentioned was trying to
reconstruct the threefold self through yourself as a driver and compare other’s
statistics to your own. This will help for a person to start somewhere by
thinking of how they can become better drivers. The limitations to these types of exercises are
not too many resources to look at such as web links or books because it is very
topic specific. This exercise, for example, only instructed the team to go to
one website where they could only look at a set of statistics. There are many
different websites in which people could go to visit to look at many different
surveys that were done by students or psychologists, but at the same time it
would be hard to fit all the statistics into a half an hour presentation. When I looked at the statistics on the website I
found it to be overwhelming because of so many different surveys listed. So
after going through the whole website I picked out a couple surveys that
related to what the team presented in class. I looked back to the lecture
notes to see how the threefold self of the driver related to these statistics.
Through this process I could come up with different solutions as to why certain
people feel that way through the threefold self. Making up multiple choice
questions were easy because I just took ideas from the surveys and tested the
class to see if they paid attention or not. Like I said before the steps of
the exercise was very straightforward and very easy to follow which allowed the
team to express more of their opinion rather than only reading the statistics
to the class. SECTION 4: ANNOTATED WEB LINKS 1. http://www.askmen.com/cars/car_tips_60/64_car_tip.html This web link is from the askmen.com website providing tips
to their male readers on how to become a better driver. I thought that this
was interesting because according to Debroah Tannen, “young men drive more
aggressively because in driving they express a “ritual opposition in their
struggles for status” (page 29, Road Rage). It was great to see that there is
a male website encouraging men to drive better without promoting aggression. 2. http://www.drivers.com/article/165/ This web link relates to the topics explained in the book, Road
Rage. It looks into discovering what road rage actually is and how it is
more than just media hype, it is a reality. It goes into detail on what causes
road rage, who and where road rage occurs and even provides myths about road
rage. 3. http://www.drdriving.org/youth/ In the reading as well as lecture, it was discussed that the
way our parents drive influences the way that we will drive in the future. Dr.
James refers to the backseat of the car as a “road rage nursery” where children
learn risky practices and hostile actions from the people that drive them.
This web link, done by Dr. Driving himself, goes into detail about how to
prevent “road rage nurseries” and also how to be a better driver and
passenger. 4. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Feb/24/ln/FP702240334.html
This web link is about the road rage incident that happened
in Oahu in early 2007. The incident occurred in Waikele when a couple was
brutally beaten after their car had struck another car in the parking lot. I
included this article to show how road rage does affect everyone including here
in the islands. It also shows how rage, if not handled correctly could result
in hostile and brutal acts of violence. 5. Understanding the Driver’s Threefold Self http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/LEONj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/driving1.html#3self This web page relates to the topic of the
threefold self in which the team presented on for exercise two in class the
other day. The web page talks about the three domains of the threefold self
and they are affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. For most of the team’s
presentation on exercise two, they talked about how important it is to
understand the threefold self while operating a vehicle. The threefold self
could explain not only how we feel, think and act like drivers, but also
explains why we do the things we do in every day life. There is an example on
this website of the threefold self on table 1 that illustrates the skills that
it takes to become an effective driver. It also shows some of the errors that
may happen during the process of unfolding the threefold self. I found this
site to be very much related to the team presentation on exercises because they
talked about how we could analyze ourselves as a driver through the threefold
self effectively and what could happen if we made errors. 6. The Method of Self Witnessing http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499f97/suzuki/dra/file1.html This web page relates to the topic because in
class the team presentation for exercises presented on self witnessing and how
it relates to the driver. In order to become effective drivers on the road and
to prevent us from any danger, we need to experience the self witnessing of the
threefold self. In lecture Dr. James talked about self witnessing. He said
that at first we do experience affective self, then the cognitive self, and
finally the sensorimotor self where the self witnessing of the driver should
take place. Majority of driving statistics shows that most car accidents come
from the sensorimotor self. On the web site the person who did the report on
self witnessing of the threefold self did a really excellent job in making
different observations during different times of the day. There could be days
when you are in a rush and not in a rush, but it makes a difference in the
attitude that you may take on the roads with you. 7. Dealing With Stress on the Roads http://www.drdriving.org/articles/taxonomy.htm This web page relates to the team presentation
on readings by the similar topic of driving stress. Again we see the threefold
self taking affect again but this time it is trying to help drivers deal with
stress on the roads. The team talked about how stress could be cause by the
increased number of drivers on the road including men, women and especially
teenagers. People need to be more educated before operating a vehicle to
ensure safety and the protection of others. On the web sit Dr. Leon James and
Dr. Diane Nahl list many different ways we could be better drivers on the road
and what preventive actions we could take in order make the roads a safer
place. 8.
http://www.abolrous.com/sally/projects/probing_paper.htm
www.drdriving.org/articles/dbb.htm
(movies only)
www.drdriving.org/articles/dbb.htm (cartoons
only)
www.drdriving.org/articles/dbb.htm
(commercials only)
This weblink goes into greater detail into silent verbalizations and
script anaylsis. I figure that the student may feel a little lost when
hearing these terms for the first time and felt that a weblink
explaining them would help them understand how they relate to course
material a lot better.
9. http://www.businessballs.com/eq.htm
I thought a weblink that would refresh the students understanding of
the term emotional intelligence would be quite helpful. After all,
Driving Psychology does deal with emotional intelligence and the
methods that help increase our emotional driving IQ.
10. http://www.funderstanding.com/behaviorism.cfm
It's another refresher web
link dealing with behaviorism. Since the
methods that teach drivers better driving skills is based on a modern
version of behaviorism. I figure this web
link would enrich our
understanding of behaviorism and how it relates to the class.