Report
6
PSY 409, Spring 2008, Generation 27
Dr. Leon James, Instructor,
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy27/classhome-g27.htm
Section 1
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 United States, but is found in other countries
as well. In Australia, it is no longer called “aggressive driving”, but has
been officially named “selfish driving.” Driving without any consideration to
the other drivers and pedestrians on the roads is indeed selfish. With this
problem, we as a society need to start thinking of practical ways to reduce the
aggression. This in turn will hopefully reduce the auto-related accidents in
the U.S. that stand at about half a million deaths in ten years, 35 million
injuries in ten years, and $250 billion a year in costs!
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 is 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 is 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
By: Alicia Raatz
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 U.S. soldiers since the beginning
of the century. This year alone around
forty thousand people will die on the highway and about three million will be
injured. Some of the top tem worst
cities in terms of road rage deaths are Riverside-San Bernardino, CA, Tampa-St.
Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, and Phoenix, AZ.
In 1996 about forty-two thousand highway fatalities were recorded and
two-thirds of that was caused by aggressive driving. There are two new ideas in driving. The first is that many common driving
behaviors are now defined as crimes. The
second is that offenses can be defined by driver’s mental state. The two categories cover overt and covert
behaviors. Overt behaviors can be easily observed. It has become clear that nearly every driver
has feelings of rage ad thoughts of retaliation. New forms of record keeping are needed to
track incidences of aggressive driving.
Some ways the authors proposed to the Congress to help aggressive
driving are new K-12 driving psychology
curriculum, Children Against Road Rage, and Quality Driving Circles. Some health experts have said that road rage
is a psychological disorder that can be treated with anger and stress
management. It is obvious that it’s not
a disorder and just a cultural norm.
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.
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
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 United States is the
consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men- or four or more drinks in a
row by women. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2
weeks. Binge drinking does impair decision making. Although it is unclear if
there are any long-term neuro cognitive effects of binge-drinking during young
adulthood, there is reason to be concerned. It is usually other people who are
affected by the poor decisions made by binge-drinkers.
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. It’s 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 ½ 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 it’s what they’re inclined to do, its’s around them.
“We’re just having fun.” “It’s just a few drinks.” My friends think it’s just
natural. They become defensive and say I don’t know how to have fun. It’s
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, and 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 the 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.
Web Links
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=226&sid=1110488
This article is about the retesting of drivers over the age
of 75 in
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6183544
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.
http://alcoholism.about.com/od/dui/Drunk_Driving.htm
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.
http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html
This site presents the cold hard facts and statistics of
drunk driving in the
http://www.cspinet.org/booze/collfact1.htm
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.
http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/drive/a/aa990317.htm
This site talks about how the families left behind the accidents that were
alcohol related are also the victims of it. It talks about how this serious
problem are affecting so many of us in daily lives. It has links connected to sites that has
stories of family who are left behind as well as treatment help of the drunken
driving problem.
http://www.oklahomaduilaw.com/
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 interesting overview of the serious
problem that are prevail in out time. Some of the criminal court case stories
are interesting to read and think about.
http://www.oklahomaduilaw.com/
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.
http://www.cocktailtimes.com/awareness/drunkdriving.shtml
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”.
10. International Drunk Driving
Prevention Association
This site belongs to the International Drunk Driving Prevention Association. IDDPA is to prevent drink driving, to
assist the victims of such accidents, and support legislative effort to achieve
this goal and encourage the development of technologies to prevent drink
driving.