Report 2:

Report 2:

My Understanding of Driving Psychology

By Davis Hanai

Instructions for this report are at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/409a-g21-report2.htm

Advice for future generations

Extra Credit

Question 1:

Question: Consider tables 1, 2, 3, and 4 in the Lecture Notes, in the Section on Driving Psychology Theory can Charts at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/409a-g21-lecture-notes.htm#Charts. Consult the article from which the Tables were taken. Using your own words, describe the three behavioral domains and levels of a driver (nine cells). Illustrate each domain with your own driving with your own driving behavior skills and errors, or that of another driver you know well, or a driver in a particular movie. Make up a driving “driver personality makeover” plan for yourself (or another driver you know well). Discuss the problems you anticipate in carrying out such a plan successfully.

Answer: The article from which the four tables were taken from was about the taxonomy of driving behavior. A taxonomy is defined as the practice or principles of classification. This taxonomy is theoretical basis for establishing a driving psychology curriculum. Most of the information used to back up these theories were from self-reports made by drivers.

Driving psychology is based on the idea that each driver has a three-fold self. Each driver possesses an “affective self”, a “cognitive self”, and a “sensorimotor self”. These three “selfs” make up the three behavioral domains of a driver. The affective domains are the feelings we feel while driving. The cognitive domain is our cognitions about situations and other driver that we have while driving. Finally, the sensorimotor domain is the actions we do while driving. An example of the three domains would be when a guy cut me off in traffic and I had to slam on my brakes to avid hitting him. First, I felt a wave of anger at his actions because he put me girlfriend and me in danger by doing this. These feelings of anger were part of my affective self. Next, I wondered why he was in such a rush and that he was definitely speeding when he performed the dangerous behavior. This is an illustration of my cognitive self as I thought about why he would do that. Then I said to my girlfriend, “Man, I hate bad drivers like that!” This was my sensorimotor self in action.

Dr. James further breaks the three domains into three different levels each. The first level is proficiency, followed by safety, and then with responsibility. Each of these levels within the three domains can either be positive or negative. So, each domain is broken into three levels, with each level being further broken into two more levels (positive or negative). This makes for a total of 18 categories in which your driving behavior can be placed.

I will illustrate my driving behavior using the different domains. On the most part I am a calm and safe driver, but I sometimes get distracted which causes my driving ability to go down. For my affective self, I am usually calm and I try to stay happy and alert while driving. I do not get mad at other drivers unless they really endanger me or if I am having a bad day. I do not feel the need to “beat” the other drivers or fell any competitiveness with other drivers. I don’t ever fell mad at people because they did something to purposely endanger me, but I just get mad at them for endangering me in general. I find I often get angry when people do not signal before they turn and just slow down in front of me, try to turn into the road in front of me too slow, or tailgate me. I would put my affective driving self in the affective safety level because I try to be a defensive driver. I also have some habits in the affective proficiency group as I try to retain self-control at all times. I do not think I moved up to the affective responsibility level yet, because I would not consider myself a supportive driver yet. I do feel that I am close though.

My cognitive driving skills are a little better than the rest of my skills. I think I usually make correct and objective attributions to people. I never think that when someone messes up, that there is something with that person. I usually think that they were probably careless and did not intend to make that mistake. I realize this because I often make careless mistakes and feel bad about making them. I always think that when I make a mistake, the other driver is calling me “jackass”. The only time I sometimes find myself making faulty cognitive judgments is when I let people into my lane or let them turn first. If they do not wave at me in gratitude, I often think that they are either “haole” tourists or “dicks”. I should try not to think this because I sometimes forget to thank people when they let me in, even though I am thankful for them letting me in. I think I am mostly in cognitive responsibility with some aspects in cognitive safety and cognitive proficiency. I am on the positive side for all of these levels except sometimes I can make an error and make biased attributions of people.

I think that of the three driving domains, my sensorimotor skills are the worst. I try to keep my emotion in control and usually make positive attributions of people and give them the benefit of the doubt. I do this because I know first hand that people make mistakes. I know people make mistakes because I make a lot of bad mistakes. I try very hard to be a good driver, but sometimes I am not, mostly because of my sensorimotor skills.

I find that my biggest problem lies within the sensorimotor proficiency level. I often make faulty actions and I am inattentive. I often find myself totally ignoring all other drivers and being in my own little world while I drive. This can be dangerous at times as I am slow to react to sudden changes in traffic. I am lucky that I have gotten in only one accident since I got my license. I try to make polite exchanges (this is in the sensorimotor safety level), but I sometimes forget because I not paying attention. I also like to be a supportive driver and let people into lanes or make a turn in front of me, but sometimes forget. I often catch myself blocking an intersection at the light because I was unaware of the traffic situation in front of me before it was too late. I definitely do not enjoy driving (sensorimotor responsibility). I find driving as more of a hassle than a convenience, and often find myself planning my day to minimize the amount of trips I have to make during the course of the day.

There are three steps in performing a “driving personality makeover”. The first step is to acknowledge that you have a certain negative habit. Next, you must observe yourself doing this negative habit. Finally, take steps to actively modify this habit. The habit that I think I need to modify I have to be more attentive and not get mad when people do not move. I have already done steps one and two, so all I need to do is modify it. My girlfriend is helping me to stay more attentive and not get so easily distracted and not get mad when people do not thank me when I let them in. Every time I step into my car, I try to think about being a more attentive driver and not get mad at people being “rude”.

I think the hardest part of overcoming these two bad habits are because I have done them for so long. Sometimes I do them so unconsciously that I do not realize what I am doing. It is a lot easier to be a better driver when my girlfriend is riding with me because she can remind me when I do something wrong. Also, I find that I get sometimes get even more distracted when I drive with my girlfriend because I want to talk to her all the time. But I am working hard, and it is just going to take time to curb these habits. Another problem I will have overcoming these habits, is that I still do not feel that it is absolutely important I get better. I know I should try to be more attentive because I put myself and my girlfriend in danger when I do not pay attention, but I sometimes feel no matter how safe I am, another bad driver could still harm me.

I feel that I am a better driver than many people and do not get road rage, so I feel I do not need as much work as some of the other drivers on the streets. So I kind of have the mentality that if they are not doing anything to become better drivers, then why should I? I know this is the wrong way to think, but it sometimes this kind of thinking makes it hard for me concentrate full heartedly to becoming a more attentive driver. Nonetheless, I am trying and at least that counts for something. It is going to be hard road, but I believe I will be able to modify my driving behavior with the help of my girlfriend.

Question 2:

Question: Discuss these two websites: drivers.com vs. drdriving.org. What are their main differences? Be sure to consider at least these areas: articles, newsletters, letters, style, probable audience, public relations or policy, advertising, size, ranking.

Answer: The first and probably the biggest difference I noticed between these two sites was the homepage layout. I already knew what Drdriving.org would look like because I visited or professor’s site before. I found the homepage of drivers.com very peculiar. The fact that the site had information on driving automobiles as well as computer drivers seemed so weird, because these two subjects have nothing in common except for a name. I can just imagine the creators of site sitting around an office sipping coffee, saying how cool it would be that had a site with information on computer drivers as well as human drivers. My initial impression of the drivers.com site was bad because of this fact. For the rest of this answer, I will only compare the part on human drivers to Drdriving.org.

Drivers.com is made by PDE publications and Drdriving.org is the personal information site of our teacher. PDE is a Canadian based site with information on driving, driver behavior, and traffic safety. The site says its audience is for traffic safety professionals and the general public. Drdriving.org is site with information on driving psychology, surveys, and road rage. The site seems to be more like a personal website with the cartoon caricature of Dr. James in the corner of the website. The probable audiences of Dr. James and Dr. Nahl’s site are the general public and students in Dr. James’ classes. Although the drivers.com site says it’s probably audience includes the general audience, I think it is more catered to the driving professionals.

I liked the style of the drivers.com site more than drdriving.org. The drivers.com site is a little more professional and easier to navigate. The links for the drivers.com site are better organized and they keep each page of the website organized and not too long. Every section is divided into different links. This keeps each page simple and short, with links to more information.

On the other hand, drdriving.org web pages seem to be too long. They have too much information too handle and I think it would be better if they made more links to smaller individual web pages so that the information is easier to handle. For example, the home page for drdriving.org is very long. You can scroll down quite a bit before you get to the bottom of the page. There is a lot of information just on the first homepage. I think it would be better if they change it so that all that information is on separate links so that the homepage stays simple and easy to read. Also some of the links need to be better organized. For example, I wanted to find information about Dr. James and Dr. Nahl, but the link that says about leads you straight to interviews with the two professors. Also the link that says articles leads to a list of articles, but also includes letters to Dr. Driving. I think those letters could be put in its own link so that the site is easier to understand. All the links should then be put in one area so they are easy to find. I think the difference might be that the Dr. Driving website has just a lot more information than the drivers.com, but they need to find a better way to make all of the information more manageable.

The Dr. Driving article has 31 articles about road rage and aggressive driving form the book of the same title. They have many other articles also such as articles on elderly driving, children and road rage, and pedestrians and bicyclists. The main topic is clearly road rage and topics related to road rage in this website. The articles on drivers.com are more generally about all aspects of driving. This includes job listings for driving jobs, licensing, professional driving, type of automobiles, new technologies, etc. If you want information on road rage, Drdriving.org is the site to go to. If you want information on other aspects of driving you might be able to find it on drdriving.org, but you might have better luck and an easier time finding it on drivers.com.

I was unable to find a newsletter on drdriving.org website. Drivers.com published a quarterly newsletter called Driver/Education from 1991 to 2003. You can get access to them, but only for a fee. They also have a free e-mail newsletter once a month that can be sent to you about any updates that have occurred. Although I was unable to find a newsletter for drdriving.org, I did find some other newsletter like things. Dr. Driving has a link to an online magazine called Driver Alert with information on driving safety and related topics. Dr. Driving also has links to news articles about driving related topics. Another thing that the Dr. Driving website has is Dr. James and Dr. Nerenberg created a video driving psychology course called RoadRageous. This is the only course in the nation that addresses modification of attitudes and behaviors of drivers.

I saw a distinctive difference between public relations and policy of these two sites. It seemed that Dr. Driving’s website is a more of a nonprofit organizations solely interested in the dissemination of information about driving psychology. Drivers.com is less nonprofit and charges money for a lot of its services. There is also a difference with advertising. You are able to advertise with drivers.com for a set price. This gave me the hint that this PDE group is not a non-profit organization (it could be they just charge the money for the costs of running the website, but I highly doubt that). There is not as much advertising on Drdriving.org. They advertise their book Road Rage and Aggressive Driving and a few other books as well as the video course Roadrageous. I did not see any advertisements of people who pay them to run their add, in other words, all of Dr. Driving’s adds are for materials directly related to driving psychology.

The link on Drdriving.org that leads to Dear Dr. Driving letters was not working, but this leads me too believe they do have letters on the site. I think they use questions to inform the public also because they have a disclaimer that they publish everything they get (from letters to articles) “as is” and are not responsible and liable for the information published. They also mentioned putting only removing names if the person asks for anonymity. For the driver.com site, you may ask questions by contacting to company, but I am not sure if they will actually answer it. It seems as if the things they wanted to be contacted about was for advertising purposes. This also showed why Drdriving.org seemed to be more for the everyday person while drivers.com seemed to be for business people. I think Dr. driving would be better for answering questions about driving than drivers.com.

Dr. Driving’s website seems to have more information than drivers.com after looking at the site map for both of these websites. Dr. Driving has a lot of interviews that were done over the years for all of us to see. If you do a google for driving psychology, Dr.driving.org ranks number one. If you do a google for drivers, drivers.com ranks number two. Both of these sites have their pros and cons. On thing is for sure, they both contain a wealth of information about driving and driver related topics. I would not say that any one of them is better than the other, because their focuses are different. They are both quality sites in their own respect and which one you would choose to search depends on the type of information you need. If you want information on road rage or driving psychology, then drdriving.org is the site to look at, but if you want more general and a wider range of information on driving, you may want to look at drivers.com.

Question 3:

Question: Consider table 5 in the lecture notes, in the section on driving psychology theory and charts at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/409a-g21-lecture-notes.htm#charts Consult the article from which the table was taken. Copy and paste the table into your file. Now delete the examples in each cell and replace them with your own examples that you make up. Discuss why driving is such a big problem in all societies and why no effective solutions have yet to be found for them. Discuss the solutions offered by Dr. Leon James (DrDriving). What likelihood that his approach will be adopted? Explain.

Answer: Table five is chart of emotionally intelligent driver personality skills. It gives examples of positive and negative personality skills for each of ten skills. Here are some examples from my driving behavior in each of the cells.

Emotionally Intelligent Driver Personality Skills

Driver Competence Skills	Aggressive Negative Driving	Supportive Positive Driving
	Not Emotionally Intelligent (Reptilian Driving)	Emotionally Intelligent (Cortical Driving)
1. Focusing on self vs. blaming others or the situation	“All these damn car’s are making me late.”	“I should have left earlier to take into account the traffic today.”
2. Understanding how feelings and thoughts act together	“I am so pissed at that guy who cut me off.”	“I am mad because that guy put myself in danger when he cut me off like that.”
3. Realizing that anger is something we choose vs. thinking it is provoked	“Why is every driver trying to piss me off today?”	“I am making myself angry because I am frustrated on the road.”
4. Being concerned about consequences vs. giving in to impulse	“F&%$! I should give this guy a brake check!”	“He is following me close, but I have to stay in control and not cause more problems.”
5. Showing respect for others and their rights vs. thinking only of oneself	“ I am not going to let this person in because I am in too much of a rush.”	“I should let this person in because they may need to get somewhere as quickly as I do.”
6. Accepting Traffic as collective team work vs. seeing it as individual competition	“I should just go into the intersection so that I can make it past the red light.”	“ I should wait here so that I do not block the intersection; just in case the light turns red before I can get across.”
7. Recognizing the diversity of drivers and their needs vs. blaming them for what they choose to do	“I can’t believe that person is putting on make-up while driving.”	“Man, I better move away from this lady putting on make-up, because she might swerve.”
8. Practicing positive role models vs. Practicing negative role models	“No one is around so I can go 30 mph.” (in a 15 mph zone)	“I had better slow down and not go too much over the speed limit.”
9. Learning to inhibit the impulse to criticize by developing a sense of driving humor	“ How did this guy get his license, he is such a horrible driver.”	“Don’t get mad at his mistakes because everyone is human. Be nice and let him in. Good.”
10. Taking driving seriously by becoming aware of one’s mistakes and correcting them	“I am a good driver and do not need to improve on anything.”	“I am an okay driver, but I still need to try to not get distracted so much. I try put all my effort into concentrating every time I step in the car.”

I think the reason that driving is such a big problem in all societies is because of the very nature of driving. If you think about it, driving is a very dangerous act. Automobiles are metal machine that can crush a puny human with ease. On highways, we speed past and next to these metal killers with only a few feet between us. It is human nature to make mistakes and it is inevitable that accidents will happen. Many of these accidents are deadly because of the sheer deadly force that automobiles possess when they collide with anything or anyone.

The nature of driving (having huge heavy moving metal machines whizzing by each other at high speeds) is not the only thing that makes driving such a big problem. I think a big part of the problem is society and culture. Our culture tolerates bad driving and actually promotes aggressive action and competition.

The reason that driving is such a big problem in all societies is because all societies also tolerate bad driving and bad driving habits. If a culture where to ever arise that does not tolerate bad driving, the amount of traffic accidents and problems would decrease drastically. If there developed a country as strict as a country like Singapore (I am not actually sure what Singapore policies are on driving, but I do know that they are very strict in other aspects of life and have one of the lowest crime rates anywhere), then the driving problem would decrease. For example, if people where put in jail for 15 years for going 5 miles over the speed limit, people would really look at speeding differently. Imagine if loss your license forever if you got in one accident, you would be much more careful.

The reason that no effective solutions have really been found is because most societies and cultures do not value and the things that are needed to solve the problems of driving. The only real way we can change driving, is to adapt our societal values to something more conducive with the skills needed for safe driving.

Dr. Driving (Dr. Leon James) proposes lifelong driver education. Using Quality Driving Circles, or QDC’s, he proposes a program for lifelong driver self-improvement that we all need to participate in. Dr. Driving thinks education should start from before we even drive (for the backseat is termed the road rage nursery) to develop our emotional intelligence and skills needs to become future supportive drivers. Dr. Drivers think that this is the only solution because it is unpractical to try to set up a program to reexamine all of the drivers on the road. There are just not enough resources to accomplish a mass re-testing of American drivers. By allowing everyone to participate in QDC’s, we can ensure that everyone is working to become better drivers without destroying our economy at the same time.

I think that his approach is in fact the only practical and plausible solution for the driving problem that plagues our nation, but I don’t think this approach will ever be adopted. The reason I think this approach will never work is that our culture does not support this kind of intervention. We value competition, dominance, and individualism too much in America to fix our problem of dangerous driving. Most people do not realize how bad and dangerous our nation’s roads really are. Most don’t care either. That is the reason it will not work, no one really cares enough. Our problem of aggressive driving will not improve until people realize that we do in fact need to change to save lives.

I believe the only way we can change our nation’s values and feelings about driving is through education. I think a good way to reach everyone is through television. Television reaches almost every American and is a good way to get the message to everyone. For example, the commercials about the negative effects of tobacco seem to be working. Many young people did not care about voting until this election, when there was a big push by MTV to get the young voters to vote. I think some well thought out commercials about the dangerous facts of our roadways would do a long way to helping the problem road rage and all of the deaths caused by automobile crashes.

Question 4:

Question: Our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving has exercises in several chapters Do the following four exercises: (a) Exercise on scenario analysis on p. 205; (b) Exercise on acting as-if on p. 128; (c) Exercise on self assessment on p. 134; and (d) Checklist of your road rage tendency on p. 40. What are your reactions to the exercises? Discuss how these exercises help you to become more aware of yourself as a driver. Do some exercises with another driver you know. How do they help you understand some principles of driving psychology?

Answer: The first exercise was about scenario analysis. The story was about two young men who were driving in tandem. They blocked the way of a speeding car, and then the car followed them after flashing a gun to them. The two boys tried to speed away from the car at high speeds and were scared. I saw a lot of problems in this story. First, they should have not been driving in tandem or block the car. Even after the other driver flashed the gun, they should not have tried to drive away at such a fast speed. They should have called the cops. I can understand why they did not want to stop because they did not know what the guy was going to do, but they should have called the police. I also had my girlfriend do the scenario analysis. She came up with some different things that they did wrong, but our ideas were pretty close.

My first reaction to the first exercise was this had to have happened in the mainland. I don’t this kind of thing would happen here, but you never know. I was shocked that the other driver would pull out a gun. This exercise really helped in developing my emotional intelligence as a driver. Knowing what better options there are to situations will make you a safer driver. We have to realize that many of our aggressive actions can escalate a minor altercation into a full-blown road rage incident. We have to stay in control of our affective behavior as well as our cognitive skills. The more emotional intelligence we develop, the better we will be at making the right decisions to alleviate problems instead of augmenting them.

The second exercise was about “acting as if”. This means if you feel something bad inside, act or say something out loud that is the opposite of what you feel. This lets us see what our real impulses, that some things are out of our hand so there is no sense to get mad about, and that being nicer makes driving more enjoyable.

So on one trip I planned to put the “acting as if” plan into action. My girlfriend tried to do it too (she sometimes get a lot of passenger seat road rage along with me). We were heading to Ala Moana Shopping center and nothing really bad happened until we got to the parking lot. It was so crowded and there was no parking anywhere. We both absolutely HATE looking for parking (this is my absolute biggest pet peeve about driving), but we acted as if it was no big deal that there was no parking anywhere.

After driving in the shaded area and not finding any parking spaces (inside I was getting frustrated), we both decided that we should go to the top of the parking structure in the sun. We both agreed that we have never gone up there before and needed to get some exercise anyway. We also thought that it would not be so bad when we returned because our car has a good AC. Although inside I was saying that I really just wanted to go home, I actually did feel better by “acting as if”. This exercise helped me realize that I cannot control how crowded the mall is going to be. I can either complain about it and ruin the entire trip or act happy and joke around with my better half. I have learned that choosing the latter is a much smarter thing to do. It is the more emotionally intelligent thing to do. As they say, patience is a virtue and this exercise really helped me to realize this.

The third exercise was about my self-assessment compared to one of my friend’s assessment of how I drive. As the book predicted, my girlfriend mentioned more bad habits than I thought of. A lot of them had to deal with attention (such as not noticing when the light turns green, talking too much, looking at my passenger too much). She also mentioned I get impatient in parking lots, park badly sometimes, and don’t put both hands on the wheel. I said my bad habits were that I do not pay attention and make bad decisions sometimes. Much of my habits I already knew about, but I did not realize that I park bad and drive with only one hand.

My girlfriend also gave me more good habits than I did. I just mentioned that I do not excessively speed and I let people in. She also mentioned that I always say thank you and I am very cautious when I drive. This exercise helped to illustrate the fact that we all have a self-serving bias. I don’t want to admit that I don’t park well and am dangerous in some forms of my driving, but in reality, I am. We all need to realize that we are very subjective in our self-assessments and this exercise can help us be more objective. The self-assessment exercise is the first step to enacting the three-step program for driving modification. The three-step program is to acknowledge, witness, and modify. Doing this self-assessment can help people realize and acknowledge that they do in fact have a problem. When they do admit they have a problem, they can take steps to correct and modify their bad habit.

The last exercise was about our road rage tendencies. By selecting yes or no to 20 questions and scoring up the yes’s, we can get a score about how much road rage we have. I did this exercise and had a score of 6 and my girlfriend had a score of four. The book says that my girlfriend is not an aggressive driver and that I have moderate road rage tendencies. This exercise is good to tell you where you stand compared to other people in terms of your road rage. If you score high, then you know you have a lot to work on. My road rage is not that bad, but I still can do things to be a better driver.

All of these exercises are great in helping us learn about our driving habits and emotional intelligence. These exercises help us understand the some of the principles of psychology such as our three-fold self, our road rage habits, our emotional intelligence, and can help us become more supportive drivers. Learning about yourself and what problems you have can help to motivate yourself to become a better driver. Exercises like scenario analysis can help us to develop our emotional intelligence so we know what options we have in a variety of situations and have the control and cognitive power to choose the option that will deescalate the problem. Seeing others do these same exercises also illustrates that there are many different types of drivers on the road. Each of these drivers has their own skills. This teaches us that we have to be more accepting of the diversity of the drivers on the road and we have to prepare for conflicts that may arise because of this rich diversity.

Question 5

Question: Analyze the Student Newsgroups Reports at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499s2003/newsgroups to characterize the threefold self of the drivers that wrote the messages. Find 10 brief quotes from the messages they posted, and analyze each one, showing the character of their threefold self. Discuss the writer’s philosophy or psychology of driving. Comment in the light of what you know from Driving Psychology in this course using the ideas and perspective from our two textbooks.

Answer: The link led to the reports of all the students did on newsgroups about driving. I could not find any links to the actual student newsgroups everyone was commenting about. So I guessed that we were supposed to look at the examples that other students found in the newsgroups and do our own analysis of the drivers threefold self. So here are ten of the short quotes from which I tried to show their threefold self.

#1 Driving with Optimism

Subject: Road Rage Remedies

Date: September 28, 1999

Here’s what I do when I feel road rage coming on. I highly recommend some of these methods:

When someone is following too closely, I simply fart, and chuckle to myself that the person behind will never know of my assgass invading their personal space.

If they continue to ride my ass, I pretend I am 6-years old and at Disney World on the roller coaster. Really, try it, it works.

I imagine how silly I would look swerving and flashing my high beams, and that makes the jerk in front of/behind me look that much sillier.

Similar to picturing your audience in their underwear, I picture aggressive drivers in Yugos.

If their window is open, sometimes I yell, “I wanna party with you, cowboy!”

Life’s too short to take it so seriously.

Comments: This driver seems to have a good outlook of life. This person obviously has the affective and cognitive skills (part of his threefold self) to control his road rage. Although some of the ideas may be a little out there or even more provoke them more like yelling out the window at them, the point was to not get mad at things on the road. His solutions show that he understands that “acting as-if” (RR p. 128) works to lessen road rage tendencies.

#2 Subject: Re: Proposed New Indiana Traffic Laws

Date: 1998/02/23

[ SNIP - other drivel ]

So if you find yourself behind me, and I'm doing the speed limit, and you want to get past me to cruise along at 90, tough shit. You have two choices: you can take a deep breath, relax, obey the law, and get to your destination a few minutes later. Or you can ride my ass, flash your lights, yell, scream, curse, and make every obscene gesture in the book, raising your blood pressure a few dozen points in the process. But it won't do you any good -- I ain't moving, moron. Save yourself the aggravation.

Listen here jerk, you are the reason for road rage and aggressive driving. Who appointed you to enforce the law ? You don't have a badge. It is @$$holes like you who think you are better than everyone else and think that their $h!t don't smell. Well, you are not any better than anyone else.

Maybe you will piss off the wrong person and he will run your @$$ off the road and teach you a lesson to mind your own business.

BTW, are you another Volvo driver or drive a mini-van ?

Comment: I am not sure if this person is talking about cruising in the passing lane or in just cruising in general. Although he tries to sound like he has road rage, I saw otherwise. The author of this post may be against people who get mad because they cruise, but the author also shows signs of lack of affective control. It seems his cognitive skill are good, but he shows signs of aggression when he mentions he hopes someone teaches all those drivers a lesson. Fantasizing about having harm inflicted onto other drivers is a sign of road rage (RR p. 40)

#3 Driving Pet Peeves

Date: 1998/09/10

My driving pet peeves:

1. People that forget to turn their blinkers off.

2. People that don't use their blinkers at all.

3. Pedestrians that think they can step out in the middle of the road anywhere, anytime, and still have the right-of-way.

4. People that slow down to a complete stop before making a turn.

5. People in the fast lane that don't have the courtesy to change lanes when there are 5 people behind them.

6. People that pull up to a stoplight in the right lane when they are going straight (even if the left lane is empty), so those behind them who are making a right turn have to wait until the light turns green.

7. People in a parking lot that take forever to get in their car and leave, even when there are a million cars waiting to find a spot.

8. People that steal the parking spot you've been sitting there waiting for.

9. People who park in more than one spot so no one will hit their car.

10.People that match your speed when you are trying to pass.

Comments: This person lists all of their pet peeves while driving. A lot of these things that irritate this person are validated because they are potentially harmful actions. The driver shows that his threefold self is somewhat developed as he/she knows what are dangerous actions and implies he/she does not do these things. This author lacks some cognitive skills because some of his/her accusations are a little biased and may not take into account the diversity of drivers (RR p. 209) such as getting mad at people who take long to get out of a parking lot (they may be older and not move at such a fast pace as he/she). This driver also seems to be very impatient, which could lead to road rage tendencies of always seeing driving as a competition to get somewhere first.

#4 I Can't See You...

Subject Daily gripe: non-aggressive rainy day drivers

Date Fri, 06 Feb 1998 04:57:05 GMT

Despite the fact that my glass on my car is rain soaked and that the highway spray was incredible this morning, jerks still think its safe to drive around without their lights on.

I counted about 1 in 20 without them on this morning in the pouring rain.

Comments: This is a very good example about someone who understands the cybernetic nature of driving (DL p. 1). He understands that driving is made up of a complex system of interdependent subsystems such as weather, traffic and road conditions, and other drivers. If someone speeds in the rain and causes other drivers to brake in caution, the effects of the braking wave could go on for miles. Not having lights on in the rain can endanger others. This driver understands this and shows a developed threefold self.

#5 Running woes...

Subject Re: Experience of Road Rage while running

Date 11 Dec 1997 22:58:38 GMT

Unfortunately as runners we face these things every once in a while. But we can't quit running because of it. I have told this story here before but once while running along the road against traffic (as you're suppose to) I had some young punk kids try and open the passenger door on me just in time to hit me. Fortunately, I guess due to the wind force, he didn't get the door open far enough. They just went on laughing and screaming.

I told a girl at work this story and she related the same thing had happened to her a few months earlier on the other side of Indy. She had thought it was do to her being black or a female, but it was just some people are nuts and hate runners. Another complaint I have, again stated in an earlier post last spring, is these people who weight 300 lbs driving these big old bombs barreling down at you with a Wendy's double cheese in one hand, a frosty in the other and biggie fries in their laps, seems like they just try and aim for you. That or the assholes with car phones who don't pay attention while driving. But I still like when the girls whistle and yell at me. :) Okay lets not go there again. :)

Wishing you and your families a wonderful, happy and safe holiday.

Comment: I chose this post because I found it very shocking. I think the kids described in this post need a lot of development in their threefold self. This is an example of how situation and intimate social life can affect driving behavior (DL p. 65). I am sure those kids would not have tried to open their door and hit the driver if they were alone or in a pair. Their friends probably dared them to do it. It is sad what people are capable of doing when put in a situation with peer pressure.

#6 Subject: Minging Bitches Who Can't Drive!

Date: 01/17/00

Offensive narld-faced minging bitches who drive in the fast lane of the f***ing M1 (between junction 7-9 north bound) at 50mph in a shagged out Granada should be pulled over onto the hard shoulder and shot in the face with an elephant gun!

Comment: This driver needs to be put into Dr. James’ road rage class ASAP! He lacks self-control and could be a danger on the road. This person is probably very aggressive on the road and shows a serious lack of affective and cognitive skills. His fantasies of inflicting harm to other drivers is a sign of road rage (from class notes and discussions).

#7 Subject: Re: Road rage

Date:1999/10/19

"Oh My God! This reminded me of a few years ago when some asshole in a red convertible STOLE MY PARKING SPACE! DAMN HIM! He knew it was mine too! I tracked the man through the store... actually STALKED him. Luckily, by the time I'd worked up the nerve to have it out with him, he was at the dairy aisle, and I was too tired (stalking takes a lot out of you) to do anything but glare at him. Side note: I hate grocery stores. Damn people should leave their children at home, or muzzle them and put 'em on a leash! The end. [ Linda Briteyes]

Comments: This is another example of a person who lacks emotional intelligence (RR p. 111). He went a step farther than the previous driver (who had fantasies) by actually following the guy. This lack of control could have escalated into something more serious if he had confronted the other driver before he had calmed down. An exercise in scenario analysis could help this driver become more emotional intelligent (RR p. 205).

#8 Subject: Re: To Steve Jones, re: driving issues

Date: 22 Jan 1999 19:42:37 GMT

As a "survivor" of a collision caused by someone running a red light I share your curiosity about what possesses folks to be so cavalier with their own lives, let alone the lives of others. While I don't expect these moral giants to give a fig about others, I remain mystified that they would put their own precious skins at risk. Maybe they are quite literally too stupid to live.

Comments: I want to evaluate the threefold self of drivers who run red light or see a yellow light as a signal to speed up to make the light. Most of us do try to speed up when we see a yellow light. This is a sign of our culture to be aggressive and a sign of cognitive immaturity. Drivers who run reds show that they are still in the proficiency level of the behavioral zones of driving (lecture notes). They are untrained in make faulty actions that could cost them their life. These kinds of drivers need more training to become better drivers.

#9 In defense of road rage

Date: 1999/02/06

Road rage doesn't occur for no reason. It happens in response to someone doing something silly or even dangerous. For example, rude or incompetent driver dangerously cuts off another driver. The victim is angry and abuses the perpetrator. Result: the victim is accused of road rage. People who commit road rage are providing a valuable service to all of us in letting errant and dangerous drivers know that their conduct is unacceptable. We should be rewarding people accused of road rage for this valuable service. Their accusers should forthwith be sent to driver re-education camps or if the incident was bad enough, charged with dangerous driving.

This whole hysteria against road rage is a classic case of punishing the victim.

Comments: This person defended road rage as punishing bad drivers. This person thinks road rage is justified because it makes bad drivers realize that they are bad drivers. This person lacks the development of the cognitive self to realize that there is a great diversity of drivers (RR p. 207) and that road rage is unacceptable. Although all drivers should be put in driver self-improvement programs, road rage will never be acceptable.

#10 THINGS PEOPLE DO WHILE DRIVING

Subject: Things people do while driving

Date:2000/02/03

This was in South London, does the same thing happen elsewhere? I often drive south on the M1 in the morning, and south of J12 where it can slow down a bit, and from the highest seat in an MPV, I've also been *impressed* by some of the things people do whilst driving...

-I've often seen people operating laptops (on their laps:)

-Reading text books

-Eating off a plate with a fork

-Writing on an A4 pad

Comments: We learned in class that experienced drivers often operate the automobile without much conscious effort. This allows for them to multi-task (DL p. 23). Multi-tasking can be very dangerous for themselves and other drivers. People with a developed threefold self will know to be cautious and alert when encountering another driver who is multitasking. Multi-taskers demonstrate a lack of cognitive self-development, especially if they are untrained in the increased challenges of multi-tasking while driving. We need to learn to be more supportive drivers and realize that not fully concentrating on driving can endanger our lives and others’ lives.

Advice For Future Generations

I think that the best advice I can give to anyone taking this class is this: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! Trying to answers all of the questions for report 2 at the last minute (as I did) can be really arduous. The second best piece of advice I can give everyone is: FOLLOW DIRECTIONS. As long as you follow the directions given, and don’t put off your work, you will do just fine in this course.

Overall, this class was good. I learned a lot about driving psychology and my information behavior, and I know you will too. It really is not too difficult as long as you do the work in advance. For a writing intensive class and oral focus, you get your efforts worth. You won’t die trying to make this huge paper because Dr. James sets up the assignments so that they do require a lot of writing. You will be able to create the required amount of pages with no problem. I enjoyed this class enough that I am planning on taking the one about marriage. Plus, you only one time per week! Another hint is that to be prepared when you have to do the oral presentations. This class will be beneficial and maybe even a little fun if you just follow my advice. I know I learned a lot about road rage and have become more aware of my road rage tendencies from this class.

Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/classhome-g21.htm

My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af2004/hanai/home.htm

Extra Credit

Question: Select six students reports on driving psychology from Generation 20, as listed in the Readings Section of the Lecture Notes. www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/409a-g21-lecture-notes.htm#g20-reports . You must select any two students from Report 1, any two from Report 2, and any two from report 3. Summarize each of the six reports. Add a General Conclusion Section in which you discuss your reactions to what they did- (a) their ideas, (b) their method, (c) their explanations. What did they gain from their reports? How do their ideas influence what you yourself think about these issues?

Answer:

1^st report from Report 1:

The first report I chose for report 1 was found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/report1.htm. This report had six sections to it: preface, introduction, definitions, autobiographical, conclusion, and future generations. The definitions were the main part of the report. This section introduced the author’s definitions of many different terms dealing with driving psychology such as Passive-aggressive driver, road rage, left-lane bandit and more.

I this person’s authors ideas and methods were very good. The definitions were concise and clear. The method that this person went about delivering the information was good and easy to follow. The author had many links to some of her information to explain more fully about her ideas. She also used many of her own driving behavior to explain her ideas. She learneda lot about her own driving behavior from this report. Especially how people influence her driving behavior. I was influenced by this report in the respect that she introduced many new terms that we have not discussed in class yet, such as the passive-aggressive driver. Terms like this help to explain much about other drivers’ driving behaviors.

2^nd report from Report 1:

The second report from report 1 that I chose to evaluate can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/kubo/report1.htm This report was much like the previous one, with some subtle differences. This author was a male in contrast to the female author of my other example. Some differences in topics could be seen by these two authors. This author rated himself as a decent driver, but admitted to experiencing the “trigger effect” that caused an incident of road rage. He also did a few different definitions like the Jekyll-Hyde syndrome and the automotive vigilante. He wrote about three reports he had read that he had enjoyed and learned a lot from.

Overall, I thought this report was well done. The ideas and explanations he used were of a good quality. I liked some of his ideas about what driving is like in our day and age. He also used a good personal example of his own driving behavior of road rage. I liked his method of always citing where his definitions came from. He learned a lot about his driving behavior and was trying to modify his behavior so that his newborn child would not grow up as an aggressive driver. I think the thing that I learned a lot about was how people rate their own driving behavior. Both of the authors rated themselves as ok/decent drivers, but after reading their autobiographical information, I would rate the female driver as a much safer driver. The male admitted more frequently to experiencing road rage fits than the female. The most important thing was that the male was driving to improve his driving behavior.

1^st Report from Report 2:

The first report I chose to write about can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/fukushima/report2.htm. This report was about a female’s attempts to curb her boyfriend’s dangerous driving behaviors. The first thing she did was give some diagnostic tests to her boyfriend to evaluate his threefold self, road rage tendencies, etc. She identified that he needed a lot of help with his affective intelligence.

She next decided to do a self-modification experiment on her boyfriend to try to stop him from swearing in anger while driving. She employed two techniques: recording driving sessions and writing about them later (he would write what he said that was mean and then write something that could disprove his claim next to it) and a negative punishment technique (she would snap a rubber band on him every time he swore at a motorist). She found that the writing exercise seemed to help the most for curbing her boyfriend’s swearing.

This report was very interesting. It was really cool that she did her own experiment. Her ideas about her boyfriend and assessment of him were very good. She used good examples by actually listing the responses her boyfriend made on the exercises in the book and his writing exercises to modify his swearing. It seemed that her method was pretty good and seemed she did her experiment very professionally. She conducted her experiment in a manner that was more professional than I could ever make it and presented it in a clear and concise way. She learned from her report what type of intervention worked best with her boyfriend. It also encouraged her to continue performing the self-modification techniques on her boyfriend. I was glad to hear that she wanted to continue to help him improve his driving behavior. I learned about how much effort is needed to run your own experiment from the work it seemed this author put in. It seemed very technical and precise. Overall, this was a very well done report.

2^nd report from Report 2:

The second report I looked at can be found at http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/arakaki/report2.htm. The author of this report followed the same format as the other author but tried to modify her own behavior in this report. She wanted to modify her bad habits of lane hopping, tailgating, swearing, wishing, yielding, counting, and speeding. She used two techniques: the first was to try make up excuses for why people drove badly to stop her from getting feelings of anger and the second was to pay her passengers 10 cents every time she did a bad driving act as a form of self-punishment.

Her results showed that she her bad driving behavior did get better as time went on with the experiment. She was encouraged to continue her attempts to become a better driver.

I thought this report was very informative. I thought her idea about paying others when she drove badly was good. I think that would work for all of us, because our society is so fixated on money. Her explanations and examples of what she did were ok, but maybe could have gone in more detail. She noted that she could have improved her experiment if she had chose