Table of contents
| Instructions for this Report | |||
| Introduction | Self Witnessing Reports | Conclusion, | Epilogue |
Introduction
A Quality Driving Circle or QDC consists of a small group of active drivers who interact regularly
in order to assess their affective, cognitive and sensorimotor qualities when faced with particular
situations while driving. The affective component deals with the drivers emotions while in a certain
situation such as anger after being cut off by another driver. The cognitive component deals with
the conscious thinking process that occurs in a certain situation. For example our driver who just got
cut off may think that the other driver purposely cut them off, or they may believe that
it was a honest mistake in which the driver really didn't see them. The sensorimotor reaction is the
behavior that is the visible consequence of one of, or both of the preceding consequences. There may be many
possible behaviors that our driver may display. One may be to honk their horn at the other, or
a display of an offensive finger gesture. They may also just drive by and avoid conflict.
The small groups meet to discuss their experiences in hope of being able to control all of these
three aspects of driving. Since driving has become a social event. The ability to control ones behaviors
to promote a positive social environment will have a great impact on others in the same environment.
An example of a social situation may be a party at someone's house. Imagine if there was one person who was roudy, loud, and being impolite to others. Some may choose to ignore them, some may get angry also or some may try to change his behavior. Whatever the outcome, many are affected by that one roudy person.
QDC's aim to promote positive socially acceptable behaviors in our driving environment...the roads. It is an effort to promote lifetime learning and improvement of our own behaviors on the road.
I see myself as a messenger trying to spread the idea of QDC's to others. It would be good to see others understand the usefulness of a QDC and how they can improve themselves as more socially conscious drivers. In my opinion QDC's are improvement centers. They may start out with one on each island and then grow from then, nationally and hopefully internationally. It is where people would come to see how others acted in a situation while driving and offer advice, or even get ideas to how they should act in a particular situation.
The effectiveness of QDC's rely on those who participate. If every participant subscribes to the idea of lifetime improvement, then that QDC will be on the right track. Improving one's own emotional, cognitive and sensorimotor actions is the key, not changing others. Our responsibililty is to our own actions and in turn, we hope that each will affect someone else in a positive way. Click here to learn more about QDC's
This QDC was structured around ten TEE (Traffic Emotions Education) cards in which we use the TEE cards to self monitor our behaviors and then systematically change them so we become more positive influences on the roads. Here is a page that describes in detail TEE cards and their uses. Please feel free to visit it, share it with others and help transform our roads into safer and more pleasant places TEE Cards. We participated in an online forum discussion centered around these TEE cars which drew many different opinions about driving situations and driving habits. Please join in our ongoing discussion at the Coolboard QDC site.
Self Witnessing Reports
These Self-Witnessing Reports, or SWR's, are the first steps toward improving ourselves as drivers.
These reports are based on the ten TEE cards that were selected for this assignment. Here are the
Instructions for the forum discussion and 10 selected TEE cards
After each Self Witnessing Report, my comments and actions are noted show progress and give insight.
SWR #1
SWR #2
SWR #3
SWR #4
SWR #5
SWR #6
SWR #7
SWR #8
SWR #9
SWR #10
| I wanted to know how I handled road rage and if I was a contributor of it. I found that I try to avoid confrontations on the road. First of all, I'm not a big person and the very last thing I need is someone chasing me to my house to kick my butt. I really enjoy driving but yet I rarely go over the speed limit on the freeways. I am guilty of speeding around town though and it's hard to say which one is worse, speeding on the freeways, where the actual speed is greater which puts drivers at risk of a serious accident, or speeding around town where injuring pedestrians is a biggest risk. usually around town I will find myself going 35mph in a 25mph zone. Doesn't sound too bad but still illegal and dangerous. Either way both are dangerous and irresponsible. Like I said before I don't show my emotions publicly when I see an irresponsible driver. It does bother me but I never say or do anything to them. COuld it be that I know that at times I am also guilty of driving in the same manner? |
This SWR made me think about the consequences of speeding in residential areas or on the freeway. I was also thinking about my reactions to other drivers who I see speeding. I know that they are being dangerous or irresponsible but I don't want to make waves or confront people. This may be part of my personality to avoid confrontation. I also thought that maybe since I know I do the same thing , I don't say anything in fear of having cognitive dissonance arise.
| I was particularly interested by the last item in this card in which 84% of the respondents said that "the other driver should get more edcation". I think that in these types of cases where we blame others we must first look at ourselves as he cause of the problem and then to others. I think that if I needed to take an upcoming offramp, then it is my responsibility to be in the appropriate lane to do so. I wouldn't expect others to clear a perfect path for me to make my exit. I think that much of this anger towards others stems from each of us being the first to blame others for our misfortunes. If we were to look at ourselves first there may be a chance that we may find that we could have done things to make the situation more favorable for ourselves. |
This SWR made me realize that people are quick to blame others. I can see that happening. Why would we want to come to the conclusion that we are wrong? It reminded me of the question and statement, "Do you feel that money is important to your happiness?" The respondent would say no but when asked "Do you think that money is important to others?" They would respond with a "yes". We tend to see ourselves as perfect with no need to change, but yet we want everyone else to change. Marissa_ responded to my post and said that she too criticized people but began looking at ways to change her own thinking to ease her emotions in certain driving situations. She suggested stress balls to help in those situations. Great start Marissa_!
| Sorry I've been jumping around with the TEE's. I found that my driving offenses are similar to my road rage tendencies. I tend to rush or be impatient. This is similar to my speeding tendencies. I really think that this is bad because of the danger that it causes. What Dr. Driving said was true though. Usually if you allow yourself enough time to get somewhere you have a better chance of keeping your emotions under control when traffic takes longer than expected. I found that those days that I am running late or leave exactly enough time to go exactly 60 mph (or a mile a minute) for the entire trip, I'm always late. Now you'll realize that my math is horribly faulted because it doesn't include stoplights, 25 mph speed zones and traffic that may happen due to road work at 12 noon. (That messes me up big time)So I allow 20 minutes to go from Mililani to UH which is 20 miles away. 99.999999% of the time I either speed to make it there on time or I'm late and mad. Those extremely rare times I get there in 20 min is usually at 2 am in the morning. However I am happy to report that I rarely (as rare as getting to UH in 20 min from home)engage in the other 9 signs of offensive behavior. I realize the power of cars o be used as weapons or deadly instruments. I've been involved in too many accidents that were my fault and don't want to be involved in another ever. The sound of it gives me chills. So I'm doing my best to not contribute to the violent acts but really need help with budgeting my time to get places. Speed is my weakness. |
This SWR made me realize that I need to give myself more time to get places. I began getting frustrated when I gave myself 15 minutes to make a 20 minute trip. I realized that I needed to make changes in order to stop getting myself in those situations. It also made me realize that my actions have caused problems (accidents to be exact) in the past. Recently I've been giving myself longer travel time and arriving at my destination early. If I am late I try to change my plan so the next time I'm early. This was probably one of the ost influential SWR's that I did because it involved a lot of changes on my part.
| (Sorry again this will be the last out of order TEE)When I counted up my competitive behaviors I found that I tallied many times in the "how many cars you're passing", "how many cars pass you", and the "which lane is faster/slower..." behaviors. I noticed that I usually did this when there was a lot of traffic. However when there was less traffic I still found myself constantly looking at which lanes were going faster. At this point I wasn't speeding that much but I felt that I wanted a smoother flow of driving. There usually was one lane that was going too slow. I also didn't enter the extreme left lane that is supposedly for passing traffic. I think that I felt that I would feel rushed if people approached me from behind. I tried to find a good smooth lane but I guess that I may have seemed that I was driving aggressively and changing lanes too often. At times I did want to feel like I was going faster than everyone else and still see that I wouldn't get a ticket also. I was just in one of those moods that I didn't really care about being a defensive driver. I was in a very competitive mood. I was lucky that no one else on the freeway at that time was feeling the same way. Otherwise we may have had a little competitive speeding going on. That was the only time that I remember not caring about being a decent driver. I didn't care what others thought about. I was just driving fast and having fun. I am trying to stay in one lane when I am driving to school in the mornings. I think I have found one lane that does better overall than the others. Write back if you're coming from central O'ahu and we can exchange strategies. |
A great discussion followed this SWR with the topic of being assertive vesus being aggressive. Hatsumi and ry409 were saying that it may be okay to be assertive, however the post was lost on the Coolboard discussion and I was unable to comment on their responses for this report. This was an interesting SWR because of the fact that I didn't really care about the bad behaviors that I was engaging in, which was speeding and changing lanes excessively. For some reason I wasn't worried about tickets and seemingly wasn't thinking of other drivers. Most other students and participants foudn that they had some level of raod rage just as I did. I thought that my posting made me and others realize that I do things sometimes that I know are bad but still continue anyway. Not good.
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I can relate to both phases. For phase one I notice that my affective self has a big influence on my actions. I don't usually have the feeling of needing to win but rather the feeling of offended. I make conscious efforts to drive safely and responsibly (thanks to this class) but found that when others don't appreciate my efforts it gets my blood boiling. For example I was letting a person into my lane and someone honked at me, I suppose to make me go instead of let the person in. I stared at that person through my rear view mirror and made a conscious effort to go slower. That day I was a contributor to road rage. I felt I experienced cognitive dissonance in that I wanted to be an "in-control" driver but my actions were otherwise.
In times like these I find it hard to be supportive and understanding to others. The only thing that I can think of that won't anger me more is to say, "they should take psy 409 and be a better driver". Unfortunately, there is a slimmer than slim chance that the person is thinking about improving their driving behaviors. We have to spread the word. |
I made an effort to consciously make an effort to address the issues in this SWR. It seemed that there was an actual way to change. If you stick to these steps you can change or at least be conscious of your behaviors. Kelamuch responded and said that those were good ideas. Others in the QDc seemed to be trying to get out of phase 1. Of course it is very difficult given the influence of others on the road. Now that I am aware of these feelings of competitiveness and jumping to conclusions about others it will be easier for me to understand or even give others the benefit of the doubt and not let myself get out of control.
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One of my favorite things to do was not listed here so I wanted to share with you guys what usually works for me to control my anger in traffic. When driving in traffic in the morning or afternoon. I like to listen to good Hawaiian music. For some reason my mind goes off the cars in front of me and I just end up singing in the car. (I try to stay aware of traffic situations though) As a whole I don't like rap music and most intense type music. Listening to Hawaiian music takes my mind off the stress and traffic and reminds me that I'm lucky to be in Hawaii.
If there is no good Hawaiian songs on the radio or I've overplayed my CD's I turn the radio station to I-94 in the morning. Those guys are hilarious. Laughing really takes my mind off being stuck in traffic. This relates to the "Make funny noises" hint to control anger. The natural feeling of a smile really helps to get my emotions back on the positive side. I thought all of those ten ideas were good to control anger. I made a conscious effort to think of each of them when driving but realized that some of them didn't work for me. Understanding the "attitude of latitude" was too complex for me in high stress situations. Also, thinking about other people's actions or reasons didn't do much for me. This may be because I really don't care about why other people do things. I realized that most of my improvement will come from how I react to situations, so I don't focus on other's reasons for acting. I think that the most important thing to do at all times is the last hint, "commit yourself to a lifetime of drier self-improvemnt." This conscious effort is the only sure-fire way of ever improving. We can't improve if don't know what to improve. So by looking at yourself and not at others as a problem that must be fixed. We have the greatest chance of bettering the traffic situation here in Hawaii. |
This was probably one of my most fun SWR's and one that I enjoyed sharing with others. People used many of the suggestions and even one person said that all the possibitities don't work. I agreed with those who said that being more patient was a good way to subdue the aggravation. All in all it's a very hard thing to do. It will take time and a huge amount of effort. I think that anger is really an intense emotion and the ability to reduce it will be well rewarded for those who succeed.
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I thought that it would be the most beneficial to everyone else and myself if I did a "makeover" on my speeding behaviors. I was thinking back to one of my first posts in which I said that I didn't speed. Boy was I wrong. I usually go about 10-15 mph over the limit on the freeways. I found that I mostly speed when there is flowing traffic, and a decent amount of cars on the road. By this I mean that the freeways aren't bare like you would find at 1:00am. Usually a time for this typw of flowing traffic is about 8:00pm or 12:00 noon. I think the reason that I speed in these situations is bscause I'm glad that I'm not in stop and go traffic and I should take advantage of the flow to get to my destination early. That would make me feel good. I also feel that it would be harder for a cop who may be tagging speeders to focus on me. If it was at night with no one around the cop could spot me coming a mile away. Also I can use the cues of the cars in front to detect if a cop may be lurking around any corners. I guess one of my main concerns is getting a ticket. This is what seems to drive my behavior.
I tried to modify my behavior recently by being aware of my speeding and then by repeating to myself that I may someone. I also try to make myself realize that getting there early is not worth a ticket or injury. I'm trying anything and everything to be conscious of my speeding. I'll keep everyone posted on which works best for me. |
Tanthony responded to me and was very supportive of my effort and even said not to be discouraged if this "makeover" is not successful. I felt like doing a makeover on my speeding habits because I forget about how dangerous it is. Speed does kill no doudt about it. A crash at 100 mph is much more life threatening than one with the same conditions except being at 25 mph instead. This seemed like a typical psychological task to do. I guess this is what this class is about. REalizing your bad behavior, understanding and making the mental effort to change, and executing your plan and changing permanently.
| The first thing that came to my mind when hearing the story was the idea of anger management. There may have been other issue such as gun control or demographics that may have affected the situation. But on an individual basis nothing would have helped more that effective cocntrol of their emotions, in this case anger. I have been trying to control my anger recently since in the past I have displayed it violently is certain situations. For example I would throw things when my favorite football teams would loose or get hot tempered when I wasn't able to find my wallet. finally I realized that there are things that I couldn't control and becoming upset about it would not have changed the outcomes of the situation. For the situations that I could control, I realized that the outcomes were directly related to the events right before as seen in the story. I would then go back and make changes to the step that i thought caused the undesirable outcome. The story had a very unfortunate ending and an ending that clearly shows the effects of anger and the inability to control it. Who knows what may have happened if someone had been able to control themselves and think more rationally. One person may still be alive and many others may have been spared grief. |
This exercise showed the idea of how everything is linked to an event that happened immediately in front of it. This was an unfortunate story that was bad from the start. I think that if any steps that led to this incident were altered it may have changed the outcome. We need to apply this to our thinking and understanding in our own lives. We need to have the ability to understand the implications of our actions that we do in the present and it's effect on the future. I felt that I needed to show that there are things that are not worth getting upset about. We have a need to control our environments to ensure the best outcome for ourselves. Sometimes we can't control it though. Some are more obvious than others, like the weather. We can't say, "I want rain", and it rains. I've been angry many times at things I couldn't control and have learned that anger and destructive behaviors won't make the situation better.
| I don't have any younger siblings that I see on a regular basis, but I took the time to watch TV and criticize the drivers. (Who thought that I would need to watch TV for school). I found that there are both good habits and bad habits. Hollywood is very irresponsible for showing so much speeding and reckless driving. Not to mention there are many movies in which drivers or their passengers are drinking, for example "Tommy Boy" with Chris Farley and David Spade. Alcohol should not even be used in the same sentence as driving. This movie also depicted unrealistic consequences. Many people would see driving behavior in this movie as being humorous while in fact they can be extremely dangerous. They swerved and spun, drove off the road, and even had their hood flop up in their faces while driving, yet no harm was done. They were very lucky, in fact unrealistically lucky. However I did notice that they did put on their seat belts. A very important part of staying alive on the road. But many people would not notice this. In reality people get hurt and Hollywood's depiction of unrealistic consequences may affect people's driving habits. There are many movies and shows that show bad habits of various sorts. It will be a bad thing if young drivers formed these habits from TV or the movies. how can we hold Hollywood more accountable for such depictions? |
I wanted to show people how unrealistic the driving behaviors are in the movies. Because of this viewers may think that if they replicate the scenes and behaviors nothing will happen to them. It also seems that parental control of programs watched may help (or hurt) childrens's learning from scenes on TV. Parents can discuss and comment on the actions on TV or the moives and can influence their children's reaction to them. This brings up another issue of whether or not the parents are educated as well about good driving behaviors. This may backfire and children may learn bad behaviors. This SWR may have gotten a lot of people thinking about the bad driving habits that we are surrounded by everyday but yet fail to recognize as a possible learning example. I don't sit and criticize driving behaviors when watching TV, and in fact I don't usually notice other behavior that may influence my actions. We must be aware that almost everything around us affects us and that we must learn from them and teach the correct things to our children.
| I think that the ability to distinguish between mistake and insult, we will be able to take a more positive point of view of our fellow drivers. I often get angry at people on the road thinking that they are trying to harm me. But yet I never try to harm someone else on the road. My thinking is flawed. I never try to insult or harm people, yet people must get mad at me if I did something by mistake.I've been trying to let people in and saying thank you when they do the same. I think that by having a good relationship with others on the road will make it a better place to be socially. We may never want to be stuck in hours of traffic but if people treat each other well then it may not be a bad place to be socially. We may all appreciate the fact that no one wants to be here but we are and we might as well make the most of it. |
After reading my SWR report again I don't think that I communicated my thoughts very well in this posting. I was trying to make the point that when I think that others are trying to insult or hurt me when they cut me off or commit other bad habits while driving, they may in fact be just committing mistakes, real honest mistakes. Yet I condemn them for trying to hinder my driving and travel time. When I make mistakes on the road I know that I am not trying to hurt anyone. I should give others that same benefit of the doubt which expect others to give me, since I know that whatever I did to possibly insult others or cause them any anger was by accident. This goes back to the idea that we blame others for negative events and take the credit ourselves for any positive events. We aren't perfect and I know that I must start to look at myself as a possible cause of problems instead of pointing the finger at someone else first, or only point the finger at someone else. This may be a hard thing to do for those who generally feel that others are competitive, self-centered, and only out for themselves. This is unlike a humanist's point of view which is that people are innately good and we are all trying to reach our potentials.
SWR #1 SWR #2 SWR #3 SWR #4 SWR #5 SWR #6 SWR #7 SWR #8 SWR #9 SWR #10
Conclusion
These exercises were a first and very important step to modifying ourselves to become positive
influences on the roads. The conclusion that I came to regarding my efforts to modify my driving
is to take the cognitive reactions to my emotions and work with them to produce more positive and
non-competitive behavioral actions. I think that focusing on the cogitive aspect is key because of the difficulty
in controlling emotional arousal. I think that it would not help if we took away the arousal
aspect of driving. This would render us with no reactions to the environment around us. We would not
care if someone was swerving into our lane or if someone cut us off. We need arousal to keep us
in contact with our surroundings. However the important part, cognitive processes, are the ways in
which we deal with these arousals. Instead of thinking of these arousals on the roads
as being insultive, competitive, or harmful, we need to change the processes in which we come to these
conclusions. We need to make ourselves think that our others' actions weren't meant intentionally.
The resulting actions or sensorimotor behavior will not reflect hostility back at the driver. Hopefullly
we can forgive, the other driver will understand and change his mistake and actions, and a positive
situation take place instead of a negative one.
This was one form of QDC that could take place. The online forum discussion allows people from all over the world possibly to dome together and share their experiences and ways that they are trying to improve. There may be other ways such as group meetings and classes that teach and hold QDC's.
This exercise helped me to realize all of the bad habits, bad attitudes and emotions that I have to change in order to be a more positive contributor to Hawaii's roads. I have a long way to go to make permanent and enduring changes in my behaviors. But these exercises gave me the mush needed first step to making those changes.
Epilogue
Through out this whole QDC experience I have learned that we all
face driving situations that anger us and in turn affect our driving behaviors.
I think that our understanding of this will allow us to make a difference
on the roads. We will be the first who are making it a community effort
to improve the social interactions on the roads to a more positive experience
and ultimately make our roads and freeways a safer place. Isn't that
enough incentive to join the effort?
Probably my biggest mistake while participating in the QDC is not reading all of the postings. This may be one of it's downfalls that may hinder online participation also. It takes up a lot of time and the downloading can be slow and frustrating. My advice for the future QDC participants would be to really understand the implications of the work you are about to do. It will affect drivers now and forever. By doing so you will gain enthusiasm for what you do and it really won't be "work". So take the time to put a good effort into it. It's for a good cause.
I was able to get real deep insight into my cognitive processes of the emotions that arouse during certain driving situations. I had the same emotional reactions of being scared, angry, or frustrated through the entire time of teh exercises even up until now. The most significant and most promising changes came to my cognitive reactions to those emotions. I was able to drastically shorten the emotional arousals that were negative by redirecting my thoughts to more postive conclusions or redirect the cause of the emotions to myself instead of the other driver. I found that this made me forgive the other driver quicker or even immediately and let me concentrate on what I have 100% control over, myself.
The next step that I would like to see is the spreading of knowledge and information of QDC's and the use of TEE cards. We are a small group of voices that need to be heard. By doing so we will set the ever important foundation of the improvement of driving behaviors and habits.
