A
Review of Dr. Leon James & Dr. Diane Nahl, Road Rage and Aggressive
Driving, Prometheus Books, 2000.
By
Topics in Book:
Ø Identifying
multiple factors that cause Road Rage.
Ø Recognizing anger
as a habit or choice.
Ø Identifying the
negative health effects of Road Rage.
Ø How anger leads
to Road Rage.
Ø Emotional
intelligence as an aid in supportive driving.
Ø The widespread
rebellion against the law.
Ø Classifying
supportive driving as a more desirable technique.
Public Concern
Today:
The
topics discussed in this book are essential to everyone all around the world
today. Driving is a huge part of
everyone’s daily lives. It provides
transportation to work, school, and other events. However, driving has become an apparent
dangerous situation due to the millions of hostile daily exchanges because of
road rage. In this book, Dr. James and
Dr. Nahl point out vital statistical information that road rage exists at an
alarming rate. They also point out that
there are different ways to handle or contain this type of behavior before it
keeps growing. What the public needs to
understand is that it is a team effort.
Everyone on the road should be view as a team mate rather than a
competitor. Everyone on the road
ultimately wants one thing…to get to their destinations safely, so everyone
needs to do their part to slowly make the roads a safer place to drive.
The
media plays a huge role in supporting road rage. I personally can’t think of any action movie
(or television show for that matter) that doesn’t have a car chase with people
running away from the police or exchanging hostile actions on the road. These types of scenes are appealing to
everyone who watches it because it doesn’t show the consequences. It doesn’t show the actors getting arrested
or dying. It portrays road rage as
something glamorous and exciting.
The
top left picture is from the summer blockbuster movie The Fast and the Furious.
This movie got rave reviews all over the world and is all about illegal
street racing. It just got a green light
from Universal Studios to start making the much-anticipated sequel because of
the popularity and success of the first.
The top right pictures are from another form of media that also
contributes to road rage…video games. In
these scenes above, it shows people running into guard rails and running over
people in the streets. Just think about
the thoughts the kid playing this video game will have when he gets his
license….
A Necessity:
The
message that this book gets out is a principal necessity to the world. Aggressive driving and road rage are two
immense problems that need to be dealt with all over the world. Millions upon millions of people drive
automobiles each day, and millions of people come across some form of road rage
or aggressive driving. This book will
educate those who read it about the detrimental effects these two problems have
on society today as a whole. A lot of
the lessons taught in this book are how to turn negative thoughts and feelings
into positive ones, which in turn create positive actions and better driving
habits. The message also needs to get
across because it is very costly on society as a whole. An estimated 6 million people get injured
from automobile accidents and another 42,000 die each year. If we change the way we drive it will help
alleviate some of those injuries.
Problems and
Solutions:
|
Oppositional
Symptoms |
Statements
used in Traffic |
Emotionally
intelligent remedies |
Obsessing about slow traffic
|
“At this rate,
we’ll never get there!” |
Leave earlier |
|
Feeling combative
with self-righteous indignation |
“Nobody gives me
the finger and gets away with it!” |
Make up some
possible excuses for the driver’s behavior. |
|
Feeling excessively
competitive |
“Those pedestrians
better watch out, ‘cause I’m coming through!” |
Remind yourself it
feels good to be civil and helpful. |
|
Love
of risk taking |
“I
like to go fast, but I’m careful.” |
Think
of how you would feel if you did something that hurt someone. |
Evaluations of
Exercises:
There
were many helpful exercises and tests in this book that helps the reader
identify his or her own behaviors or driving habits. Below are 5 exercises that I found useful to
discover my own driving habits:
In
chapter one on pages 40-42 was the first exercise called Your Road Rage Tendency. It
is a simple exercise where you circle either yes or no to show you how much
road rage you actually have. To my
surprise, my test results showed that my road rage is out of control! I kind of knew that before because I’m always
rushing and trying to beat other cars that pass me. I realized that I’m very aggressive and I
need to change my habits!
In
chapter three on pages 81-82, there is another exercise called Your Range of Hostility. This is
a checklist that helps measure degrees of hostility from mild forms to extreme
violence. After taking the test, I
realized that I am relatively violent and I should learn to control my
aggression before it gets out of control.
In
chapter four on page 91, there is an exercise called Your Verbal Road Rage Tendency.
This is another checklist that helps the reader identify whether or not
he or she would say something like this.
I hate to admit it, but I checked all of them except for one. My verbal tendencies are usually pretty
vulgar too, so I definitely need to work on that.
In
chapter seven on page 158 is an exercise entitled Recognizing Aggression On The Road.
This exercise helps children identify the idea of violence in public
places. After taking this test I
realized that I don’t know too many aggressive kids that would do the things
mentioned in the test. Most kids I know
are brought up with strict rules…I guess that’s why they’re good kids.
In
chapter eight on page 178 is an exercise called Random Acts of Kindness for Drivers. This exercise helps a person recognize that
he or she will feel good if they do a random act of kindness on the road. Eventually, that one random act will lead to
others and become a “secret” source for good feelings.
Information and
Sources With in the Book:
There
are many supportive sources in this book.
For one, there is a very comprehensive index with page numbers and an in
depth table of contents. Once you read
the book and you want to go back over something, it’s pretty hard not to find
it using the index. There are many
endnotes that come in really handy as well as complete bibliographies for all
the works used at the end of each chapter.
One thing that I found very inspirational was the index. First of all, I had no idea that Dr. James
could have those driving problems he had in the past, and I was motivated to
see that he overcame those problems. I
also found the examples very useful because I’m sure there are a couple that
everyone who reads the book can relate to.
Health and Stress:
Road
rage and aggressive driving can be very detrimental to a person’s health. Everyone knows that when a person gets angry
their heart beats much faster and their blood pressure and stress levels go sky
high. Stress can also cause circulatory
problems and lower the immune system.
That in it self is hazardous to one’s health, especially to people with
heart problems. If a person learns to
control their anger and can make a positive situation out of a negative one, it
will help to alleviate stress and contribute to a healthier lifestyle.
Relevance of the
Book:
As a psychology major I feel that this book dealt with
issues in cognitive, social, and developmental psychology. Cognitive because of the cognitive scripts
used with road rage, social psychology because of the interaction involved with
other drivers, and development because of the early effect society and the
media has on children.
Worthwhile Quotes:
I
(and I’m sure some others) really liked the quote on page 80:
“Contrary
to popular belief, expressing or venting anger is literally bad for your health
and well-being… Don’t express it, don’t suppress it, confess it.” I personally like this quote and can relate
to it in many ways because I know that anger is really bad. I try not to express it, I definitely don’t
suppress it, but I try to confess it. I
act like whatever it was that ticked me off was okay, and I basically just try
to let it go.
Knowledge I
Gained:
I
learned a lot of new information from reading this book. After taking the tests and doing the
exercises, I realized that I’m a pretty aggressive driver. I would never admit it before because I
always thought that I was a good driver instead of an aggressive one. After reading this book, I realized that
that’s probably what all aggressive drivers think. This book made me more aware of what I need
to do in order to cross over the bridge and become a more courteous and
conscientious driver. I taught me how to
do away with my negative thoughts that would eventually become hostile
acts—road rage. Learning from my habits
and mistakes on the road and correcting them is not an easy step for me, but I
do think that it is imperative to do my part in making the road a safer place
to drive for myself as well as others.
Strengths and
Weaknesses:
This
book had numerous strengths and no weaknesses I can think of. My only suggestion is to release new updated
versions of the book every couple of years to provide new statistical
information. The information in the book
is a couple of years old, and it would be interesting to compare the statistics
in the new versions to the ones of the old to see if road rage is actually
subsiding or increasing.
Other Web Reviews:
http://www.aggressive.drivers.com/board/messages/25/47.html
http://www.aloha.net/~dyc/articles/testimony.htm
http://www.drivers.com/store/books/book018a.shtml
http://www.wxyzhealthyliving.com/www.wxyzhealthyliving.com/new_health/99083005h.html
http://www.stats.org/statswork/dfp-roadrage.htm
http://www.aipsnews.com/pr01.htm
http://www.colleges.com/articles/roadrage.html
http://www.okhighered.org/training-center/newsletters/aggressive_driving.htm
Recommendations:
I
highly recommend this book to everyone; whether you drive an automobile or
not. There is a lot of valuable
information in here that can help anyone become a better driver and make the
roads and the world itself a much safer place.
I think that the state should make all teenagers in Hawai‘i read this
book and write a report on it in drivers’ educational classes before they are allowed
to drive!
