A Review of
Dr. Leon James &
Dr. Diane Nahl’s
Prometheus Books,
2000
By Vanessa Goldstein
May 1, 2003
Dr. Leon James, Instructor
There are
many categories of poor driving. Using
a cell phone is one. Aggressive
driving—reckless behavior—is another. Road
rage is a criminal act “of violence by one driver against another.”
(Chapter 1 p. 23) You don not need a
statistic to confirm the relentless prevalence of road rage. By just driving or riding in the car, any
person can witness road rage.
Authors
mention several norms that help readers see road rage as symptomatic of a
greater problem. The features of these
norms include: rage, criticism, fear and argumentation. This is important because it means that road
rage cannot just be seen, it is rage plus mental violence and “the desire to
punish and retaliate.” (Chapter 1 p. 28)
Not only that, but these features of culture are gateways to countless
negative emotions and actions like dehumanization and “lust for control.”
(Chapter 1 p. 30)
Road
rage perpetrators blame others on the road for their own conduct. Many blame television and video games for
modeling bad behavior. Is driving
itself the source of anger? Indeed, the
events of driving are unpredictable and can lead to danger and stress but we
see it more in males than females.
There must be more to it than that.
The authors argue that road rage drivers need to control their emotions
when driving because the anger and aggression stems from being out of control.
(Chapter 2 p. 47-52)
Roads
are indeed congested and other drivers are unpredictable. Chapter 3 offers one way to help assuage the
stress that these factors cause—defensive driving. This is where “it is better to assume the worst from other
drivers, and not have it happen, than to ignore the worst and have it occur.”
(p. 69)
The
other piece to this is that venting anger is not healthy. Many people and psychologists, including
Sigmund Freud, believe that anger and other active negative emotions build up
inside people and need to be vented out of their system so they do not build
up. Studies have shown that this is not
true. For drivers, venting—whether they
are giving the middle finger, swearing or speeding ahead to cut off the
victim—is dangerous because a great deal of physical harm can be inflicted
while driving. This volatile
personality feature also gets the blood pressure going sporadically, which is
harmful to the aggressor’s health too.
(Chapter 3 p. 80-81)
Authors
describe the various types of road rage as a spectrum. This includes people who are nice everywhere
but behind the wheel and turn into little devils once they are driving. There are passive-aggressive drivers who are
oppositional and deliberately do not respond the way the aggressor wants, for
example by moving out of the fast lane when the person behind is flashing
her/his lights. There are people also
who are in a hurry 100% of the time they are behind the wheel, which leads to
competition among these speed demons.
(Chapter 4 p.84-104)
Driving with Emotional Intelligence: The three levels of Emotional Intelligence
1.Oppositional
(Irrational) i.e. Reckless, impulsive (Chapter 5 p.117-118)
2.Defensive
(logical) i.e. Restrained and competitive (Chapter 5 p. 118)
3.Supportive
(Prosocial) i.e. helpful, friendly, optimistic (Chapter 5 p. 118)
· The benefit of the final level (supportive/prosocial) is that the driver is being a positive person and being present, facilitating communication, saying thank you and apologizing when necessary. Also, the prosocial driver commits “random acts of kindness.” (Chapter 8 p. 167-179)
The important piece to recognize
with the levels is that they represent a progression of positivism. You can keep yourself in check by asking
what is important to you about the situation causing stress. For example: What am I really mad about
right now?
A = Acknowledge: This is the equivalent to AA’s first step is
admitting you are an alcoholic. For
drivers, you must “acknowledge that you need a better understanding of road
rage syndrome.” (Chapter 6 p. 135)
W = Witness: Here drivers
self-monitor their actions while driving (i.e. Do you feel claustrophobic in
traffic?) (Chapter 6 p. 137) The
greatest thing to witness for most people is breaking speed limits—people break
the rules either because they think they are ridiculous or do not care about laws
and safety in general. (Chapter 11 p. 236)
M = modify: This is where drivers take action to make a
difference and map their emotions.
(Chapter 6 p. 143)
Whether
or not they want it to be true, drivers model driving behavior, including
actions, intentions and approaches to driving.
Children catch on fast to driving behaviors even if the driver is not
aware of her/his own behavior. Children
pretty much catch on to everything, even the things we wished they would
not. For this reason, parents and any
other adults who are around children should teach young people about road rage
before they drive so that prosocial driving become an integrated value and
children can participate in a dialogue about road rage. (Chapter 7 p.151-157)
Take a look
at this layout for age cohorts and what should be taught to particular age
groups:
·Kindergarten through Elementary:
ª Affective
driving skills (actions and consequences)
·Middle School:
ª Cognitive skills (others’ rights and safety)
·High school
ª Sensorimotor skills (multi-tasking and obeying laws)
ª This is
really important to emphasize because so many teens die from car crashes. (Chapter 9 p.
190-199)
·Post-licensing tests for all ages
Authors
describe how, for many, driving is like fulfilling a fantasy—going fast,
feeling invulnerable (i.e. Using cell phones despite distraction they
cause). The type and condition of the
car might help the person’s image so there is a great emphasis on that. Particular music helps this by getting the
driver excited, keeping her/him awake and concentrating but SHOULD NOT BE USED
TO INFLUENCE. (Chapter 12 p.254-258)
Keeping
in mind the fantasy aspect of driving, it makes sense the clear division of
behavior among drivers of certain types of vehicles. According to authors there are two types of drivers—soft vehicles
drivers (drivers of minivans and economy cars) and “tough minded” drivers drive
SUVs and sports cars. (Chapter 3 p.
75) The “tough minded” include bullies
who aggress and threaten other drivers.
The threats range from gestures to physical violence. (Chapter 4 p. 97)
While
there is a progression to these topics, it is not as clear as it could be
because the order of topics are not in the order of the progression, as I see
it. If I had organized the book I think
I would have done it differently. The
causes and prevention facts and the drivers who live in a dream world seem out
of place, although very important to the subject.
These
topics have been familiar to me for quite some time and I still find them
interesting. I am not particularly as
interested in road rage, but I am interested in road rage as a symptom among
many symptoms of broader problems. Rage
seems silly to me and so I am always intrigued by those who allow it control
them, if only for a minute.
There
are probably a great deal of people who would be interested in this book. I think the reason for its unpopularity is because,
while road rage is an important issue, it is an old issue. People are tired of hearing about it, and
yet they do nothing to make the subject matter go away, like tone down the road
rage. I think that everybody knows
about road rage and most probably think that it is not to the aggressor’s
benefit to become enraged behind the wheel, but s/he becomes enraged
nonetheless because s/he does not have control over her/his emotions.
I
think this book should be marketed along the lines of the subjects we
researched on the web earlier this semester—instant gratification without
patience, helping yourself by helping others, compassion for fellow human
beings and self-efficacy. This would
draw a different audience perhaps—one that would not feel like it is being
blamed. Then road rage could be traced
along those themes just mentioned. We
need to figure out a way to make drivers want to hear about road rage.
For
those who are caught committing road rage acts (hopefully they can all read
English), there could be a reading and discussion of the book’s topics (like in
409a each week). Truthfully, all
drivers should read this book, right?
Unfortunately it is just not feasible.
For what it is worth, I also think an intervention by a police officer
on “what were you thinking?” might be of some service too.
This book
mentions so many problems, but luckily offers many solutions. There are issues in how America specifically
has such a negative culture. The
solution to this is that people give off more positive behavior. By letting somebody go ahead of you on the
road, you are far less likely to be fostering negativity. By explaining the varying types of
negativity, readers are able to see how road rage is not one single formula of
raging behavior. There many types so
there must be many types of solutions needed.
This book shows that the solution to road rage is more of a spider web
than it is linear and therefore needs serious attention brought to the
subject.
Authors
explain how road rage stems from a lack of control over one’s emotions and
offer three steps to self-improvement for this. The book addresses the problem of young people driving so
recklessly and proposes different levels of teaching at different ages for
children. James and Nahl also show
readers the impact that reckless adults have on young impressionable children
and give ideas for skills to use with children.
The authors
also discuss the dream world and the fancy cars and that whole ridiculous
culture. I think this chapter is
especially interesting, but ineffective to a degree. The reason why I say this is because the person who presented
this chapter in our class, somebody who had studied the pages well enough to
present them to the group, seemed to have missed the point of the chapter
completely. For example, in the
discussion of the competitive nature of car fanatics, this present or brought
in pictures of his own car and made comments throughout his presentation about
the horsepower and other features of his vehicle, which is competitive in and
of itself.
The
broader issues that this book addresses is the topics I think should be
emphasized to market the book. With
this text, we examine the culture of impatience and the notion of feeling
entitled to what we want when we want it. I wish the book had addressed this more
directly because it is everywhere in America today. It is practically the American way. The sense of entitlement feeds directly into the competitive
nature of Americans, which is an important thing to consider when looking at
the increase of violent offenses.
In
terms of the influence of television and video games, we do see some discussion
of how people are so receptive to the violence in them. The more violence there is the more people
are desensitized to it. Also, the more
intense each new violent aspect of the recreation there is, the greater the
chance that it will fall into people’s latitude of acceptance.
All
of these issues hit social psychology right on the head. Social groups are conditioned. They are conditioned to be
individualistic. They are conditioned
to compete, rather than share and help.
They are conditioned to believe that they deserve to be gratified by any
act they find pleasurable. And if they
are conditioned, these atrocious symptoms of American culture are not
unavoidable. Social Psychologists could
conceivably work with others to assuage these destructive features of
people—individuals or in groups.
The book has many exercises and tests. I like the “Road Rage Tendency” one in chapter 1 (p. 40-41) the best because you get a score and then see where you fall into the range. There are so many checklists, which I think are important, but would be much more fun and useful if they had a scoring system on them too. At any rate, I took each test and checked each checklist. Luckily, I do not have a car or drive. When I do borrow somebody else’s car, I do not have road rage. I would definitely consider myself to be a prosocial driver. I actually enjoy letting people go in front of me. I did not really learn anything from those tests in the book because I made a change in my driving pretty soon after I got my license seven years ago, but I can definitely see how somebody who drives daily and gets emotionally aroused while driving would benefit.
The tables are definitely useful. This book throws so much information at the reader that it is useful, after a few pages of reading, to see what you have been looking at, reduced to just a few words. Not only that but people who may be reluctant to read this book may look for shortcuts in obtaining information, so the tables and charts really serve a great purpose in that regard.
The literature review is dispersed throughout the book so that it reads more like an article in a magazine, which is an easier read than something like a journal article. There are footnotes at the end that give specific sightings of information and bibliographical information. There is a broad selection of types of sources there, which is important to see in controversial writing.
The index is great. I used it several times during the semester. It is important to be able to use a book like this for reference material, even if it is only for personal knowledge. I cannot think of an index I have used that has ever been too long. In that regard, this index is not too long. But it is also not too short. It is a good length with adequate details.
The chapter titles are good, but so long as the floor is open for suggestions I have two. I would use chapter 2 “Aggressive Driving and Mental Health” and take the opportunity to address physical and mental health coupled. Basically, a general health chapter would be useful. For the last chapter titled “Dream Cars and Driving Realities” I would title something more to the effect of “Driving in a Dream World.” I am not exactly suggesting that title, but there is more to the fantasy that drivers are in than their cars and that is an important point to make. Other than that, the chapter titles are really catchy. They use clever phrases and encompass the meanings of the chapters they head.
As
mentioned before, I think that the causes and prevention facts and the drivers
who live in a dream world seem out of place compared to the other
material. It is hard to find the right
place for them because, even though they are related topics, there is not a
natural flow from one idea to the next.
The
print is perfect. It is easy to read
and the sectioning off and headings make it easy for the brain to make the
distinction between passages. However,
I might change the font of the tests slightly to make more of a
distinction.
One reason that I like
this book so much is that it is not like other texts. The material was never presented dryly. The connections between what was being presented and the
significance on a micro and macro scale were always provided for the
reader. Not only that, but I could
make the connection between exactly what we were reading about and talking
about (in regard to the reading) to every day life. I told my friends about this book. Granted, many of them said that they would not read the book
until the semester was over, I got them listening about the dangers of some of
the norms to which they have become accustomed.
Although many of our 409a
classes turned into a free-for-all of students going back and forth about what
they “hate” about driving, I like the way this book got students’ attention and
inspired discussion about the subject matter it presented. As a student I know first hand that many
classes are dry. They are lecture style
or they test and students become fixated on that. This class was juicy because of the book. Frankly, I did not anticipate that from an
Internet based, writing intensive class at the 400 level. I am pleasantly surprised.
I think the notion of
emotional intelligence training is important and I like what authors write
about it in Chapter 3 p. 74:
In
the absence of emotional intelligence training or a naturally positive driving
philosophy, drivers can believe that they have a right to respect or disrespect
both people and laws, to justify hostile feelings and give themselves
permission for violent retaliation, giving in to the rationale that since some
people drive crazy, we all must.
This quote encompasses what I think goes on in people’s heads when they
are driving. Despite its seemingly
subjective nature, I think it an accurate description of the average road
rager’s mentality.
Another quote that I
really like is from Chapter 8:
There exist two methods to deal with highway pluralism and diversity. The common approach is to oppose driver pluralism, to denounce it, and to strive to ban diversity…The more democratic approach accommodates to the diversity of driver needs and purposes. (p.168)
This quote gives the idea to the reader that the book wants to help. It represents the approach people should have to all social situations I think. It addresses the fact that, while many people like the idea of diversity when they are affected as a minority (in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, social class, education, etc.), that need for understanding goes out the window when that same person must accommodate others.
I learned a great deal from this book, although I am not sure that I would have gained so much knowledge had it not been for our class discussions, which allowed us to explore the material further. I also learned that presenting facts in front of people does not make them see truth any clearer. Some people in the class (I am not saying I learned everything as it was intended) really missed what I thought were important points. I saw this book as a real wake-up-call for raging driver and the ones in the class who admitted to being raging at times did not share any epiphanies they may have had.
This book is kind of inspirational in the sense that it makes me want to educate the people around me about driving with rage and without compassion. While I was reading this book I often thought of my father, who has more road rage than anybody I know. He even followed somebody to their house once to tell them to use their blinker next time the made a turn. At any rate, he agreed to read this book if I sent it to him so once I finish this last report, that is what I am going to do.
The only real weakness that I found in the content is the recommendation for educating young people on road rage. While this is of great importance, it would be helpful for the authors to suggest when exactly this would be done. I did a research project this semester for another class that looked at the school resources in demographically divergent populations in the Honolulu area. Some children cannot read in the sixth grade. They do not have even close to adequate curriculum or staffing. When are they going to learn about road rage? My instinct when I read about this was: one more thing we are supposed to cram in between 7:45 am and 2:15 pm?
At http://home.att.net/~castleisland/tdg/tdg01.htm I found the “Thinking Driver’s Guide” review of this book. It said that the book “is also a terrific source of information and ideas about what citizen activism and law enforcement can do to help, as well as summarizing research done in the area.”
The drivers.com website says the book “redefines driver education for all drivers, including commercial drivers and truckers. Our traffic emotions need to be trained, the authors stress, and they provide the explanations and activities needed to strengthen critical thinking about road events.” This review can be found at http://www.drivers.com/store/books/book018a.shtml .
I was a little surprised that people raved about the book and yet, as Dr. James told us, the sales were not that good.
Additional
Observations
Even though I noted only one weakness, I would like to say that I felt like the book relied too heavily on statistics at times. I have learned in the psychology major’s statistics class and in my own scholarly reading that statistics can be altered to fit whatever the researcher wants. I am not suggesting at all that this is the case for this book, but I just do not think that statistics carry the weight in an argument that they used to carry.
Also, in retrospect, I think we should have spent time in class on table 5.3 on p. 123. It is a table that shows positive and negative driver competence skills. I think this is the most important part that people should walk away from this book with. It shows us how to train ourselves cognitively. This is the kind of thing I used (in my head) to get myself away from angry thoughts while driving. It should probably have a more prominent place in the book as well.
I wonder if Dr. James or Dr. Nahl has taken this book or a shortened version of it to anybody in public office. From the review, of which I only sampled pieces, people really hold this book in high regard. Something in the world can make this book influence large populations of people. I really believe that. So my question is—what steps have been taken to get this book into the public eye? It is an awesome book!