My Driving Personality Makeover Project

Date of Observation

# of swear words

# of stink eyes

# of fingers

# of blocks

# of races

total road rage behaviors

My Driving Personality Makeover Project

by: Jesse Chang

1. Preface

In report #1, I reviewed the subject of driving psychology and what it deals with. I explained what drivers go through mentally, emotionally, and behaviorally while they are driving. This lead to defining what it was to be an aggressive driver by touching on behaviors which fall under the category of road rage. With these concepts in mind, I focused on my own driving and reviewed my characteristics as a driver. I reviewed other reports done by generations before mine, and I related and compared their thoughts and behaviors with my own. In my own report I incorporated some of the things that I found interesting about these previous reports that deals with driving psychology. I then defined some concepts that are involved in driving psychology and gave examples for them. Through these tasks we were able to review information pertaining to driving psychology, and gain awareness of how they fit into our own driving personality. By this awareness, I was able to gain understanding of where I am as a driver (in terms of driving and emotional intelligence) in hope that I would be able to modify my own driving behaviors so that I would be a better driver and make the roads safer to drive on by limiting my own aggressive driving tendencies. Basically I realized that I am a very aggressive driver, and that I didn't like it.

My Report 1

The purpose of this report is to find out where the problems exist in our driving. By taking numerous driving personality tests I can have a better idea of where I stand as a driver and my degree of road rage. After finding out how serious my problem is, I can configure suited to my specific needs which will make it easier for me to follow, and more effective on my pursuit to improve my driving skills and decrease my road rage tendencies. If my experiment proves to be successful, then I will have the opportunity to apply the skills I learned while doing the experiment everyday. This will make me a supportive, safe, emotionally intelligent driver in the future.

2. Introduction: Objective Self-Assessment

Test #1: My Road Rage Tendency

This questionnaire asked questions that touched upon a person's negative thoughts, feelings, or emotions concerning hypothetical driving situations. This was found from the "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving" textbook, but I split the questions into sections pertaining to thoughts, feelings, and behavioral states. Every "yes" answer produces a point. The more points accumulated created a higher score, 20 being the maximum. The higher the score, the more aggressive the driver taking the test. The book states the "typical scores range from 5 to 20, with an average of 12". A score of less than 5 demonstrates a non aggressive driver. 5-10: moderate road rage habits. 10+ means that your tendency for road rage behavior is out of control. I scored an 11. I've always known that I've been emotional behind the wheel, but I always had a rationale to justify my actions. My point accumulation from each of the three categories were similar, scoring about three to four points in each one. I believe that my problems stem from my expectations that others should drive according to the way that I think that they should drive. I believe that there are certain ethics involved in driving that everyone should abide by. I see no problem with that, but when others' don't seem to abide by those ethics, I tend to become a vigilante driver whose emotions get the best of me. This survey has brought me more awareness that I have a problem with road rage.

Test #2: Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings

This test also focused on witnessing my threefold self as a driver. Driving area 1 focuses on the thoughts of the aggressive driver, Driving area 2 focuses on the negative emotions that an aggressive driver encounters, and Driving area 3 focuses on some road rage behaviors aswell as a combination of thoughts and feelings. This doesn't have any form of point scale, but it does allow me to see where I have the most problems with. I checked almost all of the numbers pertaining to Fantasies of Retaliation and rage. I checked most of the High Pressure and Driving Competition numbers, and a few of the Impulsive and Reckless Driving numbers. I've come to the realization that I harbor anger and retaliative thoughts when other drivers don't drive as I would like them to. I'm not saying that I should have more privileges than any other driver, but I think that if everyone followed certain "ethics" of driving, then things would be smoother and safer on the road. I tend to notice that I am a safe and supportive driver until I feel offended by someone (cutting me off, speeding, lane hopping, driving too slow in the fast lane), then I turn into a vigilante, crazed, emotional, aggressive Hyde that will experience a plethora of negative emotions leading to negative thoughts, and at times, to negative behaviors.

Test #3: Your Range of Hostility

This test focuses on the range of hostility that a driver feels, or how far they are willing to go in terms of aggressive behavior. The numbers serve as steps in a continuing, escalating manner starting with mild forms of aggressiveness (starting at 1) to extremely violent aggression (#20). I was willing to go all the way to #13, which was getting out of the car and engaging in a verbal dispute on a street or parking lot. Cognitively, I would never want to go to this point, but when emotionally engaged in a situation, I seem to be able to go to such lengths if provoked. I'm not proud of that idea, but I have to be honest. Because of my tendency to be a vigilante driver, I have the idea that the car is an extension of the person. When an individual infringes my personal space as a driver, I take it as a personal insult. I don't enjoy getting upset, and I fully realize that no one can make me angry but myself, but faced with certain circumstances, I tend to lose rationale. It really depends on my mood. I take things personally when they shouldn't be at times, and I find major faults with that. This test made me realize that a simple misunderstanding may take me to a point where I will do or say something that will taint my karma and that of another by resorting to road rage in any given situation.

3. My Self-modification Attempt

I wanted to see exactly where I needed the most help pertaining to my aggressive tendencies behind the wheel so like Nancee Aki I wanted to first observe how bad the situation was. For three days I made observations of my driving by tape recording my travels and speaking to myself the entire time that I was driving about how I was feeling and what I was thinking about while I was driving. After the trip was over, I spent a few minute jotting down my behaviors at ten minute increments while on my trip. I found five examples of road rage characteristics while I was driving: swearing, giving "stink eye", sticking finger, blocking people from getting in front of me, and racing people of the line when stopped at a stop light. The result of each day can be viewed in the table below.

Initial Road Rage Behaviors

Analysis and Discussion

I noticed that all of the days that had the most aggressive behaviors were days when I was upset or tired about something. This led me to believe that I was taking my anger and street out on the other drivers on the road. I try to be as courteous a person as I can be in all aspect of my life, but it seems as if when my attitude is bad, my care and consideration for everyone else goes down. It becomes a matter of pride and aggression when I am in a bad mood. Driving is no longer something that was for transportation, it was an outlet for me to become aggressive, spiteful, and competitive. I could tell that I was having a bad day because right when I started the tape recorder, I would give a minute and say how I felt. I don't think it's appropriate to go into why I was upset so for this experiment, we'll leave that out. I do know that even though I was in a bad mood, I didn't consciously instigate the aggressive behaviors. I would get upset at someone cutting me off or tailgating that I would react in a negative manner. It was as if these people were insulting me and because of my bad mood, I retaliated by attempting to let them know how mad I was at their actions, and at my day. It occurred to me that the road was an outlet for me to blow off steam. It also occurred to me that I was letting the actions of other drivers influence my behavior to the extent that when I was upset, I would get more upset on the road. I would even feel pleasure at the idea of getting even.

My emotional intelligence (definition below) was so lacking that I let all the actions of other drivers enrage me. I found pleasure in trying to get these drivers back, but in the midst of that, I became a dangerous driver myself, causing a dangerous situation for all the other drivers, even though they were not at fault. I also probably looked very silly to those drivers. For example, when one person would cut me off, I would react in swearing or sticking finger, but another consequence was that I tailgated every person in front of me for the rest of the trip so that no one could repeat cutting me off. It became a game of speeding up and slowing down, speeding up and slowing down. This was dangerous behavior that affected my safety, and the safety of the cars in front of me. My oppositional feelings and my irrational sequence of thoughts resulted in selfish, reckless, impulsive, and hostile behavior.

The Driver's Emotional Intelligence- refers to how a driver reacts to negative situations while driving. Inhibiting venting due to provocative situations and letting the initial and and excitement over the incident subside is an example of high emotional intelligence while driving. Retaliatory behaviors that can be classified as road rage behaviors are an example of low emotional intelligence while driving. An example could be where a driver is getting tailed by another driver. A person with low emotional intelligence may floor their brakes in an attempt to stop the actions of the tailgater. A person with high emotional intelligence would ignore the tailgater or switch lanes to avoid being tailgated, without any negative retaliatory behavior.

I also noticed that all these behavior correlated with each other. When a number was up in one category, the numbers for the other categories were similarly up compared to days when I was in a good mood. When the day was good, there was not to many road rage behaviors at all. When the day was bad, all of the numbers increased. I realized that I had to do something about my mood and how I used by mood to justify my behaviors on the road. Like Sheldon Tawata I wanted to incorporate music into my plan. I find that music really affects my mood. Everyone has different tastes, but I used Jack Johnson, Cecilio and Kapono, and Dave Mathews as my calming entertainment. I also meditated for a minute before each trip by taking a deep breath in for 8 seconds, holding it in for 2 seconds, then letting it out for 8 seconds. I learned in my past that this helped with my bad temper, and I realized that I never improved my temper while driving, but in all other situations. It was time to assimilate my coping skills into my driving behaviors.

I decided that during each trip, I was going to force myself to drive supportively. I was going to condition myself to pay attention to only the things that I was doing, and ignore the actions of others. I was going to drive as responsibly as possible no matter how I was feeling. I figured that I couldn't immediately control my emotional reactions to each provocation, but that I could control my behavior so that these provocations didn't escalate into road rage behaviors. After a week of this method, these are he results.

Road Rage Behaviors After Implementation of Plan

Date of Observation	# of swear words	# of stink eyes	# of fingers	# of blocks	# of races	total road rage behaviors
3/22/04	3	0	0	2	1/2	5 1/2
3/23/04	4	1	0	4	2	11
3/24/04	0	0	0	1	0	1
3/25/04	5	3	0	2	0	10
3/26/04	2	0	0	0	0	2

Analysis and Discussion

I did excellent after the calming techniques before I got out on the road. The thing is, my emotions were similar to that of the pre-experiment, but my actions were totally different. Keeping the experiment in mind, I kept the mind-state that driving wasn't a competition, and that the other people on the road could act any way they want, and I wouldn't assume the worst in them. When I self-witnessed myself swearing either out loud to myself or under my breath, I looked down to the right (my textbook was placed on the passenger seat on purpose as a reminder), I forced myself to keep my eyes straight ahead so that I wouldn't give the other driver a stink eye, and I wouldn't even be able to make visual judgments about the other driver. This behavior made giving the finger impossible, so that didn't occur at all! I did find myself increasing my speed on a few occasions to block, but then I would remember my experiment, and I would consciously slow back into a safe distance to let the intruder in my lane if he/she wished. Same as with the races. I concentrated on an appropriate acceleration for my vehicle rather than gauging my acceleration rate according to the driver next to me. The music also helped me to concentrate on it rather than of my pessimistic thoughts of the other driver. I would actually sing to keep me from retaliating when provoked by someone cutting me off, lane hopping around me.

Self-Witnessing Methodology- Is the idea where you take a mental step back (to view yourself) to give you awareness of what you are doing, thinking, and feeling as a driver. One way of doing it is to voice what you're thinking, feeling and doing aloud. Anthony Chung from generation 5 has a self witnessing exercise where you can see how he decided to adapt this technique of self witnessing.

All of these adapting behaviors were hard to do, but I forced them into action. Since it's nearly impossible to change my emotional state in a short period, I had to focus on changing my cognitive and sensorimotor state in hopes that in time, I would condition myself to have a higher emotional intelligence making me a supportive driver who is helpful, friendly, unassuming, expressing enjoyment and optimism on the road. I had to focus on my reactions since I found myself a pretty supportive diver until seemingly provoked.

Conclusion and Future Plans

I've found that I have a temper problem that exists in more than just driving situations. I find that this problem arises when I feel as if I am wronged, or if I am provoked. Naturally I tend to be a calm and rational person who like harmony and peace, but I find that Mr. Hyde tends to erupt by the perceived actions of others threaten my peaceful existence. I need to continue to force myself to come up with hypothetical reasons when others drive inappropriately, and I have to engrain the idea that they are not purposely doing it with me in mind. I have to stop taking things on the road so personally, and remember that I want to have a high emotional intelligence and be in control of my own thoughts and actions. I don't want to be a puppet to others as I want to have the most power over myself as possible. I am very serious in my future plan because I don't want to hand this mentality down to my children. I also want to become the best individual that I can. I believe that this mentality will help me in other areas of my life as well. I will try to leave earlier everyday so that I will have those few minutes to calm myself before driving. I warm up my truck before each trip anyway, so at the same time, I will warm up my calmness by doing the meditation techniques. I will also focus on myself (my feelings and thoughts) so that I am not letting others influence my behaviors. I will try this everyday in hops that I will no longer need to try one day.

Conclusion

I've always known that I've had a temper problem and this extended to my driving. I just didn't want to know. I rationalized my actions by condemning others and placing the blame on them. I have to remember that I am on the road to get somewhere, just like everyone else. How I get there depends on me. I don't want to have unnecessary stress and anger in my life, and I don't want to give others those feelings. I want to drive in the way that is safer and healthier for me, and everyone else on the road. If I do this, I will be doing my part to make the roads safer by my own driving, and by the example that I am setting for all of those witnessing my driving. In the beginning of the semester, I joked about my tendency to exhibit road rage. Now I feel that it is a serious problem that could have the potential of getting me into a predicament that I would regret for the rest of my life.

Advice to Future Generations

1. Take your road rage issues seriously

2. Educate yourself about road rage statistics

3. Improving your road rage tendencies will improve many other aspects of your life

4. Driving is a lifelong, learning process that always can improve

5. Never give up, you could potentially be saving a life

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