Driving Psychology: Theory and Application
By
Chris Concepcion
Link to instructions: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm
1.Preface
The
context of this course is driving psychology, which entails the wide range of
emotions that has to do with driving a vehicle.
Mainly the key factor of this course is exploring aggressive driving and
what effects it has on the driving population. Driving is one of the daily operations we
carryout without thinking and that’s why a lot of times we forget that it’s not
a simple routine operation. Many of us
who drive daily run into to new obstacles and experiences every time we leave
our garage. I am excited to be taking a
class that explores a side of psychology I never knew existed. Before this class I never thought of
analyzing driving from a psychological point of view. I failed to realize that driving aggressively
has become a widespread epidemic throughout the
I
feel that being in Generation 20 of this course will help me understand the
many Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’s of driving.
I like many of you have gotten angry with other driver’s, but through
his course I hope to increase my level of emotional intelligence to become a
safer and more supportive driver.
Students
of the driving psychology course generally liked to examine the different types
of aggressive driving, such as tailgating, driving over the speed limit,
racing, cutting in and out of traffic. I
also noticed that most of the previous generations enjoyed evaluating their
affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor behaviors while driving to observe their
levels of aggressiveness. The
observation gave students a chance to reflect on their driving behaviors and
correct the bad habits that existed, which is the ultimate goal of driving
psychology. Being a part of generation
20, I’m excited to continue examining the different aspects of driving
psychology. Perhaps I could enhance the
already existing knowledge of driving psychology with some of my own research
and experience with driving. The more
people involved in this course the more people will learn and have a chance to
spread the knowledge to the rest of the driving society.
In
Caroline Balatico’s Lab
Report #1, she makes a good point that one’s driving performance is greatly
affected by their emotional state. She
also points out that driving in an emotionally aroused state of mind keeps our
attention off the road even though this is where it should be. I agree with Caroline because I have done
this myself. This type of thing could
happen at any moment, perhaps you get into an argument with a girlfriend,
boyfriend, mother, father, or friend and you drive away feeling very upset and
angered. You take that anger to the
roads and now the driver’s around you receive this transference of
aggression.
Christine
Huisman expresses in her 3rd report
noted that everybody thinks they are the perfect driver and there is no need
for change. She also points out that if
everybody drove the way they took their road test then the roads would be
safer. Although once we get our license,
our driving attitudes change and we disobey road rules by speeding, tailgating,
not stopping at stop signs, and so on.
In a perfect world we would have everybody driving like they did when
they took their driving test. The fact
of the matter is that once we get our license, we’ve passed the ultimate test
and now we consider ourselves good drivers.
Christine makes a keen observation of a kind of driving evolution that
all drivers go through. From the
beginning, most of us are taught to be cautious, non-aggressive, and pleasant
drivers but after a certain amount of exposure to numerous driving conditions
we develop a more reckless and fearless attitude when driving.
There
are a number of factors that would explain why drivers disobey driving laws,
but I would say that impatience and wanting to push the boundaries are at the
top of that list.
Lopez, Synthia expresses her feelings on the subject of
driving and music. I try to be attentive
and responsible when I drive, and I don't believe a specific type of music aids
in the process of better driving habits. Driving skills take practice and
knowledge about safe driving, not classical tunes. The therapeutic qualities of
music apply here, but it may only be part of the entire process of becoming a
good driver. There is definitely no harm in listening to whatever music a
person believes calms the tension or aggression she/he experiences when
driving. My concern is that these individuals could easily fall into the trap
of ignoring other possible reasons for bad driving that are irrelevant to
music.
This
is a good point that Synthia expresses about how
music probably doesn’t affect driving as much as we think it does. We think too much about the small stuff of
driving when we should concentrate on the person’s actual driving ability. I can’t say that I fully agree with her point
on this subject, because music is psychophysical and affective, which means
that it can affect our mood, emotion, and physical sensations when driving or
doing anything else. The fact is that
music is powerful, and music has the ability to draw one’s attention away from
the task at hand. If a classical tune
you play reminds you of an ex-girlfriend, it can overcome your thoughts with
daydreams and even arouse a physical state such as increased heart rate. Synthia falls off
the subject in the last sentence because she mentions that there are other
factors that contribute to aggressive or bad driving, of course there are but
it’s not related to your subject at hand.
2. Introduction
The
topic of this course is to learn and understand numerous aspects of
driving. From how
traffic occurs, aggressive driving behaviors, and ways on changing one’s
aggressive attitude to a safer supportive attitude. Driving Psychology attempts to help us
understand driving from three key behavioral components-affective, cognitive,
and sensorimotor. The purpose of this
course is to analyze driving from a psychological point of view, which will
lead us to understand why aggressive driving and road rage occur. Although we may think driving is simple and
involves almost no effort, it’s exactly the opposite. This course will dissect the emotional aspect
of driving and open our minds to understanding a driver’s psyche. Our parents, friends, the media, movies,
video games, TV, driver’s ed course, all affect the way we drive and exploring
these sources will help us understand the driving world.
I
am definitely involved in this topic because I am a driver and I know what it’s
like to be emotionally distraught when driving.
Many different emotions are involved when driving, but anger is probably
at the top of the list. Why anger? Well, it’s so easy to be angry. Nobody goes out driving to get angry but
there are many bad drivers in this world and when one crosses our path, it’s so
easy to get pissed. When emotions run
high, emotional intelligence runs low and this is what many people fail to realize. In an angry state of mind we don’t see the
complete picture; we see what we want to see.
If someone tailgates me and I get mad, an automatic block forms in my
head and I see nothing but a self-serving bias.
This automatically leads me to believe only bad things about the driver
behind me. Perhaps this person drives so
close because they have a hospital emergency to get to, or maybe they’re late
excepting their noble peace prize. Like
any other intelligence, emotional intelligence needs to be understood,
absorbed, and practiced to be effective.
This
topic is meaningful to me because I’ve never used psychology to analyze
driving. At this point in my life it is
useful because I can understand why you and I drive the way we do. This course teaches effective ways to change
bad driving tendencies but it is only as good as one’s effort put in. I myself haven’t been in very many driving
altercations but I’ve had my fair share of fender-benders and driving
psychology can help me deal with the multiple emotions that come into to play
when or if I find myself in another accident.
The
likely outcome of me having taken this course would be a higher emotional
intelligence. Also correcting errors in
my driver’s threefold self. Driving really comes down to three
components: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor decisions. My self-improved driving skills fall on these
three components, if I keep this in mind I should have no problem adjusting my
bad road habits. It’s always good to
remember do one to others as you would want done to yourself. When the time comes to put this new
information into a real situation it may be hard to do at first but that’s why
practice makes perfect, or almost. For
me this course isn’t just about self-improvement, I also like to educate the
people around me because the more people understand driving psychology, the
safer the roads will be. I’ve already
told a few friends about this class and some love the idea of trying to
understand why people act the way they do when driving. My goal of this course is to inspire a safer
driving psyche for myself those around me.
3. Definitions
1) The Threefold Self
encompasses three human behavioral
domains. The affective domain of
behavior deals with habits of feelings.
Are you positivistic or negativistic?
Do you feel hatred towards someone when they’re signaling to enter your
lane, or do you feel good that you could be helping this person out? This is an affective behavior. Next is the cognitive domain of behavior,
which deals with habits of thinking and reasoning. I don’t think I should let this person in my
lane because they will slow me down from getting to my destination. This would be a negative way of thinking, but
perhaps you’re positive, then your thoughts may sound like this. I want to let this person in because I
needn’t make their life more difficult; they just want to get to their
destination like I do. The last piece of
the pie is sensorimotor domain of behavior, which is habits of sensations and
acting out. Everything I just thought
and felt I put into action now.
2) Self-witnessing methodology is a three-step process in which one reconditions
their driver’s threefold self from negative to positive. First-step is to acknowledge (A) that a
certain driving behavior is negative.
Second-step is to witness (W) this bad habit in action. Third-step is to modify (M) this habit. I don’t like it when people drive really
slowly in front of me. I’ve acknowledged
that this is a negative habit. Once I go
driving I will try to be aware of this negative habit. Now I’m in the process of observing myself
get mad when someone drives really slowly in front of me. Finally I’ve acknowledged and witnessed the
negative behavior, now it is time to modify this anger to a more understanding
interpretation of why this person is driving slowly. Perhaps this person is lost, maybe confused,
could be having a stroke, or is just a slow driver. Whatever reason suits you in order to modify
this negative reaction is all that is needed to help you change.
3) According to Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, road
rage refers to an extreme state of anger, which ranges from vulgar language
and hand gestures to physical assault and even murder. The recorded cases of murderous road rage are
few and far between but never the less the roads are getting more dangerous as
more cars crowd the roads and highways.
Numerous factors can be the cause of road rage for instance,
fatigue, competitiveness, frustration, time pressure, traffic congestion, and
being insulted are just some reasons why road rage occurs.
4) Aggressive Driving Legislation as described in Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, is the specific division of the Department of
Transportation. Several different boards
exist but the most important of which is the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA). They deal with
many aspects of driving such as curbing aggressive driving, making truck,
bicycle, and motorcycle travel safer, keeping drivers alert, reducing impaired
drivers, sustaining proficiency in older drivers, etc.
5) The driver’s emotional intelligence deals with the limbic brain that is the center of
emotions. When someone cuts you off on
the highway and you get angry, is that anger sparked from a biased, subjective,
and irrational belief that this driver was out to get you? Or do you start off angry, but then deflate
that anger through rational counterarguments.
If you believe the driver intentionally tried to cut you off, you are
continuing to feed the need of anger, which will lead to an irrational
response. Emotional intelligence refers
to the idea of being able to rationally explain the emotional state one is
in. So you are angered at the fact
someone cut you off, but without trying to rationally workout the situation
leads one to be lacking emotional intelligence.
If you are angered at first that is a natural reaction to the situation
that just occurred, but once passed that initial stage you have the choice to
show emotional intelligence or a lack there of.
A
number of possibilities could exist to understand why you were just cut
off, but it is up to you to show yourself how intelligent you are. Possibly this driver is in a rush to get to
the hospital where his wife is having a baby, or maybe his house is burning
down. Whatever counterargument is used
to diffuse one’s angered state is the desired goal, which shows a high level of
emotional intelligence.
6) The driver’s emotional spin cycle as I understand it from donovan deals with a positive and a negative
base. From there you have two subgroups
for both positive and negative. These
two subgroups are self and world outlooks.
Everybody has their good and bad days and this is how the emotional spin
cycle works. Say you’re having a good
day, your outlook on yourself is positive.
This positive image of self then carries over to the world because if
one is happy then they will reflect that positivism to their surroundings which
is the rest of the world. It works
exactly the same for the negative emotions, if you are
angry you view and possibly transfer that anger towards others around you or
the rest of the world. Now you get the
gist of how the emotional spin cycle works.
When you’ve had several things go wrong in a day you figure nothing you
do, no matter how positive it is will bring about a positive change, so I
should just be negative.
7) Lifelong driver education refers to the process of continually educating
drivers after they get their license to maintain a supportive unbiased
driver. Road Rage and Aggressive Driving
explains several ways driver’s can continually stay educated. The self witnessing methodology and learning
emotional intelligence techniques are a good way to keep you constantly
educated on a daily driving bases. Occasionally designating a driving buddy who
can provide constructive criticism is a good way to notice the things that you
might not see as a problem. Many times
we tend to miss bad habits we do because they are habits. It’s easy to get caught up in bad habits the
hard part is noticing these habits and a driving buddy is guaranteed to point
out what you miss.
Participating in quality driving circles and adopting supportive driving styles and promoting new roles for the next generation will also help.
8) A Quality-driving circle according to Kunichika, Kimberlee consists
of a small group of drivers who meet regularly to encourage one another to be
supportive drivers. Road Rage and Aggressive Driving
explains that group members are encouraged to keep a driving journal and
perform the AWM procedure every time they drive. The group also sets up several different
scenarios in which one must learn to multitask (talking on a cell phone,
eating, drinking, changing a CD, and so forth) while driving. Members are also taught ways to increase
their emotional intelligence through various driving scenarios. Understanding of road rage is also taught to
members so they are aware of it. Finally
members must keep up with new driving manuals and automotive info that the
Department of Transportation (DOT) and other automotive safety divisions put
out.
9)
Supportive Driving is an accommodating style of driving that is not
controlled by biased thoughts or feelings.
Supportive driving also decreases road rage and aggressive driving by
increasing emotional intelligence. Being
a supportive driver is a lot more physically healthy than being an aggressive
driver. It reduces stress, boosts your
immune system, and lifts your spirits, which makes you an enjoyable person
inside and out. It’s common sense that
being happy is more enjoyable than being angry.
In this age of rage people get angry over the smallest things, probably
because no one wants to look weak and seem like they’ve been taken advantage
of. It’s time to switch the train of
thought to from aggressive to supportive and everybody will be a little less
stressed in life and a lot happier.
4. Autobiography
My father was the only parental influence I had on my
driving development, because my mom doesn’t drive. She says, “I use to drive but the roads have
gotten to dangerous to drive on,” so now she refuses to drive. Throughout my childhood I remember my dad
being somewhat of an aggressive driver.
There were instances where I could see a mild flare up of road rage,
such as yelling obscenities and sticking the finger at an individual. My dad never really liked to back down from
another driver always stood his ground.
The media played a small role in my life. I’ve watched movies and TV shows that have
shown car chases at high speeds with weaving in and out of lanes, but I am not
an easily influenced individual when it comes to media exposure. I know real life from TV shows and movies,
many people on the other hand believe they can turn what the media shows them
into real life. After the release of the
movie “The Fast and the Furious,” street racing became an epidemic.
Friends
have had some effect on the way I drive.
After all a group of friends have many similarities and that is why they
are all friends. I could say that when I
was younger and immature I was heavily influenced by the way my friends
perceived my driving skills. Comments on
driving slow, not being aggressive enough, or just being to
laid back when driving, would affect the way I drove. Now in my 23rd year of life, my
friend’s remarks and comments don’t have an affect because I have gained that
all-important aspect of individuality. My current driving style is overall pretty
relaxed, but as you know everyone has his or her pet peeves when driving. I get annoyed with drivers that drive at a
snails pace. I also hate when you are
waiting at an intersection and you don’t cross it because you don’t want to
block traffic if the light changes, but the driver in the lane next to you
pulls out ahead of you to get right in back of the car that is ahead of you,
now I can’t go because of this jerk.
I
also can’t stand tailgaters, this annoys me and I start to drive even slower so
they get the hint that they aren’t going to get anywhere following me that
close. If you know me then you know that
I am a relaxed person and for the most part this carries over to the way I
drive. I would have to say that out of
parental, media, and friendship influence on my driving habits, the most
influential is my father. Like father
like son is exactly how one can describe my driving behaviors and habits. My emotional intelligence could be improved
and my driver’s threefold self can be more positive.
5. Conclusion
This assignment has opened my eyes to the fact that I
need to work on getting rid of my bad driving habits. Driving psychology makes me realize that I
have bad habits and it also shows me how these habits formed. I can trace my driving style back to my
father. The driver’s threefold self
shows me if I’m an aggressive or supportive driver. Emotional intelligence points out how to
reassess irrational thoughts from an angered situation to rational thoughts by
way of empathy and forgiveness. Driving
has a lot to do with one’s personality and examining my affective, cognitive,
and sensorimotor levels leads me to understand what I need to work on to be a
supportive driver. This course is
important for driver’s to take; it helps one understand what kind of driver
they are and what they need to do to correct their bad habits. If everyone knew about driving psychology the
roads and highways would be a lot safer.
Before I took this course I didn’t have the slightest
idea that I was doing something wrong when I was driving. Of course hindsight is 20/20 because now that
I have a different perspective and a profound understanding of driving through
this course I can see what is wrong with my driving. I never thought that people who drive like
maniacs might have a legitimate reason to be driving that way. I always thought in a biased fashion,
thinking their just jerks trying to piss people off. Now that I’m more educated on the subject of
driving I can take this knowledge and implement it on the roads where it
belongs. I’m going to take as much as I
can from this class and educate my friends, family, co-workers, relatives, and
many more people because it will help driving in our society.
6. Future Generations
I
don’t really have to say too much about this course because it is an
interesting subject and if you drive you can relate to this course. Numerous subjects of driving psychology have
been covered but it doesn’t mean you can’t add on or even come up with a
different interpretation of an aspect of driving. I’m sure there are still other subjects that
relate to driving that haven’t been covered yet. I myself have always thought that people
don’t want to seem weak and they don’t but people forget to see the difference
between being respectful and looking weak.
I can’t let this person into my lane because if I do I’ll look weak to
those around me and more people will try to take advantage of me. Don’t let anyone drive all over you but at
the same time remember that everything you think is not necessarily true
especially when it’s a biased thought.
People think with a biased perception because pride and strength are
huge factors in
Biased thoughts are not as simple as I’m explaining it. Any number of factors can drive this train of thought. Perhaps economic status, race, physical appearance, and so on. Perhaps you don’t like people who drive BMW’s because you think they are nothing but big show offs. You will automatically be rude to anyone that drives a BMW. What I’m trying to point out is driving psychology is more than just changing your driving behaviors, because driving is just one aspect of dealing with society. Once you improve your emotional intelligence it works with more than just driving it works with all types of societal interaction. This is what you’re going to get out of taking this course.
My Homepage: the Concep homepage.htm
G20 Class Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html