Report 2

My Driving Personality Makeover Project
By: Jeremy Kubo

Instructions for Report 2

1. Preface

Report 1 dealt with getting a better understanding of “Driving Psychology” through definitions and personal experience. We each looked at previous generations and briefly discussed what we felt to be interesting, important and relevant to the topic of driving psychology. We then described in our own words specific definitions based on class discussions, our textbook Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, our instructor’s website, and previous generations’ reports. Finally, we gave a brief autobiography of ourselves as a driver and explained who we are influenced by. The purpose of that report was to get a basic understanding and foundation of driving psychology, so we could become better drivers. Eventually, we will be able to spread the word of driving psychology so that everyone will become safe drivers and we will all be driving in a safer environment. In the conclusion of report 1, I stated the whole experience of doing the report had helped me to reexamine my driving style, to pay more attention to the little comments and gestures I make while driving, and overall encouraged me to want everyone to get a better understanding of driving psychology. We could then be able to erase the phrase “road rage” from our vocabulary. For more information, please check out Report 1.

The purpose of this report (report 2) is to be able to recognize what my driving style and driving philosophy is and notice the areas in which I would need improvement on in order to modify it. We have to design our own experiment that will allow us to acknowledge what could be done to make us better and safer drivers. By doing so, we will then have to accept the problematic areas and attempt to recreate our emotions, thoughts and actions, so that there will be much healthier drivers on the road.

2. Introduction: Objective Self-assessment

To begin my driving personality makeover experiment, I was first required to take a few tests/questionnaires from our textbook, Road Rage and Aggressive Driving. The first exercise I did was “Assessing Myself as a Driver,” found on pages 134-135. Then I did the checklist found on pages 140-143 was “Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving”. Finally, the last checklist I did was “Identifying Your Irrational Driving Rules,” found on page 150. These three checklists/exercises will each help me in assessing who I am currently as a driver and will help me in recognizing what I need to improve on to better myself as a driver.

(a) Assessing Myself as a Driver

This exercise, I believe, is perfect for every driver. Not only does it allow you to recognize and acknowledge what you think are good and bad traits of your own driving, but you also get a perspective from passengers who are riding along with you at the same time. In this exercise, you are to record what you feel are your best and worst driving traits over the last few weeks. Then, you are to ask your passengers over the last few weeks to record also what they felt were your best and worst driving traits. It is best to get a good sample, so at least two or three other passengers’ comments (if not more) would be great. Finally, you are to compare your own list with that of your passengers and notice any differences. There is no exact scoring system, except to realize that there could be different perceptions taken on one person’s driving traits, your own included. When I did this exercise, I found there were indeed differences in what I perceived to be my good and bad traits compared to what my passengers felt were my good and bad traits. The following is my list and the lists of two of my passengers.

My Best Driving Traits According to Myself	My Worst Driving Traits According to Myself
1. I always use my blinker	1. I speed up when the light turns yellow
2. I always come to a complete stop	2. I get angry when I get cut off
3. I always thank people for letting me in	3. I tailgate people going too slow
4. I always let people in	4. I intentionally drive slow in front of people who drove slow in front of me
5. I always watch for pedestrians before making a right turn on a red light	5. I cheat in order to get to the front of the freeway lane, by driving in the lane next to it, which flows much smoother, and cut in at the last minute

My Best Driving Traits According to Passenger 1	My Worst Driving Traits According to Passenger 1
1. He always looks over his shoulder when switching lanes	1. He hugs the cars’ bumpers in front of him, so no one can get in
2. He thanks people for letting him in	2. He likes to rush through the yellow lights
3. He’s more cautious (with his words and his driving) when there’s a child in the car	3. He sometimes forgets to turn on his blinker when he’s in a turn only lane
4. He follows all the driving signs (for example, not making a left, where it says “No Left Turn”)	4. He tailgates cars going too slow
5. He comes to a complete stop at stop signs	5. He almost ran over a pedestrian when he was trying to make a right turn on red because he was more concerned about the oncoming cars

My Best Driving Traits According to Passenger 2	My Worst Driving Traits According to Passenger 2
1. Always uses his blinker	1. He speeds
2. Thanks people for letting him in	2. He tailgates
3. Doesn’t run any reds	3. He gets angry at cars that cut him off
4. Cautious of pedestrians	4. He rolls at stop signs instead of coming to a complete stop
5. Drives safer when his daughter is in his car	5. If it’s late at night and there’s no cop around, he’ll make a left turn where the sign says not to

Well, obviously there are quite a few conflictions. Some things that I thought were good, I found my passengers saying were bad, and there were even some differences between the two passengers. For example, one said I follow the street signs, while the other said I don’t. At least the three of us can agree on two things for sure—one good and one bad. I do always thank people for letting me in and I do tailgate the slow cars. I think this test shows that I’m kind of hypocritical. On the one hand, I don’t like when people cut me off and I, in fact, get angry for it; but on the other hand, I go around cutting other people off myself, expecting them to let me in. On the bright side, though, I do thank them when they do let me in, but then again, I get upset when they don’t. It was very interesting to hear the comments of my passengers—one was my fiancée and the other was my brother. I was sure my fiancée would have said I speed because she always comments about that when she’s in the car with me, but it was my brother who mentioned it, who speeds twice as fast as me! I’ve noticed also that I think I am a different driver depending on who’s in the car with me. Maybe I’ve unconsciously become more to the liking of my fiancée when she’s in the car and I become more relaxed with my brother, trying to show off to him, sort of like multiple personalities. But, which is the real me?? Maybe I’m different too when I’m alone with no passengers.

(b) Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving

This checklist breaks down the threefold self into the three domains. There are the three sections listing statements for Witnessing Your Emotions (affective), Witnessing Your Thoughts (cognitive), and Witnessing Your Actions (sensorimotor). Each statement stands for common aggressive behaviors listed by other drivers in their self-witnessing reports. The first two sections have 14 items each with two “others” where you can list your own and the last section has 21 items with the opportunity of listing your own two “others” again. The purpose of this checklist is to be able to recognize which parts of your driving personality you need to work on in order to improve as a safer and better driver. Again, there is no scoring system except being able to identify where the problems lie. Reading over the list initially, I can check quite a few. I’ve added one of my own statements for each of the three witnessing sections. Out of the affective section, I could check 10 out of 15. Out of the cognitive section, I could check 8 out of 15. Out of the behavior section, I could check 13 out of 22. So, obviously I need quite a bit of work on my emotions, thoughts and actions while driving.

The real test of this checklist though was to be able to recognize these emotions, thoughts and actions while actually behind the wheel, performing them. The exercise suggests working on one or two at a time, to be able to be consciously aware of the three domains—more than that would be a complete overload. This, of course, will take some time and can’t be done overnight, more less within a few weeks. It’s a lifetime challenge that will surely take practice to overcome. I have started though, with a few items everyday, being able to witness those items I have focused on for that day. And I have noticed on each trip, I’m beginning to cut back on certain bad habits. I’m on my way to a healthy driving personality makeover! I admit I have road rage—more passive-aggressive and verbal, but no way near epic road rage. But no matter the type of road rage it is, I shouldn’t have it. It is something I do want to work on, especially now since my daughter was born. I certainly don’t want her growing up and being influenced with that type of behaviors.

(c) Identifying Your Irrational Driving Rules

This checklist focuses on all the rules we make up for ourselves which are, quite simply put, foolish. They have no real logic behind it. There was a list of ten irrational driving rules. I got a perfect 10 out of 10, which makes me a very foolish person! I am very aware of all those irrational rules listed and at about 99% of the time, I do believe each one to be quite true and I am law-abiding. I believe this checklist to diagnose me as someone who’s got to have it always my way and if I don’t get it that way, I get stressed out. This stress will build upon other stress I’m getting from other instances where I’m angered or frustrated while driving. I need to realize I can’t make up my own rules. By doing so, I could not only be putting myself at danger, but my passengers, pedestrians, and other motorists as well.

3. My Driver Self-modification Attempt

(a) Design of my experiment

I looked through the previous generations and came across generation 2 and generation 4. Both these generations had relevant topics to a driving personality makeover. Some of the reports which I based my design for my own driving personality makeover include Bryan Yucoco’s Report 2: My Driving Personality Makeover Plan, and Nancee Aki’s Report 2: My Driving Personality Makeover Plan from generation 2, and Shane Cobb-Adams’s and Ryan Mitsui’s websites from generation 4. Generation 4 had to do quite a few reports. Ones that I felt were very relevant were the reports about Driving Personality Makeover, Self-Witnessing Experiment and Tailgating. The latter report is relevant to my project because that is one bad habit in which I will be focusing my driving personality makeover on. Other bad habits I will work on include speeding up to make yellow lights and getting angry when I get cut off. Before this class, I considered myself a “good” driver. Throughout this class, and especially after doing those exercises/checklists, I now feel I’m a bad driver. I need to work in all three domains of my threefold self in order to become a safe driver and again be able to consider myself as a “good” driver.

The design of my experiment is quite basic. I will record myself as I drive, picking up on my comments that lead me to get angry when someone cuts me off, or to go deeper as to why it’s so important that I have to make the light, or what brings me to tailgate another motorist. After each trip, I will listen to my comments and write them down, keeping a driving diary. Then, by focusing on the comments that initially get me into those three situations, I will attempt to make myself think the opposite. Before the next trip, I’ll read over my diary and when I get in one of those three situations, I’ll think the opposite—“Oh, I’m so happy I could be the one to let this car in” or “Why am I in such a rush, I’ll be happy to wait here for the next light” or “This person is going a little slower than I am, maybe I should slow down too”. By thinking the opposite, I’m hoping that my thoughts will help change how I will feel, think and act in future trips in those specific situations. The first week will be the baseline with no intervention. Then, I will implement the intervention of opposite thinking for the following two weeks.

(b) Data Table

Angry when cut off	Ran Yellow Light	Tailgating
10 out of 12 = 83%	15 out of 15 = 100%	6 out of 7 = 86%
6 out of 8 = 75%	4 out of 10 = 40%	4 out of 6 = 67%
5 out of 7 = 71%	6 out of 12 = 50%	2 out of 4 = 50%

(c) Analysis and Discussion

The first graph is done a little backwards in order to see all the bars (had the baseline been in the front row, the other bars would have been blocked). By looking at the graph and reading the numbers, you can clearly see there was a significant change in running the yellow lights. Though the numbers went down from week 1 to week 2 and back up again on week 3, it is still quite obvious there was a significant drop from the week before any intervention was done. Getting angry when cut off and the tailgating were all pretty much similar in numbers. There was a drop in both those bad habits, but that could have been due to outside influences as maybe I didn’t get cut off as much as I did the first week and maybe there weren’t as many cars going slow that I would tailgate as there was on the first week. Both these habits are a little more difficult to analyze without looking at the outside influences. Speeding up to making the yellow light though is pretty controlled. The only thing that might influence that behavior could just be my mood for that day.

This second graph looks at the percentage of times the bad habit was done. The table in the middle gives the breakdown of the amount of times each habit was done out of the total opportunities the bad habit could have been done. This graph gives a better idea of how much the experiment really had an impact. Clearly I had been running every yellow light that I had an opportunity to run, before implementing my plan to cut it down. Once I did, there were some obvious effects of not trying to make the yellow light.

When looking at the driver’s threefold self, which refers to the three domains of behavior: affective (feelings), cognitive (thoughts) and sensorimotor (actions) that work together to create the driver’s self, I can see by influencing myself to think oppositely, I was able to work on my problem of speeding up to make the yellow light. I was able to be consistent and be consciously aware of my problem, worked on it, developed a plan to change that behavior and it seemed to work. I looked at how I was feeling, listened to what I was thinking and acknowledging what I could have been doing. I thought about the consequences of what would happen if I did try to speed up to make the light. I felt sad and angered if someone were to be put in danger because of my actions. I thought the opposite of what I wanted to do. And I didn’t run yellow lights as often. Surely I’m not cured of this problem and will have to continue working on this as well as my other bad habits.

(d) Conclusion and future plans

The implications of my findings is that, it’s not something that can be done overnight. If someone is serious about working on doing a driving makeover, there is a lot of responsibility and commitment needed. Doing an experiment for a few weeks doesn’t make you a changed man or woman. You have to keep at it. Practice will make perfect. As a result of my findings, I may consider other approaches to the other two bad habits, which I found to be a little inconclusive. Also, I will continue working on speeding up to make those yellow lights. I’d want to do this not only for myself, but for my daughter and fiancée as well. They are important people in my life and I want them to know that I believe it is important to be a safe driver so I can live a healthier life. And it is something that I would want them to approach as well.

4. Conclusion

This assignment has helped me in numerous ways of identifying my driving personality and philosophy. It has helped me to realize I am not a good driver. I am a bad driver. I think it is important to hear the criticisms of others and really take it into account when analyzing what problems you need to work on to become a safer driver and help add to the safe environment of the driving world. Through the exercises and checklists I was able to focus on what I thought were my most problematic areas when it comes to driving. I took into consideration what others had observed of me and I also looked at my own personal opinion as well. I was able to see things in a different light now and I find that it will be very useful to me in the future. I can now take these criticisms more constructively rather than insultingly. Like I mentioned earlier, before this class, I thought I was a good driver… now, I know I am not a good driver.

5. Future Generations

Again, start early! Have a plan! This assignment surely can’t be done overnight. There is a lot of effort and work required especially for this project. You need to conduct an experiment—you certainly can’t just make it up. Accepting and admitting you have a problem is the first step. Each and every one of us can find something to improve on to make ourselves better and safer drivers. It is difficult at first and I’m sure even more difficult when it comes to working on the change, but hang in there. It may not always happen the way you want it to at first. Practice makes perfect! Good Luck!

HOME G20HOME