Driving Psychology: Theory and Application
By Melissa Mansfield
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm
- Preface
Driving psychology is a course at
the
The students from the prior
generations talked about a variety of topics, from speeding, tailgating and
convoys.À One students concern really
caught my eye because I completely understood where she was coming from.À In Takeshi Hiraoka?s report, (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/459s97/thiraoka/459_reports/report1.html)
she/he discussed taking the license exam.À
She was confused because she got an answer wrong about speeding,
specifically about whether to follow the flow of traffic or go the speed
limit.À Apparently, if the traffic is
going 70mph, the right thing to do would be to go with the flow of traffic.À I would have thought the right answer would
be to go the speed limit.À Takeshi also
thought this way and that is why she/he got the answer wrong.À In my personal opinion, I felt like it is
ludicrous for the department of motor vehicles to expect people to follow speed
limits that are unrealistic.À I believe
if someone is following the traffic at a reasonable speed (reasonable means the
speed depends on the weather conditions and the conditions of the road and the
amount of people on the road), they should not get a ticket.À For example, while coming home one day from
school about
He disagrees with the assumption that the driver should always go with the flow of traffic and believes that speeding slows your reaction time, so it is dangerous to conform to other drivers (more dangerous than not conforming and possibly being a blockage in traffic).À
Shane Cobb-Adams found that people like to ignore the physical risk we put ourselves in everyday and I thought this was a very good point (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/LEONJ/LEONJ/459f96/cobb/reportB.html).À All we have to do is look at the statistics to remind ourselves that every time we get behind the wheel, we are in danger. I treat driving very seriously because my boyfriend works at a recycling yard where mangled cars come in all the time.À However, I do think that the speed limits are set too low in certain areas, but I also think that the roads would be safer if the actual pavement was in better condition.
Many students talked about how this class made them aware of their driving and they appreciated the eye opener.À What I really enjoy about the class is the small discussions and I think it keeps the student more involved in the subject, rather than just hearing someone lecture on the topic from a podium.À When you take an active role and participate in the discussion, it really helps to process the information thoroughly.À
- Introduction
The topic of the course is driving psychology, which implies that there is a lot more to driving than just the physical aspect of it.ÀÀ The cognitive, affective and sensorimotor parts of driving are not dealt with in defensive driving classes or in driver training.À This course attempts to help the student to better understand themselves physically, cognitively and emotionally.À In Tsyoshi?s oral presentation, he mentions that this knowledge of what causes aggressive driving with help people to ?prevent or reduce those high-risk behaviors.?À This gets my attention because everybody drives everyday and yet we don?t think of driving as a high risk behavior.À I think the small class style helps me to get involved in the topic and not just let the information go in one ear and out the other.À This class will help me to put driving in perspective and hopefully, I will modify my thoughts and behaviors and be a safer, more courteous driver.
- Definitions
The driver?s threefold self- this includes the affective self, the cognitive self and the sensorimotor self.À The affective self is goal oriented, such as turning on your lights when it is raining very hard because you want other drivers to be able to see you (http://www.drdriving.org/articles/taxonomy.htm).À The affective self is the most difficult part to witness because it consists of our feeling and motivations while we are driving.À For example, I have been in a situation where my passenger asks why I am mad and I retort that I am not mad.À People rarely acknowledge or think about their feelings while driving, so while our feelings are effecting how we are driving, we completely ignore this fact.À One goal of driving psychology is to teach the student how to correctly identify how they are feeling while driving.
ÀThat is a very important first step.À Next comes modifying the feelings and motivations (which is probably much harder than identifying!).À An example of the affective self would be feeling like ?I wish people would learn how to drive?.À This represents a negative feeling you have about other drivers.À The cognitive self involves making decisions while you drive and problem solving.À For example, thinking, ?If that Honda passes me I am going to chase after him.À Who does he think he is??À This involves having biased thoughts, such as all Honda?s are trying to race you.À The sensorimotor self involves the things we are doing and are aware of.À Someone can have a style of driving and not even be aware of it because they are not in tune with their senses.
As Raemie Noelani Monces states on her website (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bs2002/raemie/report1.htm - _Introduction), the three-fold self is about the habits of our emotions, which is the affective self, the habits of our thoughts, which is the cognitive self, and the habits of our actions, which is the sensorimotor self.À If we view all these things as habit, then it is easier to see that they can be changed and are not permanent.À Just like bad eating habits or bad exercising habits, bad driving habits can be modified and can have a significant impact on how we live our lives (and more importantly, how much danger we put ourselves in every day).
Self-witnessing methodology- when a driver observes him or herself while driving, they learn a lot about how they are as a driver.À For example, if I witness that the longer I sit in traffic, the more negative my thoughts become, I have identified a problem that I can work on.À Once a problem is identified, I can be on guard and more aware of what I am thinking and feeling.À The easiest way to self-witness is to think aloud in the car every time you have a thought so you can analyze the thought and figure out where it came from.À Another method is to record yourself thinking aloud in the car.À
In both cases, you can go back and record data on your thoughts.À You can then figure out how many times you got angry or frustrated or lost your patience.À With self-witnessing, you begin to see pattern in your thoughts and so you can focus on the things you really need to change in order to become a better driver.À
Road rage- this is when a person becomes enormously angry while driving.À They may retaliate with angry words or by œflipping the bird? or other obscene gestures or they might become physically aggressive toward another driver.À Mental violence and physical violence are common in road rage and a characteristic of road rage is the wish to strike back at the offensive driver.À As stated in Dr. James?s website (http://www.drdriving.org/articles/rr.htm), road rage is something you choose to engage in, it is not the only option.À It is a learned behavior that can be unlearned.À We learn it from the media, from our friends, from our parents and from what society in general deems acceptable.
Aggressive driving legislation- this means laws that are specifically designed for people that exhibit aggressive driving.À They are targeted at repeat offenders and these laws came into being because in some cities, road rage and aggressive driving incidents were becoming quite common.À The problem with these new laws aimed at aggressive drivers is that sometimes the laws are not defined clearly enough for the offense to hold up in court.À Certain states have well defined laws, with actions that police officers can note.À Other states have vague laws that leave a lot of decisions up to the police officer, which can lead to problems when trying to convict people in court.
The driver?s emotional intelligence- most people do not think about how to react to something, they just react.À Emotional intelligence is basically having control over oneself and not venting because that is the easiest thing to do.À When you learn to change your cognitive attributions and closely monitor yourself, then you are learning how to be more emotionally mature.À In Raemie Monces?s report, she explains the emotional intelligence of a person as the way they manage with other people in terms of their three-fold selfÀ (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409bs2002/raemie/report2.htm#_Theory_and_Purpose_1).ÀÀ
The driver?s emotional spin cycle- this is the concept that people have emotions, which are both internal and external.À We react to ourselves (our cognitive thoughts) and we react to others (the physical world).À The cycle of emotions is one of rage against others and rage aimed at ourselves, which is depression.À The emotional spin cycle can be broken down into negative and positive zones with bridges in-between.À An example of a negative emotion would be fury and a positive emotion would be sympathy.À As Nicole Reaves mentions in her report 2, you begin by feeling something, like fury, which is followed by negative thoughts, which is followed by negative actions, such as making negative hand gestures (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f2001/reaves/report2.html). Her report helped me to understand that negative feelings lead to negative thoughts, which lead to negative actions.À On the other side, just because you have a negative feeling, you can choose to turn it into a positive thought, which could lead to a positive action, instead of a negative one.À
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Newsgroups for drivers- these are places on the internet in which people can access support groups for driving modification programs (http://www.drdriving.org/index.htm or just chat about issues related to driving.
Lifelong driver education- driver training usually does not extend beyond taking a written exam which covers traffic laws and taking an actual driving test, which just tests the physical driving.À Lifelong driver is not only about continuing to educate and inform people about their driving, but also changing the focus of the teaching.À Instead of just training drivers physically, they also need to be trained emotionally.À Self-witnessing techniques can be taught which can eventually lead to self-modification. This will help drivers to understand their emotions while driving.À
Left-lane bandit- this pertains to drivers that do not adhere to the concept of the left lane being the fast lane and the right lane being the slow lane.À This is not just a clear cut issue because what some consider fast is not what others consider fast.À Sometimes people might faze out and not realize that they are blocking people or they might get a rush out of controlling others.À The key to dealing with this is to not get angry (affective self), not have retaliating thoughts toward that person (cognitive self) and not do something irrational, like cut close in front of them to punish them (sensorimotor self).À Instead, try to be calm, understanding and in control of your actions and emotions.
Zen driving- this involves developing a more community based approach to driving.À This means thinking about everyone in the community instead of just yourself.À This means having sympathy for other drivers and finding an inner regularity, while also being connected the other drivers.
- Autobiographical
I am a pretty good driver most of the time, but there are certain situations when I œlet myself go? or give in to bad driving habits.À I tend to drive bad when I am emotional, either very happy or very distressed.À I drive faster when I am very cheerful and when I am really angry, I make more mistakes and take more risks.À To some degree, I believe people imitate their parents but I also believe they learn from them what to do and not to do.À My mother always takes corners very sharply and this always bothered me, so I make it a point not to do this driving behavior. ÀHowever, I think people are also inclined to copy their parent?s behaviors and attitudes, such as learning to vent their frustrations verbally instead of trying to mentally talk themselves down from a state of arousal.À
The media portrays driving very unrealistically.À I love how car commercials try to portray a person completely happy and content because of their car or some feature of their car; this implies that happiness and satisfaction depended on what car you drive.À Whether you have a Mercedes or a Subaru, you deal with the stress of driving and the hostile emotions that come from these stresses.À Since traffic congestion and close calls are not going anywhere, it is important for people to strengthen their emotional maturity while driving.À The media does not portray driving situations accurately and this causes people to have unrealistic expectations.
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The role of friends while driving is very important in understanding ones driving behavior.À Whether there are people in the car greatly affects how I drive.À It also largely depends on who the person is and if I am having a conversation with them.À If I am driving with an adult or someone much older than me, I tend to drive slower and more cautious.À If the person is around my age I tend to drive more carelessly and also if I am more engaged in the conversation or in listening and talking.À When I drive with my dad or my brothers, I usually am not talking excitedly or telling a story, whereas when I am driving with a friend, we are usually talking animatedly.À The level of attention that I give to the road has a lot to do with the passenger of the car.
My philosophy as a driver is that if I let others action get to me emotionally, then I let them win.À If I control my emotions and let it slide, then I win.À This is not always easy, but hopefully this class will help me to learn skills to better control my emotions.À I am particularly going to focus on self-witnessing myself while driving in the hopes that I can target certain situations that really make me angry.À Then I can specifically work on those areas.À My style is mostly passive, but I can get angry at certain things, such as people ignoring laws and signs.À The way I see it, those laws and signs are there for a reason, namely that they make everything run smoother.À A lot of times, people are only thinking about themselves and so they disregard the rule, which makes it harder for everyone else.À
- Conclusion
I never really thought about my driving style or personality, so this class has opened my eyes to the way I drive.À I am more aware of what I am thinking, feeling and doing while driving.À This is useful because the only way to change a behavior is to acknowledge it so that you can modify it.À I think this approach to driving can have an affect on the future of driving because it seems like a very logical approach to changing a behavior, but also to changing your feelings and thoughts.À Acknowledge, witness, and modify is a very good approach.À
- Future Generations
Try to be patient while navigating the curriculum because there are tons of dead links.À This course is great if you want to understand the dynamics of traffic and understand why we do the things we do.
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/mansfield/home.htm
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html
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