My home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/
Class home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html
Driving Psychology: Theory and Application
By: Sarah E. Phillips
Instructions for report 1: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm
1. Preface
This course is designed to
give students a broad understanding of the many aspects of driving and
introduce them to the topic of driving psychology. By learning how to apply driving psychology to driving students
will be able to identify and understand driving around them better.
To be in generation 20 of
this course it is interesting to see how others have developed and changed and
know that I will as well. I take pride
in knowing that I can have an impact on understanding driving psychology and
also spread what is already known.
Students before me have published web pages with their findings and
studies showing the aspects they liked which I look forward to being able to
contribute as well. They tended to
appreciate their fellow classmates insights and through their interactions were
able to better understand themselves and others. The following are some of past students work that relate to
driving psychology.
This student’s webpage is
interesting because it has a variety of different students opinions and
definitions of what driving psychology is.
It gives many different definitions which allows the reader to think
about the different aspects of driving psychology. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409af98/kutara/report1kutara.html
This student’s webpage deals
with newsgroups for drivers and how they help to deal with negative emotions
and actions and how to find support. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/409bs97/kmorgan/kmorganreport1.html
This student’s webpage deals
with QDC groups and her reaction to the exercises she performed. It is an interesting take from a students
perspective. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2000/vore/report1.html
2. Introduction
The topic of this course is
driving psychology. It deals with the
emotional and mental processes that influence our driving and the way we see
other drivers. Through taking this
course the purpose is to understand the processes that underlie the way we, and
other drivers, react to the situations we encounter on the road. It is to help us understand why we react the
way we do. This course is also designed
to allow us to recognize what is wrong and how to approach areas of driving
that other drivers may not be aware of.
It allows us to recognize, and modify our own driving skills that are
not up to par.
This topic involves me
because every day I drive about 60 miles and I see some of the most senseless
driving acts everyday. It has also
become an issue in my own family lately regarding the way my father and brother
drive. It is meaningful to me because it
concerns me when I see the way others drive and I know that often these acts
are thoughtless and reckless and it endangers thousands of people on the road,
myself included.
By getting involved in this
course I expect to learn the reasoning and influences behind the various
aspects of driving and I expect to know what can be done to improve driving on
the road. I expect that I will have a
lot revealed to me in how I drive and what I should do differently. I also know that I will be able to
understand driving better in today’s society and be able to act and react
accordingly.
3. Definitions
The Driver’s Threefold
Self
The Drivers Threefold Self
includes the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor. The affective refers to the individuals feelings and motivations,
http://www.drdriving.org/articles/driving_psy.htm. The affective deals with the fact that our
actions, thoughts and feelings have a purpose and serve a function of getting us
to our goal state. The cognitive aspect
of the threefold self is the thinking and reasoning and decision-making
skills. The sensorimotor aspect is the
sensations (see, taste, touch, etc.), perceptions and motor movements we
make. These three aspects all interact
with one another and forms our driving persona and philosophy. We learn these different aspects growing up
as we are exposed to the actions of those that drive us. We come to adopt our drivers’ attitudes as
our own and display them while we drive.
Self-Witnessing
Methodology
Self-Witnessing involves
acknowledging, witnessing and modifying our own driving skills. It is a way to actively look at the way you
drive and notice what you do poorly, what needs to end, change and improve
upon. It is a three-step program for
improving one’s driving skills.
Acknowledging is the main
step; it is admitting that as a driver there are areas that need to be worked
on. It is considered the hardest step
because it is the realization that there is something that is not perfect and
that needs to change. An example would
be that a person constantly runs stop signs.
The person admitting that they run stop signs and that it is a bad habit
is the acknowledgement.
Witnessing is the step where
the person actively looks at his/her actions.
By doing this, the person is looking for and acknowledging times when
he/she does the offense that they are trying to correct. For example, our person who runs stop signs
has just passed through another sign without so much as slowing down. The person has just witnessed him/herself
committing the offense and acknowledges it.
During the modifying stage
one takes active steps in trying to control their behavior so that they conform
to the rules they admit should govern the action. Our example would involve our subject actually stopping at each
stop sign he/she encounters. By
actively making oneself stop at the sign they are modifying their behavior. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm
Road Rage
Road rage is a learned habit
that involves negative reactions one has while driving. These reactions involve obscene language,
gestures, retaliation through using the car as a weapon, and using the car as a
weapon. It is taking anger out through
multiple outputs on another driver.
Road rage is learned from the time we are young through others who are
driving us. As passengers we learn the
way to drive, everything we encounter is how we learn, and later drive. Road rage is an aspect of this
learning. If our parents drive
recklessly we are likely to drive recklessly as well. If our parents curse other cars, we are likely to curse other
cars. It is through this mode that we
become the drivers our parents are, we see and experience it multiple times we
come to accept it as ok and then drive and behave the way they do.
Road rage occurs when a
driver interprets an action by another as rude, thoughtless or aggressive. The driver then reacts to the action with
hostility through verbal/visual obscenities, aggressive driving or even
physical assault. The driver feels that
he is warranted to react in such a way as to teach a lesson to the other driver
and prevent him/her from doing his/her careless actions again.
Aggressive Driving
Legislation
Aggressive driving
legislation deals with how states define aggressive driving and how it is dealt
with. There is an increase of interest
of making drivers responsible for their actions and making legislation is a way
that law makers hope to curb
road rage and aggression on the road. A
problem that is constantly faced in making and promoting laws is that they are
often vague and are seen as nearly impossible to implement and enforce. The best way to pass laws and see that they
are enforced without much possibility of contestation is to make them as
specific as possible. For more
information see the following:
http://www.aggressive.drivers.com/papers/james-nahl/james-nahl-paper.html
The Driver’s Emotional
Intelligence
The driver’s emotional
intelligence refers to the driver’s ability to remain calm and inhibit the
anger that can lead to aggressiveness and venting. Drs Diane Nahl and James Leon claims the best way to avoid aggressiveness
that stems from anger is to let the “excitatory endangerment response
dissipate” (112). By allowing the anger
to dissipate a driver can avoid the harsh and brash desire for action to pass
and keeping them from acting without good judgment. It involves lots of self-control in anger management. Two aspects of anger management the Dr James
recommends is 1. relaxation techniques and 2. mental reappraisal of the situation.
By adopting relaxation techniques it allows oneself to takes time before
reacting irrationally. A person can
stop before reacting and allow time to reappraise the situation.
During reappraisal the driver
can think of multiple causes for the action, which angered him/her and realize
that it was probably not intentional.
When the driver stops to think of this there is much less chance that
they should decide to retaliate and as such we have less aggression and road
rage shown. During reappraisal the
driver is giving her/himself time to organize their thoughts and restructure
the thoughts already formed into a more coherent, manageable and thought out
cause of events and reactions. By
thinking instead of automatically reacting the driver is able to think of cause
and effects and what is the most logical reaction.
The Diver’s Emotional Spin
Cycle
The emotional spin cycle
refers to the idea that our emotions are a daily cycle that are learned from
childhood and are habit. It states that
we have four possible options choose from; we can be positive about the world
(1) or negative (2) and/or we can be positive about ourselves (3) or negative
(4). To see a diagram and to read more about the emotional spin cycle visit: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy16/g16reports-instructions.html
In his diagram, Dr Leon James
says we use the bridges to help us cross from negative states into positive
ones. In the negative/pessimistic
options we are using emotionally impaired thinking that affects us and doesn’t
allow us to think rationally or allow us to think outside of the
situation. When we do not use rational
thinking it affects our mood negatively, but when we do use rational and
positive thinking we are not easily swayed into attaining negative feelings. http://www.drdriving.org/surveys/rage_depression.htm
Newsgroups for Drivers
Newsgroups are places
commonly found on the web where people with similar interests can get together
and talk about their experiences and share or get advice. They are gaining in popularity every year on
the Internet where a person can find a newsgroup for any topic under the
sun. This relates to driving psychology
because drivers would be able to gather and discuss their various experiences
with one another. By sharing their
experiences it allows the participants to gain experience and advice from other
drivers that they can apply to their own life to aid in improving driving their
abilities. It is a way that people can remain anonymous but still express
themselves and seek help should they need it without fear because they can
remain anonymous in the newsgroups. http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/409bs97/kmorgan/kmorganreport1.html
Lifelong Driver Education
Lifelong driver education is
an idea that drivers should be taught from an early age ways to manage
themselves and their reactions so that when they do become drivers they are
prepared for the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor events that accompany
it. Not only would driver education start
early but also it would continue throughout life. The continuation of education would serve to reaffirm positive,
supportive driving skills. By having
driver education throughout life the driver would constantly be reinforced and
more likely to continue their positive driving skills.
Passive-Aggressive Road
Rage
Passive-aggressive road rage
deals is a reactionary protest. We
protest when we feel we have been wronged on the road and then hold resentment
towards other drivers. In their book Road
Rage and Aggressive Driving, Drs Leon James and Diane Nahl say that
passive-aggressiveness is “expressed by ignoring others or by refusing to
respond appropriately” (85). The
purpose is to be an obstruction and oppositional to other drivers. They often anger other drivers by driving
slow in the fast lane and ignoring prompts to get out of the way. Passive-aggressive drivers often do this to
assert their ownership over space and time.
Drivers like to be in control and knowing that another may want your
space can lead some to become blatantly powerful over the space they are
occupying.
Left-Lane Bandit
A left-lane bandit is like
the passive-aggressive driver who likes to maintain control over space. They are defined by Drs James and Nahl as
“motivated by contrariness, stubbornness and even the perverse enjoyment of
dominating others” (86). They are the
drivers in the fast lane driving slower than the speed of traffic, obstructing
other drivers, because they aren’t legally required to move over. This can cause other drivers to become angry
which runs the risk of road rage.
4. Autobiographical
I feel that my driving is
reflective of my personality, I am a calm person and I like things to be
without stress and with common courtesy, but at the same time I also can react
when pushed too far. I try to be thoughtful of other drivers when on the road
by avoiding tailgating and cutting off others.
I do speed but I try to keep it at about the same rate as other drivers,
never excessively over.
While I think that my
personality and demeanor has determined my driving style a lot I also know that
there are other influences that factor into it. I do know that my parent’s style has affected me. I am much like my father and so when driving
in his presence I am comfortable with the stereo playing and driving faster
than other drivers. I have never felt
inhibited by my father’s presence in the car.
My mother on the other hand is the exact opposite. While driving with her I take extra
precautions to use my blinker appropriately, put both hands on the steering
wheel and never going more than 5 miles over the speeding limit. I do this even though I know that she will
find something to comment on whether it is something I do or what I should have
done differently, it always leads into my mother threatening to take my car
away and never letting me drive again.
So I do know that my parent’s presence in the car affects the way I
drive, and I know that I learned this from a young age the way that they drove
with me in the car.
The role of the media is a
source that I don’t believe has truly affected my driving very much. I don’t feel that I am heavily influence by
the media because, for example, after watching a race car movie I feel no need
to drive like the drivers in the movie did.
One instance I can say it may influence my thinking is after watching
commercials for cars I have often thought it would be neat to go mudding like
they do with the four-wheel drive trucks or speeding through the desert with
the dirt flying behind me as in the sports car commercials. Other than that I feel no big media
influence on my driving.
Peers are another influence
that hasn’t much effect on me. Many of
my friends don’t have cars so they cannot drive unless I let them drive mine,
then they are on their best behavior (I turn into my mother for them). As a teenager I really wanted to drive the
exact opposite of my friends. After
driving with many of them I was scared to approach another ride with them after
driving at 80 on the freeway, tailing other cars and weaving in and out of
lanes. I had a friend who even after
driving with her multiple times and telling her to slow down she never would,
even when I stated facts about teenage accidents and how she is not as
invincible as she may think. I was
absolutely terrified to drive with her-- I still am except now it is her
talking on the cell phone while speeding and lane hopping.
My current style of driving
philosophy is to get to where I am going in however long it takes me but to
avoid getting stuck behind, beside or in front of other crazy drivers. I avoid city driving as much as possible
because the traffic and lack of respect often make me want to rip my hair out. And I also try to use the golden rule when
driving, treating others the way I’d like to be treated. I like to consider myself as a safe driver
because I use my blinker, drive with the flow and try to be considerate of
other drivers by letting them into my lane and not tailgating.
5. Conclusion
This activity helped me to
take a closer look at myself and the way I perceive driving. By reading all the definitions I was able to
recognize qualities that I hold which contribute to my driving style. I was also better able to grasp the idea of
Driving Psychology and how it can be applied to the driving population. I was able to better understand some
processes that occur on the road as well as how to better handle incidents that
cause me stress and frustration. This
is useful because it helps to know ways of dealing rather than just stewing in frustration. It is an active approach to making a
situation better. I do think that if
this approach is taken into classrooms, homes and DMVs there is a great
possibility for it to improve driving.
By understanding what happens to oneself and to others we can think in
broader terms than by just our own experience and views, we are able to think of
others besides ourselves and act accordingly.
6. Future Generations
The greatest piece of advice
that I can give to other students taking this course is to stay on top of the
material. It can be hard to motivate
yourself to do the work because all the work is up to you to complete on your
own. But if you wait to the last minute
your project will often end up not as good as it could have been.
Talking to your fellow
classmates is also really helpful.
Through talking to them you can learn whether or not you are on the same
page as to if you are doing the work correctly, see who is having problems and
release the tension that can be in an impersonal environment.
I myself have gotten a lot
out of talking with my classmates. It’s
helpful to know when I’m not the only one who doesn’t understand something and
it’s even better when someone can help me out with whatever I don’t understand. By talking in class time I’ve gotten a
better understanding of where others are coming from through their own
experiences.
Reference: Leon James and Diane Nahl (2000), Road
Rage and Aggressive Driving (Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY)
My home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/
Class home page http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html