Report 2

My Driving Personality Makeover Project

by Sarah E. Phillips

instructions: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm

1. Preface

In report one I examined the different aspects that affect driving and discussed the definitions of some of Dr.’s Leon James and Diane Nahl’s terminology. I was able to get a better understanding of the various aspects that affect driving through the cognitive, affective and sensorimotor routes and how I as a driver should learn them and the best ways to react and deal with their effects.

It is important to understand the various ways drivers are influenced both internally and externally so that we can better understand ourselves. Most every person in the United States will become a driver and with more people on the road interacting with each other we need to learn to take responsibility for our actions and understand why we as well as others react the way we do.

To see my report one follow this link: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/report1.htm

The purpose of Report 2 is to further apply driving psychology and its methodology to my personal driving. This report is a personal attempt to makeover my driving style. It is an attempt to change the way I think, feel and act behind the wheel so that I can become an improved and safer driver.

When driving, many are not aware that it is a reflection of their own personality, it reflects the way you are as a person. An individual cannot separate their personality from their actions because a person’s actions reflect the way the person thinks and feels in any given situation. Driving personality is just one small segment of the whole personality of an individual. This report is more of an experiment to acknowledge my own personality behind the wheel and to acknowledge it’s portrayal of my whole personality. What I come to see is that there are some aspects of my driving personality that I do not like and that I should change to better reflect the way I would like to be seen. This Report is an active step in abandoning the idea that I have no room for improvement and to actively work to correct myself in my driving errors.

By applying the principles discussed in report 1 to my cognitive, sensorimotor and affective self I will be able to notice, correct and improve my driving flaws. In this report I will apply the Acknowledge, Witness, Modify approach and work to reduce, and hopefully, eliminate problem driving habits.

(see link: http://www.drdriving.org/articles/three_step.htm)

2. Introduction: Objective Self-Assessment

In their book, Road Rage and Aggressive Driving, Dr. James and Dr. Nahl have many tests and questionnaires to help the reader identify their own driving styles and personality. They pose these tests and questionnaires so that the reader can identify the various aspects of their threefold self as a driver; their affective (attitude), cognitive (feelings) and sensorimotor (actions). I took several of these tests and questionnaires and will describe some of them for better understanding of what they address and what the scoring system means.

Your Road Rage Tendency (pg 40-41)

This checklist poses various questions that have the reader/driver to think back to their thoughts, feelings and actions while driving. It looks at all aspects of the threefold self and asks the reader to answer either “yes” or “no” to each of the 20 questions. With each “yes” the reader gives him/herself a point. The higher the total number of points the reader receives indicates a greater likelihood that they will (or have) display(ed) road rage tendencies that are risky and even dangerous to themselves and others. This test is able to give an immediate diagnoses of whether or not a driver’s behavior and personality is appropriate and it also advises that high scores take action to reduce their score for safety and better emotional intelligence.

Winning and Losing in the Driving Game (pg 42-43)

This checklist focuses on the affective self in how we can use a point system while driving. This point system affects our attitude and view of ourselves and others on the road. The checklist goes over many areas that we often score ourselves and others giving pluses or minuses. Each plus is in our favor while minuses deduct from our worth. Each driver naturally wants to have as many pluses as possible, it allows us to have a better self view and boosts our self-esteem. This checklist is more of an awareness exercise that allows the reader to become aware of their various attitudes and how they can affect their driving personality. It allows the reader to also see some of the pettiness involved in their attitudes of driving.

Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings (pg 65-66)

This checklist helps in identifying the affective and cognitive aspects of the threefold self that are part of road rage tendencies. It is comprised of three driving areas; fantasies of retaliation and revenge, high-pressure driving and competition and impulsive and reckless driving. With each statement a reader is able to recognize the thoughts and feelings as ones they may have. Each time a reader acknowledges the statements apply to him/her they check it off. With each check the reader is able to identify problem thoughts and feelings that should be addressed and worked on. It is a self recognition and diagnoses checklist that allows the reader to recognize problem areas that are inappropriate and which need to be addressed.

Are you an Automotive Vigilante? (pg 99-100)

This checklist focuses on the affective aspect of the threefold self. The automotive vigilante is an attitude that is with good intentions. Often though these good intentions lead to anger and road rage tendencies by other drivers directed at the automotive vigilante. This questionnaire helps a reader to identify him or herself as to whether or not they are a vigilante. While being vigilante is often with good intentions it can lead other drivers to become angry and want retaliation. It is taking on a role that should be left for the police or highway patrol to deal with. Each check indicates a higher tendency of automotive vigilantism. A reader may not think that being

vigilante is bad but by reading the paragraph preceding the checklist they may see some of the dangers and attitudes resulting from vigilante actions and how they are dangerous.

Assessing Myself as a Driver (pg 134-135)

This exercise is an approach to having a driver think critically of their own driving traits which may or may not have been mentioned in the book’s chapters. Here the reader makes a list of their best and worst driving traits according to themselves, then asks others to list their assessments of the individuals best/worst driving traits. By comparing the two lists the reader can see where differences lie in their own as well as other’s perceptions of their driving traits. This becomes the first step for the driver to be able to acknowledge their good and bad driving tendencies in order to develop a better emotional intelligence.

Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving (pg 140-143)

This checklist is the second step in the development of better emotional intelligence. The purpose of this checklist is to draw attention to the areas of the individual’s areas of driving personality that need to be modified. By reading through the checklist the reader can recognize areas to focus on modifying in their driving. The list notes many areas that drivers neglect or ignore that pose potentially dangerous situations. By picking one or two of the items to work on the reader can slowly work to become a safer driver by noticing and modifying the behavior when it occurs. It focuses on the threefold self and areas which can be improved in each, emotionally, cognitively and in the sensorimotor.

Do You Support Passenger Rights in your Car (pg 184)

This questionnaire can be taken by both the driver’s and the passenger’s view. It is meant to bring awareness to how drivers and passengers interact in the car and how each should treat and be treated by the other. With each checkmark a reader sees how they may have had road rage against passengers while driving. The more checks a person has, the higher the score, the worse the road rage is towards the passengers. This allows a reader to diagnose themselves with having road rage towards passengers and helps to identify areas that they could work on to reduce and eliminate road rage.

How Passenger-Friendly are you? (pg 184-185)

This checklist is one where a reader would want to have all lines checked off. It is a checklist that shows how a driver should take into consideration a passenger’s safety and well being while they are under the care of the driver. By checking off each line a reader is saying that they care about the passenger(s) and that it is important that they be comfortable with the drivers’ behavior on the road. It diagnoses whether or not a driver has a personality and style that is supportive and caring of others and if they are willing to modify their behavior to promote a supportive environment.

Supportive Driving Affirmations (pg 179)

This checklist is a list of 14 affirmations that are a result of a supportive driving style and positive driving personality. With each check a reader is indicating that they have adopted the affirmation and that they are committed to a harmonious driving style. It also gives the reader a sense of what a positive driving personality is. By working to adopt the items on the list and implement them into their driving a reader is trying to make positive changes that would result in a safer and improved driving personality. This checklist focuses on the affective and cognitive elements of the threefold self.

Positive Driving Behavior (pg 212-213)

This checklist contains items which support a positive sensorimotor element of the threefold self. By checking off the items on the list the reader is saying they will adopt and implement the items to improve their driving personality. Each check is a commitment by the driver that acknowledges the importance of the item in promoting healthy driving behaviors.

Analysis

In taking the various checklists I noticed that the ones identifying road rage in the reader/driver I did not score high in, I actually scored fairly low. I was surprised because I do get irritated frequently on the road but I suppose my low score is a result of my not acting upon my irritations in retaliation or revenge. I was surprised though that I was not able to check off as many as I would have liked on the Positive Driving Behavior and Supportive Driving Affirmation checklists. It revealed to me that while I may not be a road-rageous person I am not a supportive person either. My style of driving is generally neutral I do not get angry and vengeful on the road but I also do not promote a supportive atmosphere.

In the Road Rage Tendency checklist I scored a 5. This indicates that I do have some road rage tendencies but that is manageable. I looked back over the answers that I marked “yes” and noticed that they were the ones that were in regard to emotions and thoughts, my affective and cognitive selves. It indicated that my road rage is contained to internal thoughts and attitudes and not expressed through behavior. In the Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings checklist I marked 5 altogether. In area one I marked two; in area two I marked one and in area three I marked two. Again it is indicative of my not being so aggressive in action but some indication of harboring unfavorable thoughts and feelings. The Automotive Vigilante checklist I checked off four of the ten. I didn’t think that I was so much of a vigilante, but I do like to imagine myself as one. It would be ideal if by trying to control others driving it would end speeders and other aggressive driving habits but it won’t.

In the Assessing myself as a driver section I realized how different I see my driving than others . When I assessed myself and had others assess me the differences were not so much as great but that I didn’t realize some of the traits I did have. I neglected to see that my loud radio and fiddling with controls concerned my passengers as well as my speeding. I never really realized that I sped as much as I did until my friends commented. My mom always commented but I always figured she was overreacting, my dad has only commented once or twice and my brother always tells me I drive too slowly so I never thought it to be a problem. Since then I have noticed my speeding more and have tried to slow it down a little.

In Witnessing Your Aggressive Driving I checked two under witnessing your emotions; one, getting angry when forced to brake by another driver and two, feeling hostile when your progress is impeded by congestion. I did check one under thoughts; thinking that some drivers are fools, airheads, rejects, etc. I did not check any under actions. It reflects that my rage is more in my emotions and thoughts than in gestures or actions taken out on others. I do get frustrated when someone cuts me off or when people back traffic up to look at an accident. It frustrates me that such actions prevent others, not just myself, from getting by safely. As a result of my frustrations I tend to think bad things about other drivers, especially when they drive recklessly, I always am quick to judge their mental abilities and label them as stupid or incompetent.

For Supportive Driving Affirmations I was only able to select two. I was able to agree with only two and I thought a lot of the others just seemed too forgiving and even crazy. I thought so because they support others’ driving and that it not something I was trained to do so when I am faced with it today it doesn’t seem to make much sense to try. If I had encountered the list before taking the class I wouldn’t understand why these things should be done but now I do understand the logic and it has provided me a list of things that I should think about when driving and things that I could work on to improve.

As for my Passenger-Friendliness I scored high. I checked nine of the ten on the list and I found that I do want my passengers to feel safe and comfortable while I drive. Often while I may not agree with comments they make I will take it into consideration whether it be to turn the radio down or slow down and try to make my passengers happy.

For Positive Driving Behavior I checked of eight of the list of fourteen. Ideally I know it would be best to check off all fourteen but at this point it would be too much to handle so I checked off what I could attempt to control now. I found that I already did some of these, although not all the time so a goal for those would be to do it at all times while others I know I should do and don’t now.

3. My Driver Self-Modification Attempt

a. Design of my Experiment

When thinking about what I could try to change I had a hard time. Everyone thinks that they are the perfect driver and I am no exception. I figured that since I do not take out any hostilities on others that I had nothing I could work on. I did start to notice that I do harbor a lot of mental and emotional reactions. If I get cut off I think “you jerk,” or if I lose a parking spot to someone else I get angry. While many people do this and think nothing of it I decided I should. When looking through some prior generations I came across a students website where she performed a mini-experiment on her

own driving behaviors. I noticed that I react just as she does by getting angry and dreaming how nice it would be to blow my horn at someone. She also reports that when she got frustrated she would act on those frustrations, which could put her in a dangerous situation. I recognized the importance of this and since I see the same characteristics in myself I decided I should do something about my emotions.

I also came across another students website where I found I could identify my own actions in his report. Like the first student I mentioned he had noticed cognitive and affective differences when driving that led him to do some things that were not safe.

I decided that I would focus on my supportive driving skills since they encompass controlling affective and cognitive aspects of the three-fold self. I believe that by controlling my internal reactions to what goes on around me I can reduce and even eliminate unruly sensorimotor reactions that could endanger me or another driver. I looked over the checklist on page 179 of Dr. James and Dr. Nahl’s book “Road Rage and Aggressive Driving” and decided that I would choose two items off the list to try and improve upon. I chose number 6: I reward myself when my thoughts about other drivers are forgiving rather than hostile; and number 11: Whenever I feel a negative emotion against someone in traffic, I immediately reject that attitude and substitute positive feelings and thoughts.

I knew that these would be tough for me since I drive about 60 miles everyday and encounter some dangerous drivers and situations. When I encounter such bad situations my first response is to think negatively and allow my emotions to follow with anger and frustration.

To begin my experiment I would take a few baseline measurements to see how many times I react with negative feelings and emotions. I did this for three days where I drove from Mililani to Manoa (about 23 miles one way). Each day for three days I counted my negative emotional and cognitive reactions by dropping a coffee bean into my ash tray. Each night I counted the beans and got my count of negatives for each day.

After three days of baseline I decided to start implementing tools to try to change my negative reactions into positive ones. I did this for seven days, each time I was able to catch myself and change my thoughts I dropped a coffee bean into my ashtray. At the end of the day I would count my beans to tally the times I was able to change my emotions and thoughts around. Below are the results.

b. Data Tables

Table 1: Baseline Measurements

Table 2: Intervention Measurements

c. Analysis and Discussion

In the first table I have an average of 4.3 negative reactions everyday while driving to and from Manoa. Tuesday is exceptionally high with 7 negative reactions. Tuesday is generally always a bad driving day for me, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I am on campus longer and as such drive during high traffic times (9am and 330pm). With more cars on the road and longer travel times I am highly irritable and easily frustrated. Monday is also a long day like Tuesday which accounts for the higher number of negative reactions. Wednesday was low with only two negative reactions probably because I do not drive at high traffic times and have fast commutes with little congestions.

The second table switches from number of negative reactions to number of negative reactions changed to positive reactions. The first two days I was having a hard time catching myself because I was not used to having to change my reaction so I was not able to control many of my reactions and change them to positive. Saturday I did not drive to school in Manoa but instead drove to work in Waikele. I was in a good mood that Saturday and I didn’t drive as far so my numbers were low because I had a shorter distance and did not encounter as many situations to reactive negatively to. Sunday was zero negative reactions. I did not drive to town but instead drove to Turtle Bay, about 60 miles round trip.

I was in a really good mood because I was out in the country and I love going out with the long roads and no stoplights. I had a perfect driving day on that Sunday. The following Monday was a hectic day as well as Wednesday. I had a lot of stress from school and work and was on edge so the slightest thing set me off. I had quite a few more negative reactions than I was able to turn positive these days but I was still able to pull off 5 and 6 transitions from negative to positive those days. Tuesday was also a hard day and I was able to only change 4 negative reactions.

As the week went on it was easier for me to recognize times to change my attitude. It was not easy at all to get started and often I did not want to change my attitude (ie Monday and Wednesday) but I was able to see how my driving attitude and personality was affected by outside factors such as school stress and the weather. Traffic is a heavy influence on my response. I do not like traffic at all and on my long days I find it hard to maintain my cool when I have people cutting me off and driving slow to look at stalled cars and accidents. What is important was that I was able to recognize when I had negative thoughts and emotions, that is a first in trying to change.

d. Conclusion and Future Plans

I did find that I had many instances where it would have been easier to forgive and forget situations that made me ill while driving and I recognized times when I changed from happy to mad or mad to irate. I think that I really learned about how I react and why and the next step is to continue to recognize those moments and try to control my reaction by thinking positively. It was really hard to substitute the positive feelings but in the end I had a better attitude after the trip was over and I did not feel as wound up or angry as I had before when I did not react positively.

I do think that I will continue to correct negative emotions and thoughts and change them to positive or at least neutral ones. I have realized that it is not worth it to become angry or frustrated over situations that cannot be controlled. I think that this is a character trait that can be improved on and that I should try to improve just for the sake of lowering my blood pressure, it’s nothing to get a heart attack over.

4. Conclusion

This project was able to help me see that I do react negatively more than I had originally thought. I was able to see myself objectively by looking at the coffee beans, which showed my reactions, and I was faced with how I truly responded. It wasn’t always nice to see that I do harbor a lot of bad thoughts and emotions but now that I am aware of it I can change it. Changing is not always easy but if I want to like who I am, in and out of the car, I need to work on becoming more of the person I would like to be perceived as, even as a driver. This is extremely useful because now I am responsible for my own actions since I know where I need to improve in my driving skills. It will help me to continue to recognize my weaknesses and work to reduce and eliminate them. At the same time it is useful because I am able to recognize my strengths and foster them. My views have changed because with this project I saw and counted my reactions and I saw that I am different than how I thought I was. At the beginning of the semester I didn’t think I had to improve on anything but now I see that my emotions and thoughts do need to be worked on and changed to be positive.

5. Future Generations

To future generations I would say this: start your project early. It helps to get a head start on any project and this one is no exception. The sooner you start the easier time you will have in recognizing what has to be done by when. Also take it seriously, you never know what you will learn about yourself and if taken seriously you may find yourself surprised at what you thought to be true and what is true.

Reference: Leon James and Diane Nahl, Road Rage and Aggressive Driving.

Prometheus Books: Amherst, NY. (2000)

homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/phillips/homepage.htm

class homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20classhome.html