My Driving Personality Makeover Project
by SAYO YOSHINO

A link to Instructions for Your Report 2
            www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy20/g20lecturenotes409a.htm 

1. Preface

A link to Report 1: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as2004/sayo/report1.htm

 

Brief review of Report 1:

The purpose of the report 1 was to introduce the overall theories and applications of driving psychology.  Mainly, I defined 10 different theories and applications that are shown below to help us understand about driving psychology.

 

1.         The driver's threefold Self

2.        Self-witnessing methodology

3.        Road rage

4.        Aggressive driving legislation

5.        The driver's emotional intelligence

6.        The driver's emotional spin cycle

7.        Newsgroups for drivers

8.        Lifelong driver education

9.        “TEE CARDS”

10.     “Driving Cartoons”

 

For instance, a definition of “the driver’s threefold self” is that driving behavior involves the whole personality of an individual.  The individual’s personality (the driver’s threefold self) can be divided into three parts: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor. 

The Driver’s Threefold Self

 

Affective

Cognitive

 

Sensorimotor

Feelings, motivation, emotions, attitudes, values

Thoughts, reasoning, judgment, knowledge

Sensation, perception, vision, fatigue, pain  motor reactions, stress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to defining the definitions of droving psychology, report 1 included autobiography as a passenger.  In the section, how behavior of my parents, media, my friends influence my behavior as a passenger and my perspective about driving in general.               

 

Brief summary of the conclusion section:

Driving psychology seems very useful for all generations, from children to elderly throughout the world.  Since traditional driving education covers a limited area especially in the technical part of driving (sensorimotor), driving psychology is necessary to teach the emotional mechanisms and control strategies. 

 

About Report 2:

The purpose of the report 2 is to describe some self- assessment tests and questionnaires, and to try using a driving personality makeover method to modify a driver’s behavior to a more supportive driving behavior.  A driver’s resistance to change his/ her driving philosophy and style are normal reactions that many drivers experience when they try driver self- modification exercise for the first time.  In fact, according to Dr. Leon James’s research, “70 percent of drivers complain about the aggressiveness of others, but only 30 percent admit to their own aggressiveness” (P185).  A driver to make it through “A W M” (Acknowledge, Witness, and Modify) is a key to develop emotional intelligence and to become a supportive driver.  Both the self- assessment tests and the driving personality makeover method explained in this report 2 cover “A W M” differently but effectively.  Hopefully, at the end of this report, readers will understand how each test and method works and try using them to have a more supportive driving life.      

 

2. Introduction: Objective Self- assessment

 

Trying checklists like “YOUR ROAD RAGE TENDENCY” and “HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU” is a good start to find out about yourself as a driver.

 

CHECKLIST: YOUR ROAD RAGE TENDENCY (P40)

Brief description:      The checklist can be used to assess your current road rage level mainly from four perspectives that are anger theory, driving philosophy, habit of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive, and oversensitivity to social pressure by motorists.

 

Examples of statements:                     

²        I swear a lot more in traffic than I do elsewhere.

²        I feel that it’s important to force certain drivers to behave appropriately on the highway.

²        I try to get to my destination in the shortest time possible, or else it doesn’t feel right.

²        I hate large trucks and I refuse to drive differently around them.

²        Click here to see all statements CHECKLIST: YOUR ROAD RAGE TENDENCY (P40)

 

Scoring system:

²        Write a circle when a statement applies to you (Yes) and do not write anything when a statement does not apply to you (No).

²        After you go through all the statement, count the number of circles.

²        Score range from 0 to 20

 

Interpreting the score:

²        less than 5:               you are not an aggressive driver and your road rage tendency is controllable

²        between 5 and 10:   you have moderate road rage habits

²        greater than 10:      your road rage tendency is out of control

 

²        A participant scored 9 out of 20.

²        He has moderate road rage habits since his score fall in between 5 and 10

²        9 statements which he did agree were:

 

1.         2- I normally have critical thoughts about other drivers

2.        6- It’s good to get your anger out because we all have aggressive feelings inside that naturally come out under stressful situations.

3.        7- When I’m very upset about something, it’s a relief to step on the gas to give my feelings an outlet

4.        8- I feel that it’s important to force certain drivers to behave appropriately on the highway.

5.        12- I try to get to my destination in the shortest time possible, or else it doesn’t feel right.

6.        13- If I stopped driving aggressively, others would take advantage of my passivity.

7.        15- I feel energized by the sense of power and competition I experience while driving aggressively.

8.        17- Once in a while I get so frustrated in traffic that I begin to drive somewhat recklessly.

9.        19- Sometimes I feel that I’m holding up traffic so I start driving faster than feels comfortable.

 

²        Analysis of questions

1.       Your anger theory                                                                          (questions 1 to 7)

2.      Your driving philosophy                                                                  (questions 8 to 11)

3.      Your habit of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive           (questions 12 to 17)

4.      Your oversensitivity to social pressure by motorists                 (questions 18 to 20)

 

·           A participant had 3 anger theories (questions 2, 6, and 7) out of 7.

·           He had 1 driving philosophy (question 8) out of 4.

·           He had 4 habits of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive (questions 12, 13, 15 and 17) out of 6.

·           He had 1 oversensitivity to social pressure by motorists (question 19) out of 3.

 

·           Since all of the above leads to road rage in some degree, going through the 3 steps of “A W M” (Acknowledge, witness and modify) is important for him and people around him to have safe driving life.

·           Especially, at the part checklist which assesses his habit of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive, he scored more frequently compared to other part of checklist like his anger theory and his driving philosophy.  Thus, I would suggest that modifying his habit of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive is a good start for him to become more supportive driver. 

 

A word of caution:   Since this checklist is done by you and it only tells your opinion about each statement, the result you get is not necessarily true in real driving life.   

 

CHECKLIST: HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU (P184)

 

Brief description:     This checklist can be used to assess the degree of your passenger- friendliness as a driver. 

 

Examples of statements:

²        I always consider my passenger’s feelings.

²        I adjust my driving to accommodate to my passengers’ comfort.

²        I let my passengers influence my driving for the better.

²        I want my passengers to think of me as a good and safe driver.

²        Click here to see all statements CHECKLIST: HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU (P184)

 

Scoring system:

²        Write a checkmark when you think a statement is true to you

²        After you go through all the statement, count the number of checkmarks.

²        Scores range from 0 to 10. 

 

Interpretation of the checklist:

²        A participant scored 7 out of 10.

²        I would say he is a 70% passenger- friendly driver.

²        3 statements which he did not agree were:

Ø        7-          My passengers can control the air conditioning and windows.

Ø        8-          Passengers have the right to criticize the driver’s behavior.

Ø        10-        My passengers can select the music.

²        He has the tendency to not want passengers to control devises inside his car.

²        Also, it seems that he already has built his own driving philosophy.

 

A word of caution:   This checklist is just a self check.  In other words, the result of checklist only tells your opinion about each statement, so the result you get is not necessarily true in real situations. 

 

3. My Driver Self- modification Attempt

Here are two links to prior generation reports:

²        driving personality make-over is it for me? by a G11 student

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/manibusan/report3.html#what

The G11 student describes a personality make- over process in 3 steps which is shown below.

 

1.         During driving, witnessing and acknowledging your faults and actions

2.        Trying out a behavior modification plan to change your driving behavior to more positive driving behavior. 

3.        Taking responsibility for your actions because a driver is the one who controls a vehicle and behavior to avoid harm your self and others.

 

The student also mentioned that a driving personality make- over process listed above is not easy.  In the process, conscious evaluation of three domains which are affective (feeling), cognitive (thinking) and behavior are keys for a successful personality make- over.  

 

²        being a driving buddy: what it’s like

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409as99/manibusan/report2.html

According to the student, being a driving buddy is in other words, giving a driving personality make- over to someone.

A driving buddy is the one who is responsible to observe a driver’s (a friend or someone close to you) driving behavior and identify what behaviors the driver should change to make safe driving behavior to avoid endanger situations.  The student also mentioned that being a driving buddy is not easy.  The reason is the driving buddy needs to critique the friend’s driving behavior and change the negative driving styles.      

 

(a)  My experiment

PARTNERSHIP DRIVING (P185)      This is an exercise to gain the objective view of a driver by getting help from a driving partner because habituated aggressive driving is often difficult to identify and change by one’s self.  Basically, the partner observes and gives feedback about the driver’s behavior to the driver.  This exercise is rich in design which involves “A W M” (A- acknowledge, W- witness, M- modify) all in one. 

 

Procedure:

Trial 1:         Goal:      Let a passenger express his/ her feelings freely and to witness a driver’s aggressive driving objectively during a trip and a driver acknowledges imperfection of his/her driving philosophy and style.

Time Period

A driver

A passenger

Before a trip

·           sign a partnership driving agreement to protect the passenger

·           Take 2 checklists

1.       YOUR ROAD RAGE TENDENCY”

2.      “HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU”

 

During the trip

·           drive as usual

·           take notes

·           make comments (observation, feeling)

After the trip

·           review the notes

·           discussion(directed toward the main purpose of how you can improve)

Trial 2:

Time Period

A driver

A passenger

Before a trip

·           Take a checklist

1.       “HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU”

·           give a recommendation

During the trip

·           work on a recommendation

·           take notes

After the trip

·           review the notes

·           discussion

·           for a driver

1.       How well you followed the recommendation

2.      What you can do to improve further

3.      the differences between day 1 and day 2

·           for a passenger

1.       What kinds of resistance did you experience?

2.      What new awareness did you gain about yourself as a passenger?

3.      What changes will you work on next with your driving partner?

Trial 3 or later:

                      Repeat the same process as Day 2 with other recommendations one at a time.

Last trial:

Repeat the same process as Day 2 with other recommendation.

Also, take 2 checklists which are “YOUR ROAD RAGE TENDENCY” and “HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU” to see how a driver’s driving philosophy and style has changed over period of time.

 

(b)  Data Tables

YOUR ROAD RAGE TENDENCY”

DAY 1

9 OUT OF 20

He has moderate road rage habits

Click here for more information

LAST

4 OUT OF 20

He is no longer an aggressive driver and his road rage tendency is controllable

Click here for more information

 

“HOW PASSENGER- FRIENDLY ARE YOU”

 

TRIAL

SCORE

DESTINATION

DRIVE TIME

RECOMENDATION

1

7 out of 10

Ala moana- Hawaiikai town center

30 min

NONE

2

7 out of 10

Hawaiikai - Diamond head

15

No off sight for more than 1 sec

3

8 out of 10

Diamond head - Ala moana

15

Holding the steering wheal while you are driving

4

8 out of 10

Ala moana- Restaurant Row

15

Making enough space between your car and a car in front

5

No data

Restaurant Row- Ala moana

15

NONE (refused)

6

8 out of 10

Ala moana- Tantalus Hill

15

Not making turns too fast

7

8 out of 10

Ala moana- Kapahulu

10

Allocate sufficient time for trip

8

No data

Kapahulu- Ala moana

10

NONE (refused)

9

9 out of 10

Ala moana- Ward

10

Not making turns too fast

LAST

10 out of 10

Ward- Ala moana

10

Avoid unnecessary cell phone use while you are driving

 

(c)  Analysis and Discussion

 

First of all, as a passenger, I had hard time collecting objective data of my driver’s behavior.  One of the reasons is I frequently aid not look while taking notes and I missed the driver’s driving behavior while I am writing.  For instance, my driving partner pointed out to me in one of the trials that, I had missed a little communication between my driver and the other driver.  The other reason is since I have never driven before, my understanding of driver’s perspective is very low and my focus tends to go to my driver not my driver’s behavior.  Thus, I was concerned that my objective data would be skewed. 

 

Having a passenger’s perspective is good in a way, since driving is like team work in that a driver is not the only person in a car, and it is better to have both a driver and a passenger’s perspective to understand each other’s view.  In any case, to resolve my difficulty, at least I tried to check my driver’s behavior objectively, but I decided not to count which behavior happened how many times.  However, still I had to have some kind of data which involves the numbers for this report 2, so I decided to let my driver take a checklist every time before his driving starts. 

     

My participant’s road rage tendency decreased through out this exercise.  Especially, his habit of compulsive rushing or feeling competitive (questions 12 to 17).  I think it is because many of the recommendations involved not taking his eyes of the road for more than 1 sec, not making turns too fast, and allocating sufficient time for the trip.  I also pointed out to him that when he drives under time pressures, he can hardly drive calmly because his tension when he feels rushed and calmed are very different. 

 

I also explained to him it is better to eliminate excessive cell phone use while he is driving because no matter how skillful he is in using a cell phone, there is always the possibility of getting into an accident.  My point was once he got in an accident he would lose another precious time.  Thus, he became more aware of driving philosophy in time.  Also, he became very passenger- friendly and improved emotional intelligence after the ten trials of this exercise.  In fact, he started out with 7 out of 10 scores, but he ended with 10 out of 10 scores.  An explanation for the improvement was presence of a passenger throughout the trials.  It made him more aware about the passenger.   

 

(d)  Conclusion and future plans

 

This partnership driving exercise was a useful way to modify my partner’s driving habits.  Every time we did the exercise, I felt our awareness level toward driving increase.  In fact, the exercise helped me understand the driver’s perspective and made me aware that driving is a complex behavior.  Since my partner’s road rage tendency has not fully gone, further trial of this exercise is necessary.  Having done the exercise, my partner him self realized his imperfection in his driving philosophy and style, and the importance of a life long driving education. 

 

In trial 5 and 8, my partner tried to give up his modification exercise due to the misunderstanding of a driver and a passenger’s perspective and tiredness.  However, we have never truly given up the exercise because we understand the importance of this exercise.  Overall, my driving partner was a very supportive participant who has willingness to change his behavior to be better.  He even told me that his awareness level has improved and he has been responsive about his driving behavior more than before even without my presence.  Nowadays, he has found usefulness of “news groups for drivers”, so he has started attending a traffic discussion session once a week. 

 

Like I stated earlier in this paragraph, I would like to continue doing the partnership driving exercise for my driving partner and for myself.  In addition to this, I would like to try an exercise called “appropriate and inappropriate passenger behaviors” (P160) in Dr. James’s Road Rage book to be a supportive passenger.  Also, I would like to try to use not only the checklists I introduced in this report 2, but also various checklists which are listed in Dr. James’s Road Rage book as a useful way to have various perspectives as a driver and as a passenger. 

 

I am very serious about my future plans just stated because whatever exercise or self- check my driving partner and I do influence each other in our everyday driving life.  In the beginning of this partnership driving exercise, I was not sure what exactly I needed to do because it was my first try.  Still, I am not fully skillful in doing this exercise, but by trial and error, hopefully I can make a difference in society. 

      

4. Conclusion

 

This assignment helped me (as a passenger) identify my partner’s driving style and philosophy.  Even though my partner has been driving for over 5 years, since he had never had chance to analyze his driving style objectively and to think about his driving philosophy, I found many aggressive habits in his driving.  Luckily, his road rage tendency was not too difficult to change, he did overcome “A W M” (acknowledge, witness, and modify) one step at a time.  It was amazing to see his behavioral changes directly because when he changed his driving style, I could tell he also changed his driving philosophy through the way he talks about his emotion while he is driving and driving situation, and through the checklists score he took in each trial.

 

Overall, this report 2 was useful for me to experiment some of the checklists and driver self- modification exercise introduced in Dr. James’s Road Rage book.  Truly, I understood the effectiveness of each attempt, so I would like to use them when I get my driver’s license some day near future. 

 

In the beginning of the semester, I was thinking that driver self- modification exercise was to teach non- aggressive driving behavior to a driver.  However, I realized that the aim of the exercise especially “partnership driving” was actually not teaching.  The exercise intended to help identifying a driver’s aggressive driving behaviors, and the driver try to modify his/ her aggressive driving style one by one by getting support from a passenger. 

 

I agree with a concept of driving is like team work.  This time, I focused about a driver’s driving style and philosophy, but I feel the necessity of modifying passenger’s behavior and philosophy to make our driving life more supportive.             


5. Future Generations

 

I strongly recommend starting your Driver Self- modification Attempt as early as possible.  Also, in any exercise, it is better to have as many trials as possible to see changes in driving behavior and to collect more reliable data.    

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