My Report 3 on:

Driving Personality Makeovers - Is it for me?


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Table of Contents

Introduction

While driving on the freeway one evening you find yourself caught behind someone going 45 mph in the middle lane and no one wants to let you in their lane. What do you do? Do you relax and get comfortable resigning to go at that speed? Do you curse under your breath and patiently wait for an opportunity to change lanes presents itself? Or do you shout profanity, honk your horn, and gesture him with you finger?
You're stuck in 4:00 traffic on your way home after a long day at work. You're plugging along when this truck blatantly cuts you off making you slam onto the brakes in the process almost creating an accident. How do you react? Do you calmly dismiss his actions and resume on your way? Do you curse under your breath and give him "stink eye" all rest of the way home? Or do you shout profanity, honk your horn, and gesture him with you finger?

What is Driving Personality?

Your reactions to these situations characterize your "driving personality." What if someone wanted to change his/her reaction towards these situations? What if someone was unhappy about their driving behavior? If you attempt to change your attitude when driving you are engaging in a Driving Personality Makeover (DPM). Caroline Balatico defines a driving personality make-over as improving your driving skills by appreciating the privilege of driving. Aaron Reisner defines it as looking at your habits, both good and bad in order to decide what changes needs to be made. I think that Gary Uno describes DPM best as an awareness and intervention in the affective, cognitive, sensorimotor domains during driving.

Psychological concepts

Frued theorized that human aggression is instinctual. He refers to this aggressive instinct as Thanatos. Thanatos causes a buildup of aggressive energy and must be released periodically through a process called catharsis. For example playing aggressive sports such as football, hockey, or rugby provides an outlet for these emotions so to prevent emotional buildups and hence extreme outbursts.
By applying this rational to driving, road rage occurs when a buildup of negative energy is released in the form of reactions towards others. In order to facilitate driving personality makeovers one must find a healthy alternative to aggressive road behavior. For example, before going on the road, individuals trying to reduce aggressive attitudes might work out with a punching bag.
The revised frustration-aggression hypothesis by Leonard Berkowitz looks at aggression differently. According to the theory frustration invokes unpleasant emotions such as anger, depression, or anxiety which will provoke an aggressive act in response. For, example I get frustrated when I am late to class due to heavy traffic from an accident that happened over an hour previously. This frustration can lead to road rage as I begin to not let people in to change lanes or tail gating when I feel the person in front of me is going too slowly.
In order to prevent aggression in the revised frustration-aggression hypothesis the frustration invoking stimuli must be reduced. For example, perhaps by providing more public transportation or alternative routes traffic would be reduced and in turn my level of frustration and aggressive reactions.
Aggressive behavior could be learned from watching others. Albert Bandura states that aggression could be the result of social learning. Behavior, in this model, is promoted when observed acts are rewarded and inhibited when observed acts are punished. For example, if I see someone cut off someone to change lanes during a crowded rush hour in order to make better time I am more likely to attempt it myself when put into a similar situation.
If more people were to drive carefully with respect for each other than that behavior would be observed more and thus socially reinforced rather than the self-serving, "every man for himself" attitudes that seems predominant on today's roads.

My Mini-Self-Modification

Often I find myself speeding. Not excessively but speeding nevertheless. For example I often find myself going 65 in a 55 or 50 mph zone or 50 in a 35-mph zone. Again, nothing really terrible but could I change my established driving behavior and learn to drive at speed limits as it is only a few mph less anyway? So I decided to try a mini-self-modification experiment. I kept a daily log of each I traveled over the speed limit. In every instance I would speed I forced myself to take a bite of chocolate liquorice (I REALLY hate that stuff) that I kept with me when driving in an attempt to punish that behavior. This accomplished two things; I didn't speed nearly as much and I learned to swallow liquorice without chewing.

Conclusion

During a three week span I was on the road 46 separate times and during those times I sped 73 times, much more in the beginning than towards the end. Although it became easier to obey traffic laws over time speeding is still my norm behavior. Once this report is complete I have full confidence I will return to my old habits. This is because although my attitude has changed somewhat there are problems I still encounter with limit driving.
A problem I found with adjusting my speeding is that I don't think it is particularly wrong. It seems like a social norm to break traffic laws to a certain degree. I think this is true for most people even among law enforcement agents. I find it difficult in the extreme to believe that someone would be ticketed and fined for going 5 mph above the speed limit.
At times the speed limits seem inappropriate. Driving 55 on the freeway on the way home from work at 1:00 AM in the morning it is a difficult endeavor at best. Everyone on the road at that hour seems be going at least 65. So, I feel like I am crawling along at a snails pace as I watch the other drivers zip by. It almost seems I am putting myself at a greater risk for going so darn slow.
The other contributing factors to my speeding difficulties are the reactions by others. When traveling at 55 on the freeway those behind me often get frustrated. Often, people tailgate, zoom by giving me "stink eye," or in the worst instance shout profanity. Getting passed seems to be the norm when driving at speed limits.
Nevertheless, I think it was a valued experience. I learned that it is possible to obey speed limits but more importantly I learned different perspectives on driving. When I pass someone going 55 now on the freeway I don't harbor any frustration towards that person as he/she is only obeying the traffic laws. As I once engaged in acts of aggression towards people like that myself (tailgating, stink eye), having been there, I don't see myself repeating that behavior anytime soon.

Advice to Future Generations

If you are a student of traffic psychology this is a good activity to attempt. Perspectives on speeding, both personal and social become apparent. How people feel, think, and act on these views help us better understand the process involved when on the road. But if are to attempt this I give you these words of advice:
Take good notes. Write down everything you experience from personal thoughts or the reactions of others no matter how trial they may seem at the time. In retrospect, their importance may be realized.
Be fair. By this I mean if one is to truly gain from this experience he/she needs to take good notes as well as follow through with any punishment or reward system (as much as I hated liquorice). Otherwise you are cheating yourself as well as your study.
Be patient. Driving at the speed limit is far from easy. Adjusting behavior takes time. The reactions of others can be unpleasant. These factors can make it difficult but one must endeavor to make the experience worthwhile.

Epilogue

When I first started this it was the most frustrating thing in the whole wide world. I thought it was stupid and not worth my time. Many times I found myself speeding and not caring. But over time I began to notice changes in my attitude to the whole project. Eventually, abiding by speed limits became much easier. The frustration I initially felt had left replaced with an odd contentment. This entails an adjustment of the affective domain. My cognitive domain was equally influenced. Initially I believed that traveling at the speed limits were needlessly time consuming but I began to understand that it was possible with only a minor difference in elapsed time. I also learned that it was possible and with some effort could become the driving norm. With these changes it is no wonder that I began to travel the roads at speed limits with less reservations hence a change in my sensorimotor domain.

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