Her definition of Traffic Psychology is the realization of negative actions while driving on the road. When you realize your negative driving, you can find out why you behave the way you behave. Is it due to the cognitive, the affective and the sensorimotor actions? After the reason is determined, the next step is to modify the bad behaviors.
He expressed the definitions of Traffic Psychology in three ways. The first is, that it deals with the affective, cognitive and sensory-motor aspects of people while they are on the road. Being on the road, you can encounter situations that can affect one's behavior. For example, being in traffic affect everyone. Even if you are the nicest person, you can easily become irritated and less tolerant of certain behaviors. When you are aware of certain feelings that affect our behaviors, you can change or modify those feelings which in turn change the way we think. This will help us change our behaviors. The second, is used as a tool. A tool to observe and analyze behaviors that can help change the way we behave on the road. Let us be aware of our behavior and how those behaviors affect those that are around us. The third is, it forces us to deal with the bad behaviors and try to find ways to modify that behavior to minimize the dangers we face on the road today.
I think the term Traffic Psychology is very broad in Shane's definition. But, I believe that this is a good thing. First of all he mentions everything about Driving Psychology that he knows. This shows that he is truly thinking about what he is trying to define. By reading his definition you can see that he put a lot of time into it. This is simply seen by looking at how he separated his definition into three separate parts but yet how they fit together is uncanny. To me Shane is on the right track to defining this term. He really has helped me to begin to form my own definition. I really must agree with everything he has to say. This seems to be a well thought out definition.
Lisa said that Traffic Psychology is a way to heighten your awareness of driving. She said it is a way to make you more aware of yourself on three level: Affective, Cognitive, and Sensorimotor. These are the Three Domains of Driving Behaviors, which is also a technique in self-witnessing. She said by using these three domain you can figure out what is the cause of certain problem and knowing these problems can help to correct the bad behaviors.
Her definition deals with the fact that Traffic Psychology is an infant in the discipline of psychology. It is because of the starting point of Traffic Psychology began in the early 1980's. She said Traffic Psychology is not the thoughts and behaviors of automobiles and the cognition of buses and recreation vehicles. But it's the way we the people view things while we are in the car. A car gives a driver a sense of protection because the driver is surrounded by sheets of metal. This idea of being shielded changes how a person act or feel. So, the question comes down to, why do we act so differently when we are in a car? These behavioral changes are the focal point of Traffic Psychology.
What does Traffic Psychology mean? She said that it is a concept that is helpful in explaining why people behave certain ways in traffic. Therefore, this explains why most accidents happen, instead of what happen. She said knowing "why" can help to develop a safer society. Also, knowing "why" certain things happen, you can get a better control knowing before hand. This awareness allows us to see the negative behavior and then change it. This can result in the decreasing of auto accidents and fatalities.
I agree that we need to find out why things happen and that Traffic Psychology is a way of finding that out when people get into accidents or even altercations on the road. Like I said before all of these people are on the right track as far as I am concerned. Knowing why is an important part in Psychology so I can see how it would play an important role in Traffic Psychology as well.
Now, from my experience as a pedestrian I can see how Traffic Psychology would be useful. It would be useful for you to know so that you are better able to protect yourself while walking on the street. Let me give you this example, it's been raining all day. It is now 5:30 and traffic is really heavy. You are trying to cross the street at a busy intersection. If you know something about Traffic Psychology you might be able to figure out when would be the safest time to cross by looking at the people driving and figuring out what they are thinking. This way you safe yourself from getting yelled at or mistreated by someone who has had a bad day. I'm not sure how this would work but I think it could somehow be applied from Traffic Psychology.
Traffic Psychology would pay off a lot for a passenger. In Traffic Psychology you would learn about what a driver is thinking and about what you do that could possibly irritate them. The reason that this would help is because you will learn what not to say or do as a passenger. This would also work when you are the driver because you know how it feels to be the passenger which in turn makes you more sympathetic to the passenger.
Everyone knows that cyclists are one of the biggest complaints by drivers. By learning about Traffic Psychology you learn what the complaints are and how you can fix them or avoid them because lets face facts here, if you go head on with a car you will lose so it's better for you to change to protect yourself. This psychology will make you aware of what the driver is thinking and feeling when they see a cyclist do a certain thing. This will hopefully help you to avoid confrontations with a driver and maybe even save your life.