Backseat Driving as a Favor
Driving BuddyBeing a Driving BuddyWhile searching through "DrDriving's Topics" I came accross an article that described this term in detail. According to Dr. James and Dr. Nahl a "driving buddy" or "driving partner" serves as a source of unbiased feedback in regards to one's driving. Essentially, the driving buddy honestly and openly comments and critiques the driver's actions and feelings. It is the driving buddy's responsibility to keep the driver informed so they may make improvements upon their driving style in accordance with the critique. This system of partership driving is described in detail at the following site: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy6/g6reports459.html#Heading8 and is a part of the "Dyadic QDCs (Quality Driving Circles)."Driving Personality Make-OverOnce again, I have searched in the "DrDriving's Topics" and found an entire page dedicated to the driving personality make-over. The address is :http://aloha.net/~dyc/makeover.html Here, Dr. James lists a compilation of definitions given by students that he feels best describes this term. In essence, a driving personality make-over describes a process in which you voluntarily alter your driving behavior and habits for the better. This process involves three basic steps:1). Acknowledging your shortcomings through self witnessing, 2).Create and implement a plan that will modify your driving behavior in a positive manner, and 3). Assuming all resposibilities as a driver behind the wheel of a vehicle. This will involve monitoring of affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor responses to any given situation on the road.
Day 1A few technicalities had to be cleared up before we began. I was to deliver the critiqes in a artful manner and avoid making personalized attacks. I was to also maintain his anonymity as it is being posted on the internet. In return he agreed that he would not take the criticism as a personal attack and would not be offended by whatever I had to say. The assumption was that if we abide by the aforementioned rules we will still be friends after this ordeal and perhaps we will come away with a little more knowledge about driving with emotional intelligence. Without further ado, here are the results of the first driving session.Day 2It goes without saying that this, being a new experience for him, situation caused him to be a bit self conscious during that first session and he readily admitted that he was paying much more attention to his driving because he knew that I would be observing him. For the same reasons, he expressed little emotion in comparison to how he usually drives and his jokes that he often cracked were at a minimum. He also revealed that he was uncomfortable with me observing and was only doing this for my project and said that he wouldn't consider doing it otherwise because the whole driving environment with me observing was "a little weird."CognitiveAlthough he claimed to have been rather unemotional during the entire session, he openly shared his disapproval for the driving habits of other drivers. He said that he disliked a lot of female drivers because they "can't decide on one lane and don't drive the speed limit (they go slower than the speed limit.)." He adds "women should drive late at night when they have no one to inconvinience but themselves."SensorimotorAlthough, I could tell that he was trying to keep his emotions in check, he did react to certain situations in subtle ways. I noticed that his brow furrowed when a driver merged in front of him without signalling and he let out a irritated exhalation of breath. He also slightly tailgated a female driver that was driving just under the speed limit.This was the session that I was apprehensive about because it involved my friend abiding by my orders on how to drive and I was no longer merely the casual observer; I now played an intergral part in this driver-buddy interaction and I was unsure about how my friend would react...Comparing Day 1 and Day 2
My friend admitted being somewhat "irritated" with my requiring him to drive at the speed limit and allowing faster drivers to pass by merging right to let them by. He still felt that he was driving all right the day before and so there was little reason to change. Additionally, he felt a little less self conscious and was just more on the irritated side but he said that his irritation was not directed towards me because I was just following the directions of the assignment.CognitiveA lot of my friend's irritation stemmed from the fact that he felt that he was driving excessively good during the previous session and saw no reason to have to change his driving. He felt that "justice was not being served" when he let the speeders pass and that everyone should drive no faster than he because he was abiding by the speed limit laws which he initially protested to doing because "no one goes the limit anyways." He felt justified as being the vigilante driver as everyone should obey all traffic laws if he had to because otherwise it "wasn't fair."SensorimotorAlthough he tried not to be irritated by my suggestions, I could tell that they affected him quite a bit due to his sensorimotor responses to both my suggestions and the other drivers. At times he would let out an exasperated sigh and look at me as if to say "I can't believe that you are making me do this." He would also mutter "tsk tsk" as motorists passed him as he travelled in accordance with the posted limit. This time there seemed to be a frown permanently affixed to his face in spite of all of the times that I reminded him to "fix his face." I also caught him curse once under his breath as a slow motorist caused him to miss the light. I told him not to run the yellow and wait for the green and he slowly shook his head in disgust.One thing that stood out in particular was that most of the responses were towards the other driver on the first session and a lot of the responses were towards me on the second session. The following is a comparision in all areas between session one and session two.Principles of Traffic PsychologyAffectiveIn the first session my friend was far more self-conscious than in the second. He expressed much more emotion than the previous session and seemed to be far more willing to express his irritation and was less in control of his emotions. He seemed a little more arrogant in the second session than in the first and seemed clearly against the fact that he had to drive in the manner that I saw fit.Cognitive
Much of what was observed in this area was the same in that he felt that everything that he was doing was either the "right way" or "justified." He said he felt a little more animosity to the drivers in the second session because he was abiding by every law and some of the other drivers were following none. He believed that he should have been able to take it into his own hands when the others blatantly broke the laws in his presence.SensorimotorThere were far more exhalations of breath and more head shaking in response to both my comments and to the actions of the other drivers in the second session. I also observed a cussing incident while swearing remained non-existant in the first session. He was far more willing to express his true feelings through many negative gestures in the second session.Through this process of being a "driving buddy," I was amazed at how many principles of traffic psychology came to light in just these two sessions. There were many incidents that were typical of what was found in research (results are posted at this website: http://aloha.net/~dyc/surveys/survey2/interpretations.html ). For example the research on lane hopping says that the majority of those who merge without signalling are SUV drivers. Although my friend drives an SUV and did not merge without signalling (because I was there) I did notice that out of the eighteen people that merged around him without signalling, eleven drove SUV's, five drove sports cars, and only two drove vans. Also in accordance with the research on aggressive driving and gender, all of those who merged without signalling were male. My friend was also typical of the majority who cruise and block the passing lane. According to research on cruising in the passing lane, young male drivers are the majority of the culprits here. Perhaps it was no surprise that I had a difficult time convincing him to allow those exceeding the speed limit to pass by merging right on the second session as he felt that if he had to go the limit others should too.There were a few other principles that came to light but the one that I would like to focus on in the next section is resistance.
My Report1: How Music Affects Drivers: Should We Rock While We Roll?