Kinney used three subjects in his QDC. They met three times with the first being the introductory meeting to get to know the driving habits of the participants. The subjects were given tape recorders after the meeting to record their actions and reactions while driving. During the second meeting Kinney went over the tapes and found that there was no negative driving behaviors to be found. Kinney then took the experiment a step further by asking the parents of the subjects to observe them while they were driving to take out the biases that might have arose with the tape recorder. Kinney was right and found that all the subjects displayed some form negative behavior while driving.
The method used here was good especially the last part of getting the parents involved to take out biases. The only thing that I didnāt agree with was the lack of trying to cure the negative driving habits of the lack of explanation by the participants as to why they acted that way. Maybe this was an isolated incident.
Takeshi used three participants and had three sessions all three days apart. The first session consisted of a survey to see what type of internal environment the participants drove in. It was important to see their environment in their cars to see what type of mood they were in. The second session was used mainly for show and tell of the emotions that were felt over the last couple of days. The concentration was on the mood of the participants. During this session Takeshi noticed that the external environment was very important to the mood of the drivers so Takeshi changed his focus to external things that set a drivers mood. The last session focused on the use of Takeshiās proposal of using something to displace the drivers anger instead of road rage. Takeshi suggested using animal sounds which no one used. The participants just thought of other things when negative thought entered their mind, and didnāt use the animal sound advise. The chsnge of thought worked and thus proved that what Takeshi was trying to do helped out the driver by trying to get the drivers mind off of the negative driving behavior of others.
I enjoyed this method very much because it focused on curing the negative actions in driving rather than just studying it. By suggesting a way to try to cope with negative thoughts it gave the participants a way to channel their negative emotions. I think that this type of QDC could work very well in a real life situation.
When Kimberly first started to talk about the set of her QDC, she said that there wasnāt really a format but a rap session. Then as she got into the sessions, there was a definate format. The three subjects would meet three times. The first meeting would be the handing out of a survey to take either while driving or after driving. This survey hit on questions involving attitudes on the road and if they followed the laws. The second meeting involved a oral questionaire to try to catagorize driving personalities of the participants. The third session was a oral rap session where the participants were let to talk about driving experiences and their experiences with road rage. Kimberly also gave the participants 6 helpful hints on how to be better drivers by controlling their emotions.
I like the format of this QDC. The only thing that I donāt agree with is the handing out of the 6 pointers for driving on the last session. I would have given it on the second session and have the participants try to follow them and share their experiences. I did like the time that Kimberly took the time out to accompany on of her participants as she drove to observe her. The last thing that I did not like was there were only women in the group and that their wasnāt a male perspective.
The QDC that I had set up consist of three people. Sandy, a 46 year old women, Chris is a 25 year old man, and Pat who is a 16 year old man. I chose these participants because of their age difference and their gender differences. We met for three sessions that were 5 days apart.
The first session consisted of a discussion group of the topic of road rage. I asked all the members what road rage meant to them and if they thought that they displayed these types of traits. Sandy described road rage as the negative actions that were displayed to other drivers on the road. She also went on to say that she doesnāt display this type of behavior. Chris said that road rage is putting some one else in danger by doing something stupid while driving. He described stupid as speeding, tailing another car, and trying to run another car off the road. Chris said that sometimes he displayed this type of action. It all depends on the situation. Pat said that road rage was swearing at another driver. He says that he does it sometimes, but not all the time. At the end on the session, I asked the participants to take notes of their feelings while experiencing road rage. Either as a person who commits it, or if they were a recipient.
The next session was the telling of experiences with road rage. Pat started and brought up a situation that another car chased him down and how he tried to out run the car. He said that the car started chasing him because he cut the car off. When I asked him why he sped up to try to outrun the other car he said that it turned into a game of chase. I then asked him if he thought that this type of behavior was correct. He said no. He then went on to justify his actions by saying that it wasnāt his fault. I told him that if he cuts someone off again, try to apologize by waving his hand at the other driver. This will seem to the other driver as an apology.
Chris said that he saw a display of road rage where a car was boxing another car into the left lane and not letting the car into the right lane. After about a mile, the car in the right lane sped off with the car that was in the left lane chasing after the car. He said that he didnāt know what happened next because they were going faster than he was. I then asked him what he would have done if he were the car in the right lane. He said that he would have kept up his same speed and ignore the other driver. He also said that there must have been something more to this situation. He believed that no one would try to box another ca into a lane for no good reason.
Sandy said that she had someone yelled at her because she was driving the speed limit on Kamehameha Highway, a two-lane road. The driver yelled that she should be going faster as he passed in the other lane. She just ignored the driver and kept on going. When I asked her for her analysis of the situation she said that the person was just being obnoxious and that she didnāt let those type of drivers get to her. I then told all of them to try to take the stance that Sandy had displayed in all of their driving. I asked them that no matter how mad they got, try not to display road rage to the other drivers. I asked them to keep track of what they did to combat displaying their anger.
The last session was another rap session and Sandy started by saying that she always ignores "bad" drivers and thinks about what she needs to get done for that day to take her mind off of it. Chris said that it was hard to control his behavior, but he tried to sing the song that he was listening to which calmed him down. Pat said that he put a pillow in the car and punched it when he got mad to relieve his stress. I thought that all of these ways to displace their aggression were good and that maybe all of them should try each way. They all expressed their gratitude for being involved in this and said that they would be interested in doing this type of activity again to exchange stories.
By putting on this QDC, I think that there is a definate future for this. Hopefully some insurance companies will see that this type of support group can help drivers be safer on the roadways. If these types of groups are going to be put together, then maybe the court systems will have drivers with multiple moving violations and displays of road rage join the group as a mandatory practice. The groups can be opened up to the community also with advertising in the local papers and at community centers. This type of program is already working with Alchohallics Anonymous. The court systems mandate certain people to go if they are caught driving under the influence, and it is opened up to the community for whoever thinks that they have a drinking problem.
Driverās education is a very good program. Although I have never been to a class, I understand that it is more of a instructor teaching students how to be better drivers. I also understand that it is more of a academic type of session rather than an interactive. If this session were to be more interactive with real life situations and analysis, I think this would help drivers out a lot more. Driverās education helps people out for insurance cases with the driver getting a small discount for having took the class. I think that this is good so that driverās education is promoted to all people. When a driver gets their license, the only thing that drivers education helps them with are hints and pointers of what will be on the writen test and the driving test. I donāt think that they are given any brakes on the test.
The next generation should try to do a program with at least 7 people and try have at least 10 sessions all one week apart. What the facilitator can do is have a big rap session and have everyone help each other out with suggestions on how to combat road rage. To promote this, try to go to a insurance companies to get funding for this project and the backing that they will lower their premiums to anyone who joins this type of group.
To future generations, try to start this at the beginning of this class. If this is started early, then there is more data that can be looked at and studied. Also try to get a variety of subjects who are different ages and genders. Try to use more than 3 subjects, this will give variety tot he suggestions.
My Report1: Definitions of Traffic Psychology