Report Summary

What is a driving personality makeover?  It is the process of changing the attitudes of your driving behavior.  This process involves closely examining the way we act, feel and think while driving.  There apparently are two parts to this makeover, which are the self-witnessing part and the actual behavior modification part.  Jayson discusses three main points, which he feels is important to a driving personality makeover, they are 1) driving norms and attitudes 2) self-assessment and 3) self modification.  The first, driving norms and attitudes, explains how one should be aware of the driving norms of people around you.  For example, Jayson gives the scenario of driving on the highway; he says that in some places, people tend to drive between 10-15 mph over the speed limit; he says that this is considered a driving norm, what the majority of people are doing.  Jayson says that knowing and understanding the driving norms will better help us because it would prevent other people from getting irritated with you, or vice-versa.  The second point, which is self-assessment, involves analyzing yourself as a driver.  Jayson suggests that you keep a notepad or recorder which will allow you to keep track of the way you are feeling while driving.  This allows you to realize the things that irritate you while on the road.  Finally the third point is self-modification.  In the stage the individual will try to incorporate changes, hopefully to make him become a better and safer driver.  Jayson emphasizes that modification is essential to a driving makeover because as he says; “The reason that this is important to a personality makeover is simple, the word makeover.  Modification is basically the same thing as a makeover.  Therefore you cannot do a makeover without doing a self modification”.
 In his experiment Jayson decided to try and modify a behavior that he felt was a bad driving behavior, which was getting upset when people tried to cut in front of him while approaching an on/off ramp.  He explains that he would get very upset when this would happen, he would begin to swear and at times speed up purposely so that the car would not have any room to cut in.  The experiment involved a friend of Jayson’s who would act like a driving buddy, also the on/off ramps of Hawaii which is where the point of aggression occurs.  Every time a car would approach wanting to cut in, Jayson’s passenger would tell him to let the car go and not to get upset.  The passenger would then give Jayson excuses as to why he should let the other car go, for example, he maybe late for a very important interview, or he’s late picking up the kids from school.  Jayson believes that these excuses would help him gain empathy for the other driver, thus not getting so upset, as Jayson says; “After all, I don’t know why they are in a rush so I should give them the benefit of the doubt”.
 In his observation Jayson explains how he would typically react to someone cutting into his lane when approaching an on/off ramp, which was to get upset.  His passenger would always remind him to let the other driver go and then proceed to give him an excuse.  Jayson said that the excuse his passenger gave him was normally a valid excuse so it was easier to let the other driver cut in front of him.  This experiment lasted for 3 hours, continually going on and off the highway; Jayson says he wanted to get as much practice in as possible.  What he did notice was that with practice he became more tolerant of the people cutting in front of him and he wasn’t as enraged as he would normally be.  After the 3 hours, Jayson decided to do something different, he wanted to see if he could do it on his own so he had his passenger not say a word, but to just relax and ‘talk story’ with him.  Jayson notice that at first he slipped back into his bad driving ways, but after the first initial attempts he began to again regain control of his anger and was able to let people cut in with no hostility.
 In conclusion, Jayson says that this experiment has definitely worked for him.  He is still allowing other drivers to cut in front of him without getting upset.  One thing he has discovered, is that there is a limit as to how many cars he is able to tolerate cutting in front of him.  He says that he can allow up to five cars, but after that he begins to get upset, apparently the excuse he allows for the driver doesn’t work anymore, so he now has to think of another excuse.  Jayson says that this shows him that hi is consistently doing self-modifications, which shows him that the makeover was a success.
 

In this presentation I had a variety of questions, which I hope I am able to answer.

Q.  Do you think that 3 hours of controlling your anger is enough to modify you behavior?

A.  No, I do not think 3 hours of controlling your anger is enough to modify a behavior, especially one that you’ve had for awhile.  Perhaps repeating the same modification experiment for that period of time can adjust a person’s behavior for a short time, maybe a day or two, but I believe the person will eventually go back to their old driving ways.  Therefore, if a person does not continually modify his/her behavior while driving, then chances are their modification will lessen until extinction occurs.  In order to have a long term affect on modifying your behavior on e must consistently be aware of that behavior, and when engaged in that behavior the person must then implement the behavior modification.  From personal experience, it can take months and years to modify a behavior.  I have been trying to change my tailgating behavior for almost two years now.  Granted, I rarely tailgate anymore, but every once in awhile I slip, this and other experiments that have been conducted and publish brings me to conclude that behavior modification is a long process.

Q.  Why do you get upset when people wait for the last minute to cut into your lane?

A.  I use to get really upset, but now it doesn’t make me as mad anymore.  The reason I got upset was because I felt that doing something like that was very inconsiderate.  As we all know, it can sometimes take half-and-hour to get onto the onramp, and I felt it was not fair that everyone would be waiting patiently to get onto the freeway then someone would try and squeak in from the other lane.  As I said it doesn’t bother me as much, but I would be lying if I said that it never bothers me, because at times it does.

Q.  After taking this course would you recommend or make suggestions to your family/friends to have a driving personality makeover?

A.  Yes, if I felt the individual would benefit from a makeover then I would recommend it.  There are a couple of my friends whom I think could use it, but you can’t force someone to do something they won’t do, especially if they feel they are not doing anything wrong.  The only thing I feel I can do is point out certain things about their driving, then the rest is up to them, otherwise I’d feel like a nag.

Q.  Which is the more important part?  The self-witnessing or modification part?

A.  I believe both parts are equally important.  You can’t really do one without the other.  You need to see and realize what your errors, negativity, and transgressions are in order to modify them.  The more conscious you are of the behavior the easier it is to modify it.  Modifying your behavior consists of knowing what transgressions and negativity you want to correct and slowly modifying it so it is no longer a behavior that could potentially cause harm to either yourself or others.

Q.  How would you teach a person who recklessly cuts in front that what he did was wrong?

A.  I don’t think you’ll be able too unless you knew the person who cut you off.  The reason being, is because if you tried to inform the person of the ‘wrong’ he did then that could potentially put you in a awkward/dangerous situation.  You don’t know the other diver, and he/she could react in a number of ways.  What I would recommend in that situation is to blow it off and think to yourself that you are better than that.

Q.  Did you ever feel that you wanted to change your driving behavior?  If so, what types of behavior did you want to change?

A.  Yes, I wanted to change a driving behavior, and that behavior was my constant tailgating.  To date, I do not tailgate as much as I had normally done n the past.  It took a couple of years, but I’m slowly progressing.

My overall reaction was very posititive.  I felt a lot more relaxed and focused during this presentation versus my frist presentation.  It seemed like the class was fairly interested in the subjects matter of my oral presentation, I even got a few chuckles, which I felt was a positive thing.  The questions brought up after my presentation wre interesting ones, a lot pertained to my feelings of a driving makeover, and what types of drivers I felt coud benefit from such a makeover.  My questions were not that difficult since they mainly dealt with my point of view.  I definitely felt more prepared for this presentation then the other oral presentation, I was not as nervous and I made sure I wrote everything down that I wanted to say, so I would not draw a 'blank' like I did with my last presentation.

From personal experience I would reconmend a makeover to anhone who feels they can benefit from it.  It is a difficult transition because no one likes to be informed of negative traits or behaviors.  At times you will feel frustrated, annoyed, angry, and want to give up, but if you can stick through it you will see that it'll all be worth it in the long run.  Being a safe driver cannot protect youfrom all the other bad drivers out there, but by being a courteous and safe driver your attitude could one day rub off on someone else, thus setting into motion a positive rippling effect.  Like Dr. Driving says, being a nice and positive driver can be contagious, so if you are nice on the road, the likelihood of your positivness rubbing off on another person is high.  I think we shold all take a little bit of time to work on our flaws so we can make our roads a safer place for everyone.