Music and Drivers by:
Marilyn Ortal, G11/Spring 1999, University of Hawaii
Table
of Contents:
My Comments on PSY 459/g7
My Search on the Usenet and
the Web
Anything on Music and Driving
My Searches on ERIC and/or
Uncover
How Do I compare to Other Students?
Conclusion
Mr. Sasabe (G7) wrote:
I got caught speeding twice in my life and both
of the times it was because I was
listening to the music in my car and did not realize
how fast I was going. Maybe it's
all about the "training" that Dr. James has been
talking about, but when my favorite
music comes out, I just lose myself!
On a different day, I was driving and realized that
music was off. It was a bit of
surprise because I was so calm and relaxed that
it was almost like I was meditating.
So I recommend that you guys sometimes stop listening
to the music in your car. It's
really different!
My Response:
Mr. Sasabe shows how music
affects his driving. I really think it depends upon the individual
and how they behave with different types of music while driving.
Some people may behave more aggressive when driving with loud, fast beat
music, and others may not. I think that we should be aware of the
way we drive and how we behave behind the wheel for the sake of your own
safety and the safety of others around you, regardless of what kind of
music you listen to.
+++++
Mr. Miyoshi (G7) wrote:
This is also something that I have been thinking
about while taking this class. Does
rock music make us more aggressive and slow methodical
music make us a better
driver. It is interesting because rock music makes
our hearts beat faster and that might
get our adrenaline flowing and made us lose some
of our senses. Just a thought for
everyone to think about.
I know what Akira is talking about. Once in a while
someone turns off the music in my
car before I get in and when I realize that it is
off it surprises me. I find myself almost
in a meditative state when the radio is off. I am
more calm and am able to control my
feelings more!
I think that this could work both ways. I think that
if you listen to a station that you
don't like but doesn't show views that you are strongly
against or go totally against
your values then this will work. If you just don't
like the Dj's or music then that's fine.
However if you listen to a station that gets you
upset and deals with touchy situations
or points then you could get more aggressive on
the road and other things that drivers
do may upset you more. I think I will have to try
this before I give a definite answer.
My Response:
I think that the type of
music affects the way you drive. I agree with Mr. Miyoshi that rock
music makes our hearts beat faster. I guess when there is no music
we are more conscious and aware of our surroundings because we are not
distracted by music.
+++++
Mr. Shintani (G7) wrote:
I really think that music has an effect on the way
a person drives. When I want to drive
fast I play a CD that has a powerful or past beat.
My favorite is the Top Gun sound
track. If I want to relax while driving I would
put in a mellow CD like Kalapana or
some type of soft rock. I don't listen to rap so
I don't know the effects of listening to this
type of music.
I really think that some music causes bad driving
behavior than others. I can see
people being more aggressive after listening to
heavy metal then to classical music. I
has been proven in studies that playing of classical
music in malls helps to reduce the
amount to violence in metal than to classical music.
I has been proven in studies that
playing of classical music in malls helps to reduce
the amount to violence in these
malls. I do this in two ways by mellowing or relaxing
people and by staying away
from a certain section of the community that causes
a lot of the crimes.
My Response:
Like the others, Mr. Shintani's
driving behavior is affected by the type of music he listens to.
I have to agree with him that some music causes bad driving behavior.
I enjoy listening to classical music when I'm studying because it relaxes
me and allows me to concentrate more on my work. I also believe that
classical music in malls helps to reduce the amount of violence in the
malls. Hey why don't we play classical music in our prisons too.
Maybe the inmates won't be as hostile? Something to think about.
+++++
See this student's report from G8
My Response:
I agree with Mr. Nakagawa's
points. Music does have an effect on the behavior when driving.
I think it is interesting though how he finds it hard to believe that listening
to certain kinds of music can cause speeding because of the rhythm or beat
that causes us to get carried
away. But maybe he's right. It
might depend on the individual and the results may be independent from
the type of music the person is listening to. I think to some extent,
speeding might also be a factor in the type of music you are listening
to.
+++++
Web visitor Brian Haimerman wrote by e-mail: (November
1997)
I want to thank Dr. James & Mr. Shintani for
the feedback. At this time I am taking a
History of Rock and Roll class and am learning of
the effect that rock music has in our
psyche. We are basically talking about how we listen
to music. The Affective,
Cognitive, Psycho-motor, and Transpersonal. It is
almost like a psychology class. So
far like I said in my last message, music does affect
our psycho-physical. The
loudness and the beat play the biggest part. It
has a direct effect on our hearts. Notice
why younger people like loud beating music. It is
because it causes our heart beats to
go faster and our blood pressure to rise. For us
it is enjoyable but for older people it
is a big no no! The more I learn the more I'll tell
you about it!
My Response:
I must agree with Mr. Haimerman
that the loudness and beat of the music affects us. For example,
when doing aerobics, fast beat music causes your heart rate to go up which
causes you to burn calories. Would you listen to classical music
to burn calories? Most likely not. When doing stretches the
music slows down so that we can get out heart rates down to base line.
My point is that there is a relationship between music and the way you
behave.
+++++
Kristin Evert (G7) wrote:
After reading the little excerpt about music and
driving behavior I really started to
think about myself and my own driving. If all of
this is right, I should technically be a
VERY aggressive, speeding maniac on the road, because
when I drive I like my music
loud and usually fast-paced and "singable" (meaning
I can sing along). Although I am
no Ms. Perfection, I am more often times getting
passed than doing the passing, as I
usually try to stay no more than 10 mph over the
speed limit.
On the other hand, however, I could see how slow
sappy music could make me
sleepy, even if I like the song. Hmmm...
My Response:
Like I said earlier, for
some people, music may affect the way we drive and for others it may not.
I think that it really depends upon the individual.
+++++
Web visitor Mary Ford wrote by e-mail (November
1997):
After reading your site, I've realized that I've
become much more aggressive in my
personality as I've gotten older. Is this a normal
phenomena? By more aggressive, I
mean I speak up and assert myself; and in the car
-- well I've never got a ticket, but I
do admit, I swear -- not good. I was aware of my
tension in the car, so for several
years now, I've used a melodious tape to mellow
myself out when I'm driving -- Rain
Melody, beautiful flute music, Ghandharva Veda music
(supposed to bring harmony
into the atmosphere). It seems to work for me.
My Response:
Mary is aware of her behavior
while driving. Listening to "mellow" music helped with her aggressive
driving behavior. I thing that this is a good thing that she was
aware of her aggressiveness on the road and that she needed to change it.
This will benefit her for her own safety as well as others on the road.
As for myself, if I was listening to the flute music like she is, I'd rather
keep my windows down because I would fall asleep behind the wheel.
+++++
Tami Hshimoto (G7) wrote:
I just wanted to respond to marshall's message on
how music affects my driving.
When I'm driving, music makes me relaxed and clam.
I feel that when I'm driving in
traffic the music that I listen to helps me to feel
less anxious and frustrated. I'm able to
tolerate more unsafe drivers by letting them get
a head of me. Music is an awesome
way to relax when I'm driving.
My Response:
I think that listening to
certain types of music calms you down when you are driving in traffic.
I think that is a beneficial way of approaching a stressful situation like
traffic. It keeps you relaxed and helps keep your aggressiveness
down.
+++++
Cris Burlem (G7) wrote:
I have been in the drivers frustration seat many
a time as many of us have. My solution
to claming down is actually the opposite. I find
that by turning off the radio I am able
to relax when I am in an uptight mood to begin with.
I find that turning off the radio
helps me concentrate on the road and what is going
on. It is at these times that I think
music actually irritates me?!?
My Response:
Yes, I have to agree to
Chris's point that sometimes listening to music makes you even more irritated
especially when you had a hard day at work or school. I sometimes
find it better to not have any music in the car so that I can relax and
concentrate without any distractions.
+++++
Wilfred Lee (G7) wrote last semester:
I definitely agree that music has a role in how
you drive. Fast music, and loud music,
makes you more excited, and makes your heart pump
faster. In turn making you drive
faster. Slow music relaxes you and you get more
mellow. If you don't believe it, then
ever tried driving really fast with classical music.
It just doesn't work. maybe the
solution is to make everyone listen to classical
music. I did hear an interesting fact,
babies in the womb become calm children when mothers
listen to classical music.
Maybe classical music is our solution????
I'm a townie so I consider myself fortunate. I live
in Kahala so I drive for 5 minutes
and get to school. I often ask my friend that has
to drive from Pearl City to get to
school by 8 how he does it. He just says he has
to deal with it and has accepted it as
part of his life. What i did to try to alleviate
his road rage is make a tape of his
favorite songs. My theory is when he listens to
his favorite songs then he doesn't
notice the traffic as much, and time passes by more
quickly. I sing (sometimes) in the
car. That makes the time fly by faster. I also enjoy
it and it takes my mind off the
congested road. Could this be a possible solution
for the commuters to school?
My Response:
I agree with Mr. Lee that music has some effect in how you drive whether it is aggressive or not. Whether the music we are listening to is loud, fast paced, up beat music, or quiet, mellow music, we should be aware of our driving behavior on the road for the sake of our own safety an others.
Thus there are many things that have been said above. I agree with them that music does affect your driving behavior. As for me, I enjoy listening to Rock music and Country music. I feel that it doesn't matter the type of music you listen to, but what matters is that you are aware of your driving behavior and that you are aware of your safety and others around you. as a child, I didn't really care what kind of music played in the car until I started to drive. During my teenage driving years, I love fast dancing music blaring into my ear. My driving behavior then was very aggressive until I got pulled over by the police for going 15 miles over the speed limit. Since then, I still listen to Rock and Country, but I am more aware of my behavior behind the wheel. I am very cautious, no matter what kind of music is playing for the sake of my safety and the people around me. I think that I will continue to listen to music in the car, but regardless of whether it's fast dancing music or classical music, I made a promise to myself that safety comes first.
+++++
My Search on the Usenet and the Web:
I used College Club and participated in a discussion group called psychology. It's a discussion group where all psychology majors from all over the world can discuss topics that is related to psychology. I only got one response, but I'm waiting for the rest to reply to me, probably due to the fact that everyone is busy with finals. I encourage future students to use College Club because this is such a resourceful college on-line community. You can talk to other students from other Universities and Colleges in your major. Go and check it out and participate in the groups.
From: renee5498@collegeclub.com
Group: psychology
Date: 7:36PM 05/03/99
To: psychology@groups.collegeclub.com
Cc:
Subject: Music affects me...
I am one of those people who has to
have music when driving.
When I am
doing my normal day to day driving
it doesn't usually affect
me. However,
my mothers sick so I do a lot of traveling
back and forth and
that's when
I really notice the changes. The only
difference is my speed.
When I am
listening to my love songs, and melancholy
music I tend to
drive at a much
slower pace till I catch myself and
realize I'm creeping a long.
And then
of course when I am listening to rock
and dancing a long with
my music I
catch myself being a speed demon and
have to slow down !!!
Anything on Music and Driving:
I looked in the past generations and I found
a lot of students who did reports on Music and Driving. The two that
I found most interesting are:
Mr.
Nakagawa's report:
I like Mr. Nakagawa's report. It was
very informative and we both share the same idea that music does affect
the driving behavior. He makes a lot of interesting points in his
reports. I like his link to Hand Ons Music, Inc. This link
had a lot of interesting information about creating driving music.
Ms.
Hatori's report:
Ms. Hatori's report was also very informative. I like her ideas and responses to the 459/G7 discussion group. We also shared similar ideas that music does have an effect on your driving behavior. The report was very detail oriented and I also the discussion by Herwin Bautista about how he talks about music and how it correlates with your mood I think that that was very interesting.
My Searches on ERIC and/or Uncover:
Honestly, I had a difficult time searching
for journals on music and driving. I searched for hours, but couldn't
find articles that included music and driving. The journals that
I would find would deal with music, but not related to driving. It
was either about musical instruments, christian bible music, or music in
education.
How Do I compare to Other Students?:
Compared to students in my class, I was the
only one who did my report on this topic. Compared to the other generations,
some students were more fortunate than me and could find topics on music
and driving. I'm still trying to use my Internet Detective skills
to find high quality information, but unfortunately, I did not find any
Future generations could further my study with driving and music by doing actual studies. I think it would be interesting and fun to see how people's driving is affected by different types of music. I think that this would be a fun and interesting study, although there might be some red tape involved including liability and insurance, but if someone would commit to doing a study like this, I think there is a possibility that it could happen.
I have been looking at the past generations and I read through their music and driving reports. The topic interest me and I wanted to learn more about it. I learned a lot and found that music affects the way your drive in one way or the other.
For future generations, I think that putting
off this report is a big NO, NO. There are a lot of information out
there on music and driving, but it takes a lot of time to look for information.
One suggestion that I have is to use the Internet
Detective, which is an online tutorial which teaches you skills on
how to find quality information and material over the Internet. Don't
forget to bookmark your pages and keep windows 97 open to that you can
take notes while you surf for information.