Definitions of Traffic Psychology: How I Stack Up
written by: Irene M. Barrineau
instructions for this report

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Table of Contents
Introducing Traffic Psychology
The Three Domains of Traffic Psychology
5 (good) Definitions of Traffic Psychology and My Comments on Each
Lisa Among's Definition
Chris Murakami's Definition
 Shane-Cobb Adams
Sandra Scarbrough's Definition
Dina Takahashi's Definition
My Experiences as a Driver, Passenger and Pedestrian
A few Suggestions for Future Generations Doing this Report
Epilogue
 
 
Introducing Traffic Psychology

 
    Before I begin with the 5 definitions I found, I would like to give traffic psychology a definition that I came up with after searching through the generational curriculum and after having done several reports in this field. Traffic Psychology is the analysis and the discipline of our thoughts, feelings and behaviors while driving or interacting with drivers. I feel that the word analysis and discipline are important for a number of reasons. First of all, analysis is one of the most important aspects of all the various fields in Psychology. In almost every class we take , we must practice analysis of people, theories, research, etc. Therefore when studying traffic psychology, we have to put our analysis caps on and analyze why this problem of road rage is occurring to such a tremendous degree and how we can discover different solutions to getting through to people (and ourselves for that matter). Second of all, discipline in my definition means two things. One the one hand, discipline means a separate area of psychology, all of its own. It also means that solutions to traffic psychology have to do with disciplining ourselves and explaining to others how to discipline themselves both physically and mentally. By disciplining our thoughts, feelings , motives and behaviors, we can learn the control necessary to having positive driving experiences as well as positive experiences as a passenger, pedestrian or cyclist.

    Traffic psychology employs cognitive therapies for changing our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Cognitive therapies can be defined as "... (by) reducing the importance ascribed to a given situation,... we can theoretically diminish the associated physiological arousal and make reasoned decisions about how to respond to the situation"; and "to teach skills in areas that my have been deficient" (Introduction to Clinical Psychology. Heiden, L. and Hersen M. 1995.). The popular "self-witnessing" technique for improving one's driving and attitude while driving can be seen as a form of cognitive therapy. Click here to see an in-depth report of self-witnessing. Because driving is the most used form of transportation, having a positive outlook on driving and having more positive driving experiences, our quality of life will be improved.

 
 
The Three Domains of Traffic Psychology
 
    Dr. Driving has identified  three domains of traffic psychology. It is important to recognize and understand these three domains if we are to do proper analysis of ourselves and others who are driving (and usually driving aggressively). These three domains are the affective domain (feelings, motives), the cognitive domain (thoughts, judgments) and the sensorimotor domain (sensory input and motor output). If we can begin to want to change the affective domain, the cognitive domain will change and hence the sensorimotor domain will follow. Our behavior behind the wheel is governed by these three domains and if we become aware of them while driving, we can attempt to change ourselves and therefore have better and more positive driving experiences. If you are already asking yourself "why go through all this trouble?" and "who really cares about what traffic psychology is?" Well consider this. Take a minute and get a calculator and count how many hours you spend driving on the highway or how many hours you ride your bike or how many hours you spend walking: in a day, month and years. Once you get that number I'm sure you'll be interested in reading this report further. 
 

 
5 Definitions of Traffic Psychology
Lisa Among's definition
 Lisa Among came up with the definition "the study of a person while driving". This is a fairly limited definition but pretty straightforward. It is limited because pedestrians and cyclists are a real part of the road rage phenomenon. I feel that it is important to have a straightforward definition because explaining to the lay man a complicated psychological definition would sound like mumbo jumbo to them and may be too overwhelming. This definition also made me think of how we are studying people when driving. Because we cannot be there in the car with them, we only have their reactions and what they say they were thinking and doing. That is why self-modification techniques are important to practice, like carrying a tape recorder with you, because after a couple of hours you may have reevaluated your experience and your feelings and thoughts will be changed or modified. What traffic psychology is all about is not reevaluating your thoughts (cognitive domain), your feelings (affective domain), and your behaviors (sensorimotor domain) after the fact (e.g., the negative or aggressive experience) but preventing it in the first place.

 
 
Chris Murakami's Definition
 
 
    Chris Murakami has come up with a great definition of traffic psychology although his definition is not limited to one sentence. He says " Traffic Psychology is the study of traffic and the effect it has on the driving behavior of all road users. Traffic Psychology allows us to retrain individuals  in re-establishing their rational thoughts amid potential conflicts". When I first read this definition I thought , why would we want to re-establish rational thoughts while driving? Isn't this what were trying to do? Then it occurred to me that most people feel that their aggressiveness is rational and don't realize that they really are irrational. His definition including retraining individual is also a very important component of traffic psychology.

    Everyday day we face potential conflicts while driving and it is our job as citizens of this country to do our part in making the roads a nicer place to be. It is not easy though and that is why we have to educate ourselves about ourselves and the first step is realizing the three domains we occupy when driving and how to retrain these operations. Irrational thoughts lead to impulsive behavior which then leads to negative consequences. Usually we do not experience these negative consequences directly. We may come home after driving back from work and feel exhauseted, like the day has been ruined because some idiot cut in front of you or some idiot was driving too slow in the left lane. These irrational thoughts may lead you to swerve around someone, beep and honk and nearly be sideswiped. Then when you get home you may "displace" this anger towards your husband, wife, family or friends. This then leads to more emotional pset. Not just for you but for everyone around you. I know that many times my mom comes me in a bad mood and I ask her what is wrong, she says some guy cut her off and almost hit her.   

 

 
Shane Cobb's Definition
 

    Shane Cobb Adams defines Traffic Psychology as  a "tool, which through subjective analysis, functions to increase the quality of people's lives through concise and subjective behavior observance, identification, and modification". I'd first like to discuss the concept of "perception" that I have been studying in clinical psychology which can be applied to Traffic psychology. If we perceive others' actions as direct actions personally our sensory output and motor skills will react with correlation to that perception. Therefore changing our perceptions about how others drive can increase out awareness about ourselves and our sensory output may different.

    What Shane refers to as subjective analysis is very similar to our we participate in our own perceptions. Also increasing the quality of people's lives is a very important part  traffic psychology and in all aspects of psychology. Many of the self-modification techniques involve changing our perceptions of other people's driving , that is, not blaming everyone else and focusing more on yourself. Such techniques  like carrying a tape recorder with you while driving or quality driving circles all focus on the very important processing system of the brain known as "perception".


 
Sandra Scarbrough's Definition
 

    Although Sandra does not give a formal definition of her own of Traffic Psychology, she discusses a very important aspect of it: negative energy. Negative energy she says stems from impatience and hostility, and other drivers become involved in our own negative energy and others' as well. She also says that "frustration is caused by the lack of control of their emotions felt while driving".

    Controlling our emotions can be difficult, especially when faced with negative emotions. There are avenues however that we can take to gain this control and become better drivers as well as not letting others' aggressions become part of our own emotional output. Those avenues are self-awareness of the three cognitive domains in ourselves, that is the cognitive, affective and the sensory output and input. Another important aspect of Traffic Psychology ar the roots of the problem of road rage. Aside from the cultural continuity of road rage, modeling is also a problem. From a behavioral point of view, humans naturally model the behavior of other humans, especially with young children. When we see others outraged or frustrated and see them express these kinds of emotions, we tend to share in these feelings.  

 
 
Dina Takahashi's Definition
 Dina Takahashi's definition is "Traffic Psychology is the term used to describe the process in which various methods are implemented in order to modify driving behavior". He says that three domains influence our driving behavior. He also says that "realization of a driving disability is necessary in order to begin the modification process". This is very true. If you can get a person to realize they are angry, emotional and aggressive behind the wheel and get them to realize how they are affecting other people, then half the battle has been won. The question is how do we get people to take a second look at their driving behavior and change their attitudes? Well, most people who are aggressive behind the wheel are usually angry at someone or themselves and driving to work everyday probably takes an emotional toll on them. By getting the message across this way and then pointing out how they affect people with the various sensorimotor output, we may get someone to realize their bad habits and to be aware of how they are using their three domains of human functioning.
 
My Experiences as a......
Driver
   
    Since I have taken this class I realize how I have affected many of my passengers. This is somewhat similar to how Dr. Driving has come into existence. I think the "ego" has a lot to do with our personality as a driver when we have passengers in the car. The "ego" is defined by Freud as "the part of the mind that learns to plan and arrange for satisfaction of drives or urges". I think many people subconsciously feel a sense of real control over another person while behind the wheel. This control is manifested by the resistance to take your passenger's feelings into account. We somehow think that we show our "ego" strength to others when we drive. This ego strength that we are showing is really emotional immaturity and regardless of your age, you may be showing emotional immaturity when you drive.

    When I am driving with passengers, I now realize that I actually drive faster, turn corners faster, and play music louder. I have come to the conclusion that I was actually trying to prove to my passenger that I am a good driver and can handle anything while driving. Doing these things obviously proves the opposite. If you have a passenger in your car, you have to speculate on how they drive and most of the time I speculate that they probably drive real fast and maybe I want to "match up" to this. Once again, this shows emotional immaturity behind the wheel. A good way of looking at this is "Empathy builds on self-awareness; the more open we are to our own emotions, the more skilled we will be in reading feelings" (Goleman, D. Emotional Intelligence Why it can matter more than IQ,1995). Dr. Driving discusses empathy as a benefit of traffic psychology; See this site for more details:
(/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/traffic/tpintro.html#benefits). Empathy is the key to giving your passenger a positive experience. I now try to glance at my passenger frequently to see if they are having any reaction to my driving as well as asking myself "why am I behaving this way?"

 
As a Passenger.......
 
    There is definitely one person that comes to mind when I think of fearful experiences as a passenger. This person goes extremely fast, interrogates other drivers and looks over to see my expression. And then says, "I'm an excellent driver, I always have been". Well a very simplistic resolution to avoid being a passenger with someone who frightens you is just to stop riding with them. Unfortunately, the world does not work that simply. So do you just hold on for dear life? Well, no not exactly. But blurting out that the person is acting very emotionally immature is probably not a good idea either.

    As a passenger you do have the right to voice that the person is frightening you, but you don't have to be a "back seat driver".  There is a difference. Voicing your feelings is a much better way to get your way, then giving commands. Instead of saying "slow down" or "don't do that" try saying "man, I know you're a good driver but I'm feeling scared sitting here". This may work. My experiences as a passenger have been rather passive. I usually don't say anything and hold it all inside. And there are various emotions that along with being a passenger. You can even apply the three domains to yourself as a passenger. You may feel angry, resentful, scared or helpless (affective), and may think to yourself that this person is mean, or crazy or you're crazy for being in the car (cognitive). And you may or may not speak out and let the person know the "trauma" you are experiencing (sensorimotor).

As a Pedestrian......
 
 
    The first thing you have to realize when you are a pedestrian is that you must always respect the driver. Why? Don't pedestrians have the right-of-way all the time? Sure they do, but not all drivers feel that way and they are the ones surrounded by steel, not you. Many times that I am crossing the street at a crosswalk without the light, and I cross thinking "yeah, they better stop" or "hit me, I need the money". Well, the bottom line is that this attitude is not worth getting hit for. I now always try to respect drivers in the sense that whatever the case, if they are not yielding for me way ahead, I let them go, regardless. I really don't need to show them who's boss. Many times when crossing the street, or when I'm just about to and someone runs the red light (especially at UH) I feel like cussing or flipping them off. But this of course does not solve anything, and could cause serious problems. But the reason for this anger is that they are threatening my existence (by almost hitting me). But I have to also realize that most likely that person driving does not want to kill me or injure me but is really just in a hurry and acting irresponsibly. Me flipping him off might make him realize he did something wrong, but the possibility of making that person extremely angry is far greater.
 
A Few Suggestions For Future Generations in Traffic Psychology
 
    Understanding what traffic psychology is, is at the core of understanding ourselves and others. Traffic psychology has much to offer like techniques for improving your driving experiences and how to discipline your reactions to others being aggressive towards you. Having someone tailgate you or flip you off can really be frightening or maddening but either way it can be dangerous. By understanding the three domains in ourselves we can attempt to explain to others how these three domains can work for you instead of against you. Education is a lifelong process and thousands of Americans drive every day and many of them aggressively. People write about how they feel and many of them have shocking things to say (just check out my newsgroups report). Or read some letters that have been written to Dr. Driving. Some people think tailgating others and flipping people off is cool, and I could reall like to introduce traffic pschology to them. I think putting up flyers everywhere or having booths at carnivals or school fairs would be an excellent way of geing the message out to the public. We could have a three domains booth.     
 
 
Epilogue

 
    Just about any behavior we do is psychological. And now, with traffic psychology, maybe people will realize that driving is also psychologica and emotional. I have stressed emotional maturity because I feel that people who drive recklessly, aggressively and those who are not empathetci toward others lack this type of maturity and may not een realize it. Therefore the three domains have also been sressed because by being aware of these three domains it is the first step to gaining emotioanl maturity while being a pedestrian, passenger and a driver. Most people seek counseling because their quality of lfe is somehow jepordized. One benefit of traffic psychology is that it is online awith the help of Dr. Driveand communicating with him by email as well as educating yourself in the the many resources that traffic pschology has, you can counsel yourself without the $100 an hour fee.


 
 
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