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    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.

    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. 
 

    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.

    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 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".

    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.  

    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 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).

    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.

 
    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.