Definitions
of Traffic Psychology--How IDefinitions
of Traffic Psychology--How I
Traffic Psychology is a study much too difficult to define in a mere sentence or two without leaving out important components. To be as simple as possible, Traffic Psychology is the study of our thoughts and behaviors involving traffic - this includes the different behaviors we have, the different attitudes and personalities that we have, and the different ways we cope with our daily stress as road users. The principle domains include the affective domain, which are the feelings and motives, the cognitive domain, which are the thoughts and judgements, and the sensorimotor domain, the sensory input and motor output. Traffic Psycholgy also attempts at identifying dangerous driving persoanlities, behaviors, and patterns and seeks mehods to help modify such behaviors. Such methods include Self-witnessing techniques, Self-Modification, Driving Buddies, and Quality Driving Circles.
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Dina
Takahashi "Traffic
Psychology is the term used to describe the process in which various methods
are implemented in order to modify driving behavior.
These methods include Self Witnessing
and Quality Driving Circles." Dina believes that the modification process
starts with acknowledging that you have a driving problem. If a person
fails to come to this awareness the driver continues to be self-centered.
By acknowledging that you do have a negative driving personality, or that you engage in dangerous driving behaviors you take the first step in modifying your driving personality. One of the difficult problems most drivers share is that we have a difficult time admitting that we do have a driving problem. We are quick to judge the faults and flaws of others but dare not tolerate the criticisms we recieve. Why is this? I think that one of the reasons may be because we don't share the same feeling as the person making the criticism. If we have not identified our driving personalities as being negative we perhaps feel defensive towards it. We don't agree, and when we don't agree we defend our postition and I think that is part of what goes on. Another reason may be that driving is something many feel should be manned by one person. Many people resent being criticised about their driving because they feel "hey, if you want to drive then drive, don't start making comments on it". Many people also feel that driving itself is stressful and to have to deal with a passenger that is constantly making comments to the way he/she is driving only adds to the stress already being experienced.
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My
Comment:
We can analyze our driving personalities
by actively observing the way we respond to various situations. Self-witnessing
is an excellent technique aimed at allowing the person to discover who
they really are. To go through the process a person is asked to record
their thoughts and feelings with either a pad or recorder. You are
to freely speak out and vent the way you normally do and take note of each
response and situation. By the end of the day you will discover how
"mad" you get and how monstrous you can actually be. All of this
is done so that you are able to discover what type of driving personality
you have and modify those that are needed.
I agree with this definition.
Traffic psychology encompasses the study of traffic as well as the cognitive
and behaviorial components of driving. We constantly examine driving
behaviors in situations, like roadrage, tailgating, and backseat driving
and also evaluate our own behaviors. Traffic psycholgy also seeks
techniques useful in modifying such behaviors. Such methods include
self-awareness, self-modification, driving buddies, and quality driving
circles.
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Traffic psychology is also the study
of how the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor domains influence our
driving behavior. Affective domain is a contruct pertaining to our
feelings and motives. The cognitive domain concerns our thinking
process - what our thoughts and judgements are. The sensorimotor
domain is what we process through our senses and how what we input influences
what we do next. All of these three domains are active constantly
with any driving behavior.
Shane Cobb-Adams "Traffic Psychology can then be defined as a tool, which through subjective analysis, functions to increase the Quality of peoples lives through consise and subjective behavior observance, identification , and modification. It is through this realization that we are better able to modify our poor driving behaviors.
This definition attempts to briefly describe the principle domains of traffic psychology: The affective domain is what your feelings and motives are; the cognitive domain, what your thoughts are and how you decide things; and the sensorimotor domain, your sensory inputs and what your actions are as a result of them. By examining ourselves in each domain we acknowledge our driving madness and we are better therapists to ourselves because of this. We have to understand who we are and what are feelings are before we can correct our flaws. Once we identify our driving personalities and behaviors we can also study the circumstances wherein we find ourselves most susceptible in behaving this way and learn to be sensitized to them.
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Traffic psychology has helped me substantially. Prior to taking this course I was certain that I was an above good but not excellent driver. I never bothered to pause and examine my own driving behavior and personality and was often quick to criticize other drivers because of it. I continued having this attitude until near mid semester when my friend was pissed off at a driver that cut right infront of him out of nowhere and then started to slow down almost in a teasing fashion. Out of anger he began to tailgate and suddenly I remembered what Dr.James said in class about techniques useful for sort of calming you down - the technique was making animal sounds. I suggested my friend make animal sounds and when he did it was sooo hilarious that we both ended up laughing! It really did work. We were too preoccupied about his newly learned technique that we didn't notice that the car that was infront had already made a turn somewhere(?). Since then my attitude has changed a lot and each time I encounter problems when I'm driving and notice that I am getting worked up I think about traffic psychology and begin my cooling phase.
It is very easy for drivers to get
annoyed by anything or anyone in their way because they are usually in
a rush to get to work, school, appointments, hospitals, etc. But,
it is also important to realize that by acting out of anger you would
probably never reach your destination and on top of that you may also carry
the severe consequences of your actions. We all need to be a little
more considerate of eachothers needs, and learn to be less aggressive,
less hostile, and more patient and courteous.
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I want to share a story with you about a guest speaker that I had for one of my classes. (I will refrain from providing his last name) Patrick was is an alcoholic but has been sober for over 25 years. He endured great pain and loss because of it but has managed to pick himself up. Several years ago he had surgery to his back and the doctors were almost certain that he would never walk again. Amazingly he proved them wrong and won a number of medals for marathons. He commits himself to speaking out about the effects of alchohol just as he has protecting his body. But, one dreadful day while bicycling he was struck by a car that was attempting to make a right turn. The driver glanced left and when it was clear he went for it without clearing any pedestrians or cyclists. Fortunately Patrick suffered injuries that were minimal compared to what could've happened. But, Patrick lost his bike (the bike that according to him he has been with longer than he has any woman!) and hasn't been on any marathons since. He has a very good heart and expressed no anger towards this driver whatsoever. The one thing that he did point out is that what that driver did many other drivers do as well and that's what problem is. Pedestrians are vulnerable. Many drivers fail to look out for them. Ofcourse it wouldn't be fair to not say that there are pedestrians that feel that they ultimately have the right of way and consequently place themselves in dangerous situations. The lesson is that we can never be too careful, but negligence is not being careful at all.
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As a passenger I probably annoyed
all the drivers! As funny as that might sound to some of you it
really did annoy many people I rode
with. I realized it then but I never cared to stop. My rational
is that lives depend on their careful driving and if I feel my driver is
not driving carefully, you better bet I'm going to have him realize it.
I probably had them become more reckless than before because I've made
them upset, though. I just feel that as a passenger I too am sort of responsible
for piloting. Perhaps all is due to an experience I had during my
vacation to California. During my visit (about 10 years ago)
my relatives and I decided we would go to Disneyland. We wanted to
be there the entire day, from open to close, and in order for us to do
this we had to set out early. What happened that night was a nightmare
for me. We closed Disneyland as planned and began heading home.
Bill, my cousin, was our driver to and from Disneyland. Bill slept
on the wheel and we nearly hit two pedestrians when his brother John screamed
at him and got up to try to take control of the wheel. Because John
was not in control of the pedals or the wheel we were swearving for a few
second until we hit a tree head on. Thankfully noone sustained major
injuries. What I learned from this is that it is important to have
someone awake along with the driver to make sure everything is okay.
Had John been asleep himself God knows what would've happened.
Even though as a driver it may beannoying to constantly have to tolerate passengers that continously criticize your driving, it may just be that one day your passenger might save you because of it. There are passengers that overreactand that might have drivers nervous, but just have them know that their behavior is causing you stress and that it is perhaps causing more harm than good.
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Future generations can improve on this activity by really improving on themselves. By improving your own driving personalities and behaviors you inturn give off postitive energy for everyone to follow. Children pick up very quickly and immitate what we say and act out just as quickly. When we act out our anger, children observe this and even though they may sit silently in their carseats they really program what they see us do and say. We have then instilled negativity. But teaching children is not the only thing we can do. Ofcourse teaching children is one of the best ways to combat the problems we experience today as roadusers, but that's not all we can do. Whenever our friends or family members react inappropriately by braking suddenly so that the car behind them would back off, or when they tailgate or curse at other drivers, we can instead of sitting silent or encourage their aggressions teach them appropriate behaviors. A technique I suggested my friend try that proved successful was the use of animal sounds. Instead of cursing he made animal sounds and that helped redirect his feelings of rage to something more comical - it's worth a try!
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