Gender Differences in Driving

Table of Contents
 

Summary of Ms. Lucey's Report
    Ms. Lucey's Report is on the Gender Differences of Driving Norms.  In her report she defines norms, stereotypes, and expectations.  I thoght that this was a very good way to analyze the differences between the genders.  It was as if she started from the beginning and it gave a purpose to her report instead of just stating information without a purpose.  Some of the differences between genders discussed by her class were:     Another aspect that I liked a lot about her report is that she had conducted a survey.  It was a small survey with a sample size of only 16 which is not very representative, none the less it was a valiant effort.  The results that she had found in her report shows that women had scored slightly higher in all areas except areas of feelings of compulsion and competition and over-sensitivity to social pressure.
    I highly recommend her report to those who are interested in conducting a survey so that could be further researched.  She has a good start and discusses a lot of underlying issues in driving that affect us all.

Postings and My Reactions

    My thoughts on Gender and Driving leans toward a behaviorists point of view.  I do not think that we have bad or aggressive driving genes or traits when we are born.  I do believe that the way we are brought up makes us the person we are.  For those people who are brought up in an aggressive household, I feel they will have a higher tendency to be aggressive on the road.  Even parents who may not have been aggressive outside of the car but aggressive in the car will have an effect.  As a child in the back seat or front seat of the car you witness first hand the driving of your parents, more than likely you will deem them as a normal driver and not as an excessively bad one.  With the thoughts that this is the norm in driving, this is how I feel they will drive when they are of age.
 
    My parents were different drivers altogether.  My father was a little more aggressive than my mother.  I remember learning to drive and the differences they stressed upon me.  I feel that the person or parent that you looked up to more would be the one whose ideas you follow more as well.  Well, for me I looked up to both my parents but I feel I may have leaned more towards my father because I feel I drive like he did.  When he taught me to drive it was always about feeling comfortable behind the wheel and not to panic.  It was ok to go over the speed limit as long as you were going with the flow of traffic.  On the other hand my mother would freak at times when I had my permit going a mile over the limit I would get lectured.  I feel that these lectures and the way my father drove both took a toll on me and I cannot say one influenced me more than the other.
 
    What brings me to an interesting realization whether gender may have a role in the way people drive is my mother.  Her father ( my grandfather) is a very aggressive driver, impatient, speeds, yells etc. My grandmother is the entire opposite and she does not drive.  My mother does not drive like my grandfather but more like my grandmother would.  My grandmother is the map and guide always telling my grandfather to slow down, she is like the safety activist and always keeps an eye out.  I think that she had a much greater influence on my mom that my grandfather did.  Even till this day my grandmother tells us how it is not right to do a lot of the things that my grandfather does like speed and be impatient.  Come to think of it my mother sounds a lot like my grandmother.  I guess my grandmother was more of a coach than anything else.
 
    As to whether gender is the reason for my grandmother and mother to act or drive differently from my grandfather or father is mystery to me.  It may seem obvious but I do not think that correlation infers causation.  There would have to ba a much larger study among the population because there are a lot of aggressive women drivers and a lot of non aggressive male drivers.
 

Results to Survey Taken in Generation 8

Statistically significant findings:

MALE/FEMALE DIFFERENCES:

1) Women rate themselves as less aggressive than men rate themselves

2) Women experience more stress than men

3) Women see themselves as driving less aggressively than men see themselves

4) Men feel more competitive than women
 
5) Men feel more peaceful than women
 
6) Women support stronger law enforcement and more electronic surveillance than men
 
EXPERIENCE IN DRIVING:
LESS EXPERIENCED (1 TO 8 YEARS)
MORE EXPERIENCED (9 YEARS AND MORE)
 
1) Those with more experience see themselves as more aggressive but they
     feel less stress than those with less experience
 
 2) Those with more experience also feel more competitive and want to drive
     more dangerously than those with less experience
 
3) Those with more experience see other drivers as less aggressive while
     those with less experience see other drivers as more aggressive

CORRELATED PATTERNS:

1) Those who rate themselves as good drivers have less fantasies of violence

2) Those who experience more stress are less competitive

3) Those who experience more stress support more surveillance

    The findings to this survey are very interesting.  This survey was taken in class and compiled by Dr. James.  Although the sample size was not very large I would imagine it to be representative of the population.

My Searches on the Web
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 10:59:14 -1000
From: "Diane L. Moritz" <moritz@sunet.net>
To: dyc@aloha.net
Subject: Thank You

Hi Doc:  Just experienced Road Rage and it could have been avoided but for
myself.  Someone who was tailgating my husband and I decided to give us the
horn at a stop sign.  I turned around and saw him giving us the "finger
wave" and decided to do the same.  Feeling some satisfaction at this I
continued to compete with his gesture. I do not do this in my home nor
elswhere, but somehow in the car I must have decided it was OK.  IT WAS NOT
OK.  He followed us and pulled up along side of the passenger side of the
car (mine) and called me names and spit on the car window (fortunately it
was up).  The look of rage on his face scared me.  I knew that from that
moment on I would never never never participate in road rage again.  I
fault my behaviour because I put my husband and myself in danger not by his
action but by mine.

I have learned an important lesson, but I surprised by my willingness to
want revenge on this jerk.  The real jerk turned out to be me.  Thanks for
your page on road rage.  It has helped me.  Diane

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 12:05:51 -1000
From: Cheddiemae C deRizzio <cheddiem@hawaii.edu>
Subject: Re: Thank You (fwd)

    Wow, I think to actually see the real danger of road rage we would
have to have participated in it.  I know from experience because I
remember one time when I was switching lanes, someone called me a name.  I
was very upset because it was very racist and without thinking I gave that
person the finger and yelled the actual words F*** You.
     I was really surprised at myself because I do not allow myself to
become so enraged that it gets to this point.  Afterwards, I found myself
actually shaking because at that point I had realized what I had done and
saw how stupid it was and how I could have put my lives at risk.  I think
I did it because of my location because if I was in New York I would not
have done it.

                                   chedfbi
                      special agent deRizzio reporting

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 13:53:39 -1000
From: "Diane L. Moritz" <moritz@sunet.net>
To: Leon James <leon@hawaii.edu>
Subject: Re: Thank You

Hi Leon:  Thank you for your prompt reply.  I do believe that you were
heaven sent.  Since the incident today I think I have been fairly
insultated from this kind of trauma.  My reaction has really made me stop
and think and feel.  My husband and I were lucky.  No physical harm was
done.

I am told that the stages of grief are many and that those who experience
great grief must go through these stages on their way to recovery.  I am
not comparing my incident to those who suffer the stages of grief and yet
you do go through stages of emotions upon experiencing Road Rage.  1.
Retaliation.  2.  Satisfaction.  3.  Surprise.  4.  Shock.  5.  Fear.  6.
Shame.  7.  Guilt  8.  Reflection.

The episode of RR we experienced last no longer than a few minutes, but in
that time frame I saw myself in a way that I had never seen before.  I am
not a bad person.  I am not an evil person.  I am not a great person.  I am
a person.  I need to work on my reaction to someone else's reaction.  The
old addage "two wrongs do not make a right" is so basic, yet so profoundly
true.  If I refuse to contribute to the rage then it will not compound.  It
is myself that I must change not the other person.  Truly I am not sure
just how to go about this, but I will try to keep myself in control and try
to think before I react.

My husband took me to the movies later that afternoon.  All I could do was
think about what "COULD HAVE HAPPENED.  HE COULD HAVE HAD A GUN, HE COULD
HAVE........., I do not remember much about the movie.  Later that evening
we went for a walk and we talked.  I began to feel better while we were
walking.  I guess I forgave my self and then the trauma eased.  Writing to
you feels wonderful.  Like absolution after Confession.  Once a Catholic
always a Catholic.  Bless you and Mahalo.............Diane.   Hope I hear
from you again.
 

Journal Database Searches
    I was unable ot find any related topics using ERIC.  I thought  that the search was too specific, but when I entered simple key words like driving I would recieve 12 articles none with any pertinence towards driving at all.
I found ERIC to be less useful than UNCOVER.
    I was able to make use of UNCOVER and find some reports that seem to correlate to gender and driving.  The only drawback to using the UNCOVER system was that it was difficult to use.  I had to log into the library and I thought a lot of the screens that the library took me to were confusing.  Here are some of the reports that I found that I think relate:
 

Farrow, James A. and Brissing, Peter Risk for DWI: A New Look at Gender Differences in Drinking and Driving Influences, Experiences and Attitudes among New Adolescent Drivers. Health education quarterly. Sumr 1990 v 17 n 2, 213
 
Ayres, Ian Fair Driving: Gender and Race Discrimination in Retail Car Negotiations. Harvard law review.
FEB 01 1991 v 104 n 4, 817

Keane, Carl; Maxim, Paul S.; Teevan, James J. Drinking and Driving, Self-Control, and Gender: Testing a General Theory of Crime.  Journal of research in crime and delinquency.,  FEB 01 1993 v 30 n 1, 30
 
Hernandez, A. C. R. ; Newcomb, M. D.; Rabow, J.  Types of Drunk-Driving Intervention: Prevalence, Success and Gender. Journal of studies on alcohol., JUL 01 1995 v 56 n 4, 408

Copeland, Laurel A.;  Shope, Jean T.; Waller, Patricia F.  Factors in Adolescent Drinking/Driving: Binge Drinking, Cigarette Smoking, and Gender. The journal of school health., SEP 01 1996 v 66 n 7, 254
                   
Harre, N.; Field, J.; Kirkwood, B.; Gender Differences and Areas of Common Concern in the Driving Behaviors and Attitudes of Adolescents.  Journal of safety research., Fall 1996 v 27 n 3,  163
 

Summary and Reactions to Reports on the Online Generational Curriculum
_____ 5) **Search the CSS engine and Site Indexes for anything on gender and driving in the Online Generational
Curriculum, or, browse through the generations in traffic psychology. Summarize and link to those you find.
 

Rothe textbook
_____ 6) **Now consult our Rothe textbook: where can you fit gender and driving among its topics? Discuss and give page
references. See also what we say in class about this--consult your notes.
 

How Do I Compare?
    I am surprised that not very many people decided to do their report on this.  I thought this topic was very interesting.  I was only able to find a few people who did this report.  They were: Grace Lumabao, Czar Naranjo, and Tami Hattori.  
(a) content, (b) approach, and (c) presentation.
 

Suggestions For Future Generations
    Who am I to be telling you this?  Well by this time you have read through my report and if you have not come up with any ideas on how to better it for future references I have a few ideas.  I think that this topic is still underated and that there is a long way for it to go.  There could definately be more use of statistics in this report there are simply not enough facts to go on.  If someone could make and distribute as well as collect accurate data on gender differences and driving I think it would be of great help.  A great idea would to kill two birds with one stone by taking this class concurrently with our SOCS 225 Statistics class.  Then you could do one report and use them for two classes.  Another thing worth finding out is if all the stereotypes or norms are actually true, and if so proving it would be great.  

 
 
 

Navigation Table
Mining the Generational Curriculum
My Report on the Psychology of Newsgroups
My Report 1 on: How Music Affects Drivers  
 My Report 2 on: How Drivers Communicate 
My Report 3 on: Gender Differences in Driving
Our G8 Index of All Reports || Dr.Leon James Home Page
My Icons File  || My Bookmarks File
My 409a Home Page || My 409b Home Page
My 459 Home Page  || My 409a Class Home Page
My 409b Class Home Page  || My 459 Class Home Page
Index of all My G8 Reports
 
 
email me