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| Table of Contents |
| Instructions for this report | What is a driving personality make-over? | Psychological concepts | Self modification experiment |
| Observation | Conclusion | For Future Generations | Epilogue |
Driving
personality make-over is the process of changing the way we feel, think,
act when driving. Adele
Kimura sees a driving personality make-over as a way to change the
feeling that a person feels when threatened by another driver. .
Cherilyn
Okazaki said that it consists of two parts, self witnessing and behavior
modification. It not only is limited to driving, but in real life
too. I believe and agree that it consist of self witnessing and behavior
modification.
There are many different concepts that I can discuss that I have learned about in my other psychology classes. However, I will only discuss three. These three are driving norms and attitudes, self assessment, and self modification. Lets discuss the first, driving norms and attitudes. This is where when driving you do what everyone else is doing. For example, when driving on the freeway you will notice that people tend to drive between 10 to 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. This is considered a driving norm, or the norm of what the majority of everyone else is doing. Another example that I can give you is one that we discussed in class, the left lane is the driving norm for faster traffic and the right lane is a driving norm for slower traffic. Now that we know what driving norms are, let me say how this helps you to do a personality makeover. By knowing the norms, you can keep up with the flow of traffic and also prevent people from getting irritate with you or you getting irritated with them. Knowing the driving norm also helps you to feel more comfortable.
The second concept is self assessment. This is where you carry around a note pad or a tape recorder and you keep track of the way that you are feeling while driving. This will help you to realize what irritates you and what doesn't so that you can do a personality makeover. The reason that this concept is important for a makeover is that you need to know what needs to be madeover before you can do a makeover. This to me seems common sense. The third and final concept that I will discuss is on self modification. This is where you change the way you do things to a more healthy and prosperous way. The reason that this is important to a personality makeover is simple, the word make over. Modification is basically the same thing as a makeover. Therefor you cannot do a makeover without doing a self modification.
The
self modification experiment that I set up for myself is on getting mad
at people for trying to cut into a on ramp line at the last minute.
You know what I mean, you are waiting in that long line and just when you
reach the on ramp you see this car with its blinker on trying to cut into
your lane after zooming as far ahead as possible in the next lane as to
avoid waiting in the line you were just in. This happens to people
everyday and like most people, I get upset. My reaction is to start
swearing in my car and speeding up to leave as little space as possible
between me and the car in front of me as to not give them a chance to cut
in. This is the behavior that i am trying to modify. The way
that I will do this is that when I reach these areas my passenger will
tell me that a car is coming and I shall make room for them to get in.
The reason that I am doing this is so that I can gain empathy for that
person. After all, I don't know why they are in a rush so I should
give them the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, here it goes.
Every
time I drive on the freeway I need to use an on ramp, and there it happens.
Almost at the ramp and here comes that car trying to cut in front of me
so that they can get on the freeway. What do I do, I speed up and
close the gap so that they don't have the room to cut in. But, if
they somehow do manage to get in I start swearing at the dashboard about
what bad people they are. This happens a lot to me.
Now it is my chance to change
my behavior. For this makeover all I did was get on to the freeway
and off the freeway. This was to get me to do as much trials as i
possibly could. Anyway, my passenger would remind me whenever this
situation happened to let the other person in and they would always give
me a reason why. After a while it was easier for me to let them in
because ti was like I knew why they were doing that and for most of the
time it was a valid reason. So, so far I was succeeding at doing
a personality makeover. I did this for three hours and then I decided
to do something different. I wanted to see if I could allow them
to go without someone telling me why. So, I told my passenger to
sit in the back and say nothing about what I was trying to do, only talk
story like an everyday conversation. This time, it was all up to
me. The first time a car tried to cut in I sped up. Not the
behavior I was looking for. After that I told myself that whenever
someone tried to cut in I would just tell myself that they need to get
home because their child is sick. Now, every time after I tell myself
that I feel that I can let these people cut in front of me with no hostility
what so ever. So, I guess that it worked.
My
solution to my problem seemed to work all right. It also had lasting
effects because to these point in time I am still allowing people to cut
in front of me without getting upset. Although I have found that
there is a limit to this. I found that for me, if let more then five
cars do this ti me a day my excuse for them doesn't work. I now have
to think of another excuse to allow me to not get irritated and let them
in. This to me shows that I am doing self modifications all the time
which to me shows that this makeover was a success. Based on the
success that I have had with this makeover I would have to say that I value
it pretty high because it took some of my anger out of me which makes me
a happier person.
My
suggestions to future generations is that you should find something to
makeover that you can really use. For me this was really helpful
because this is where a lot of my driving frustrations came from.
I would also recommend that you do the makeover more than once to see if
you are more successful the second time around. So, to you future
generations, I highly recommend that you do this report and activity.
If not for you, then for someone you love.
When
preparing to do this report and activity I recommend that you look for
something to makeover that is probably your biggest flaw while driving.
The reason I say that is because once your biggest flaw is gone the rest
is duck soup. I also found that when doing this activity you should
always try to modify it a little with every successful moment. The
reason that I say this is because when I modified it I found it easier
to let other things slide while driving besides the behavior that I was
trying to modify. I also found that if you have a passenger with
you it is quicker to modify the behavior because you have more input then
your own because theirs is an unbiased opinion. This is the best
kind of opinion that you can get. Maybe you can combine this activity
with another person who is doing a driving buddy activity, therefor you
can kill two birds with one stone.
