This report is on a self witness driving experiment on my self, I decided to focus on speeding and my impatience on the road. The reason I chose these particular aspects is because these are the main things I must focus on changing in my driving.
I decided to do my self-witnessing on a day when I had to go to school, the reason is because I'm always getting stuck in traffic on these days. I felt this would be a good time to monitor my impatience. The day started off rainy at 10:00 am in the morning, I got in my car and was off down Kalanianioli highway. I noticed my speeding, I was going 50 miles an hour down a 35 mile road. This was something I did everyday, "woops, slow down theres a cop up ahead with a speedomitor." I hit my breaks and slow down to about 37 miles an hour, "okay I passed him, now I can go right back up to 50 miles." The car ahead is going a wee bit to slow, so I change lanes and pass him. "Ah yes, the wonderful freeway is coming up", now I put my foot to the pedal, I am going about 67 miles on a 50 mile freeway. There is a car ahead going slow in the left lane, I hate that. "Okay bud move out of the left lane, your going way too slow." I don't tail the car because thats to dangerous, My friend got into an accident once doing that. Okay made it to school on time.
The drive home is at 12:30 in the afternoon, it starts off bad, I'm stuck in traffic trying to leave the parking structure. Taking a left out of the parking structure 90% of the time you are stuck, if the city synchronized the traffic lights properly we wouldn't have this problem. I finally get fed up and get into the right lane, I zoom pass all the poor souls who have to wait. I take a right and drive to the grade school down the road and make a u turn. I feel much better because I'm now moving, "ugh, stuck in traffic again, thats okay this light changes faster. Finally I'm on my way to the freeway on-ramp Hawaii Kai direction. I hate this off ramp, it's really hard to get on the freeway on a busy day, especially when it's raining. I finally get on with a sigh of relief, now I am driving at about 65 miles per hour on the freeway. There are alot of cars around me driving below the speed limit cause it's raining. I should slow down just in case people are driving slow ahead of me. I am now driving back on the Kalanianioli highway, there is a car driving into lanes ahead. This really irritates me, I honk my horn, "hey booger boy, are you blind, your taking up two lanes!" The guy finally realizes he's being a road hog and get's into one lane. I pass the guy, and proceed on. "Oh no I hate this", coming up is the "my blinker is on but I don't need to change lanes guy". I try to pass him as soon as possible just in case he really does need to use that blinker. I do this because most forgetful blinker people never look before they change lanes. Finally I'm going down the road towards my home, I'm going 45 miles now in a 25 mile road. Now I am parking the car, I feel a little irritated because of the obstacles I had to go through to get home.
Today I will deliberately try to drive the complete opposite of my driving style, I'm going to try to modify my own driving behavior. The day starts off at 7:30 am, I start off going down my street, I am going 25 miles per hour in a 25 zone. Wow, everyone is passing me, gosh I feel like a turtle compared to all the cars flying past me. Now I am getting on Kalanianioli highway, I'm going the speed limit which is 35 miles an hour. The cars around my are driving really fast around me again. There is a car behind me with a mad looking man tailing me. I am absolutely astounded at the observations I am making. "My god, these drivers are maniacs." "Is this what I'm like on the road?" I'm on the freeway now, I'm driving the speed limit. I get into the right lane to be considerate of the faster drivers. I'm now at my destination.
The time is now 3:00 pm as a get into my car to drive home. I decide to be paitient and wait in the long line leaving the parking structure. I realize it takes me the same amount of time waiting as making the u turn at the grade school. I reach the freeway on-ramp, now this is the real test, I try to stay calm as I fight my way on to the freeway. With a sigh of relief I make it on, actually that wasn't so bad. I am going the speed limit down the freeway, in the right lane of course. People are passing me, I feel a little relaxed as I drive, I don't feel the need to speed. I make it on to Kalanianiole highway. There is a guy tailing me, I tell myself it's not worth it to get mad. He can tail me all he wants, he's just going to make himself even more irritated. Finally the guy passes me giving me a dirty look, I look straight at him and smile, of course he doesn't know what to do and speeds by and cuts in front. I am making my way down the road with no other troubles. I see a blue light ahead, "aha, the guy got caught for speeding." Wow, that could have been me, it's a good thing I wasn't speeding like I usually do. I feel relaxed and a bit triumphant, cause that jerk got caught. I drive down my road towards my home, people are passing me, but I don't care. I park the car with a feeling that I accomplished something, I did a pretty good job of modifying my behavior. There was some rough times like the tailgater incident, but I feel just fine. What a change from day one I don't feel the least bit irritated, I'm in a good mood.
The differences in my behavior and feelings were pretty abundant. I noticed there was a good amount of negative behavior and feelings in the first account. The second account there was more a feeling of calmness, positive feelings and behavior.
The principles used during the self-witnessing experiment were the affective domain, cognitive domain, and the sensorimotor domains. I had used these concepts throuout the whole experiment.
I learned a great deal from the self-witness experiment,for example, I feel alot better when I'm not stressing to speed and pass everyone on the road. I learned that I was not as courteous a driver as I thought I was. I also learned that being more patient, and not letting other drivers get to me, has a more posotive affect on my behavior and feelings.
