Report #4:


Resistance to Traffic Psychology



bnakada@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu


Introduction

For those of you who are new to Traffic Psychology, you must be wondering what exactly is "resistance to traffic psychology." First of all, let me define what resistance is. Resistance occurs whenever a person feels apprehension about a certain subject, behavior, or action. They have no intention of changing their style of living, eventhough the change(s) could be beneficial. In my experience, I have found that resistance occurs most often when a person is requested to change their driving habits. In my report three, I began my journey as a traffic psychologist by trying to give myself a driving personality makeover. I must admit, it was a difficult thing to do, but I tried, and I think I am a better driver now because of it.

The next step in becoming a traffic psychologist is to try and help someone else modify any driving behavior that was undesireable. My professor, Dr. Leon James, instructed my Psy 459 class to do just that. He gave us an assignment which had us pick two subjects, meet with them a minimum of three times, and see if we could aid in the modification of any of our subject's driving habits. For this assignment, however, the objective was to observe the resistance displayed by the subject when I tried to modify the behavior.

The Plan

Before choosing any subjects, I devised my plan of action for each of the three meetings I would hold. It went like this:

The First Meeting

  1. I would meet with the subject first.
  2. Here, I would emphasize that I am conducting an experiment in which I would attempt to help them change one driving habit they dislike or feel they could improve on.
  3. If possible, drive around with the subject for a while.
  4. Come to a conclusion with the subject about the behavior to be modified.
  5. Encourage the the driver to change, show how beneficial it would be to change (i.e. positive role model to others, make passengers feel safer, etc.)
  6. Devise a methodology to record observations. Perhaps have driver carry a pocket tape recorder, or write observations when destination is reached.
  7. Give the subject approximately four days to observe behavior (how often it occurs, at what times, where), then meet a second time.

The Second Meeting

  1. This takes place approximately four days after the initial meeting.
  2. I would take a look at all observations made by the subject.
  3. At this stage, we would collaborate and come up with a plan of action to change the behavior.
  4. Give encouragement so that the subject wants to modify behavior (i.e. positive reinforcement, personal experiences.)
  5. Give the subject four more days to put plan into action.

The Third Meeting

  1. Ask the subject about any type of change noticed in driving personality.
  2. Take a final drive with the subject and observe changes (if any) that occured between the first meeting and the last.
  3. Ask subject about feelings and attitudes towards the experiment.
  4. Encourage the subject to continue to work on driving modification, since permanent changes may take longer to develop.
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My First Subject

The First Meeting

My first subject was a 21 year old Filipino male. He was born and raised in Mililani, Oahu. He is currently a senior at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, majoring in Finance. Upon first approaching him with the idea of being the first "guinea pig" in my experiment, he was a bit apprehensive. I do not think he knew quite what he was getting into. But after explaining the details of the experiment, he was happy to oblige. Readily, he admitted that he had quite a few driving habits that he would like to makeover, but I had to explain that he had to pick one that he really wanted to change.

The behavior he wanted to change was his speeding. He said that this was a very big problem in his driving personality; he had already accumulated over three hundred dollars worth of speeding tickets, and was willing to try anything to change this behavior. At this point, I was very surprised to find him so eager to change. I know from my personal experience, I was very resistant to change my driving habits.

Then, I asked him to take me for a drive, so I could observe his speeding first hand. During the ride, I did notice on occasion that he did speed. It was not excessive, like how he described it, but I got the feeling that he was "holding back" because I was a passenger in the car. Other than the occasional speeding, he was a very good driver. We both concluded that this would indeed be the behavior to try and modify.

Encouragement was not necessary because he seemed very willing to try and change. So, we came up with a methodology for my subject to record all the times he caught himself speeding. He felt it was rather dangerous to carry a pocket recorder with him in the car. It would take too much of his attention away from driving, so he agreed to spend a little extra time in his car when he arrived at his destination and write down all the times he caught himself speeding to the best of his ability. He would observe himself for four days, after which we would meet again.

After the first meeting, I was mildly surprised at the lack of resistance I had encountered. Prior to the meeting, I had prepared for the worst, and expected every sentence that came out of my mouth to be challenged. Four days passed, and I met with my subject for the second time.

The Second Meeting

At our second meeting, I received the journal that my subject had recorded his thoughts on. I read through it, and found that he had caught himself speeding about six times. He wrote where he was speeding, how fast he was going, his state of mind at the time, and what time of the day it was. I found the majority of the time he sped was on the H2 freeway going home late at night after work. He recorded being in a relaxed state of mind when driving.

I thought and thought, trying to come up with a methodology that might work for him. I asked what kind of music he listens to in the car, and he said dance music. "I like to feel the pulse of the beat when I drive, it keeps me awake late at night, and I find myself grooving to the song." were his words. Right there, a light bulb went on in my head. I realized what could have been the major influence in his speeding. It was not the physical influences that made him speed, but it could very well be emotional influences. In my report three, I found what a big effect emotional influences had on my driving. Music has such a big impact on my driving, I concluded that this could be his problem.I asked him if he thought the music might have an impact on his driving, and he said he never really gave it much thought. I told him the next time he is driving home, try playing some music that is a little mellower, and record what happened.

The Third Meeting

About three days later, I met with my subject one final time. As soon as I saw him, he had a big smile on his face. He immediately told me that the plan had worked. The night after we had the meeting, he was coming home from work, and he decided to play some reggae music in his car. "And wouldn't you know it," he said "I did not catch myself speeding once on my way home." He related to me that he felt much more relaxed while driving with reggae music playing, and did not feel the sense of urgency he had when he listened to dance music. To say I was pleased would be an understatement. I did remind him that there must be more factors that contribute to his speeding, and that emotional influences are only one piece of the whole pie. So eventhough my experiment was done with him, I encouraged him to continue to observe his behaviors when driving, recognize what factors come into play, and try to adjust accordingly.

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My Second Subject

The First Meeting

The person I chose for my second subject was also a 21 year old Filipino male. He was raised in Kaneohe, Oahu, and graduated in 1992 from Iolani High School. He currently attends the University of Hawaii and is set to graduate in Pre-Med in the Fall of 1997.I met with him a few days after the first meeting with my first subject. Since things went rather smoothly with my first subject, I kind of expected things to go similarly with subject 2. I may have been generalizing, but I thought there would not be much difference in the attitudes between these two. After all, they are both 21, Filipino, and attend the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

When I first began speaking with subject two, we had a good rapport. Everything seemed to be flowing smoothly, until I brought up the experiment. When I first mentioned "traffic psychology," he literally started to laugh. I got the feeling that he was not taking me seriously. He asked, "What the hell is traffic psychology?" After explaining the basic concepts of it, he seemed to embrace it a little more, but I could still tell he was skeptical. I then asked him if there was any one driving behavior that he would like to improve on.

Here is where my subject really resisted. He insisted that as far as driving goes, he considered himself pretty good. He did say that he would occasionally swear at cars that cut him off, or at pedestrians that think they own the road; he did speed a little, but he justified it all by saying he only did these things when he was provoked. Based on my first impression, I believed him. I know that I do swear at passing cars and such when provoked, it is only human. We contemplated the different behaviors, trying to choose one that we could attempt to improve. It was around lunchtime, so I suggested we go somewhere to eat. Of course, I asked him to drive, hoping I could observe some behavior that needed fixing.

Low and behold, while driving to get lunch, I easily found a behavior that he needed to fix. On that short ten minute drive, subject 2 must have cussed out at least six cars, all which he felt had done some sort of injustice to him. I however, as the observer, saw that not a single car did anything out of the ordinary to warrant the profanity that escaped his mouth. Needless to say, I did feel a bit uncomfortable.

After we had lunch, I brought this up to him. I could sense him getting a little defensive, but when I pointed out everything that I saw, he reflected back to the events and agreed. I finally felt I was getting somewhere. He was coming out of his denial stage. I tried to encourage him to change, I showed him the benefits of his modifying this behavior. "If you try to cut down on your use of profanity, it would make your passengers feel a lot safer when they ride with you," and "If children ride with you and see how easily you control your emotions when you drive, you could be a positive role model for them," were two statements I told him to illustrate how beneficial it would be to change.

Then, I explained the next part of the experiment. I gave him a pocket tape recorder to carry with him whenever he drove. Everytime he caught himself swearing at anybody on the road, he would have to record it. He agreed and we were set to meet four days later.

The Second Meeting

Four days later, we met again, and I asked to listen to the tape. I listened to it, but I only heard of three recollections of swearing incidents. This can not be right. He must have swore more than this. I confronted him about it, and he confessed to only recording the three incidents, which happened all on the first day. He said while recording the incidents on day one, he realized how much he swore, and did not want to reord every single time, fearing that it would portray him as a bad person. I sympathized for him, because I know of a couple friends that would swear as much, if not more than he did. I told him I understood where he was coming from, and that everything could be taken care of in the next step.

Here, we would come up with a plan of action to attempt to modify this behavior. One suggestion I gave was to pretend that some person of great importance was always riding with him, perhaps his mom. I was sure he would not use such language if his mom was riding with him. Another suggestion was to post little notes on his rear view mirror, steering wheel, gear shift, anywhere his eyes might glance. On these notes, he would put little affirmations saying everything is okay or to relax. This might aid in calming himself down. And lastly, I suggested the age old remedy of counting to ten and taking deep breaths before exploding on a cussing spree.

Armed with his new found knowledge, I gave him three days to test these things out, then we would get together for one last time.

The Third Meeting

On our third and final meeting, I asked him if any of the techniques seemed to help. He said that counting to ten and taking deep breaths seemed to help the most. The other two techniques did not work so well. I felt if one helped him, it was better than nothing. I asked him if I could go on a final ride with him so that I could conclude my observations. He obliged, and we went for a drive from the University dorms to Kahala Mall. While driving on Waialae Avenue, a car cut him off, attempting to get into the lane to turn left. This would put him to the test I thought. A couple of swear words leaked out, then he caught himself. It was not much of an improvement from a week ago, but it was only a week. It would be nearly impossible for anyone to totally transform in a week.

Just as we were about to arrive at Kahala Mall, a pedestrian starts to cross the road when we have the right of way. The pedestrian did not bother to acknowledge us in the slightest bit. i glanced over at subject two and I saw him staring out of the window, and I could tell he was counting to himself. He let out a few deep breaths, and we continued on to the mall. I was impressed. When we arrived at the mall, I commended him on the job he had done the past week in trying to change his driving behavior. However, I still reminded him that this is a process that is never ending. The possibility for relapse is always there. From this day, he would be a traffic psychologist for life. I could see he was happy with the progress he made, and he made it clear that he wanted to continue his improvement.

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The Conclusion

While evaluating my two subjects, I found that the two were very different. Subject one was really prepared to change his driving behavior, while subject two was more apprehensive. The level of resistance I encountered was far greater with subject two. It really tested what ability I had as a beginning traffic psychologist. Whenever you encounter resistance, it makes the plan you laid out that much harder to accomplish. I learned that when doing these types of experiments you need at least two plans, to fit different personality styles. One thing I did get from these experiments was the joy of seeing the joy on their faces when they did see a positive change. It gave me a good feeling inside.

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