Introduction
If you are new to Traffic Psychology you are probably wondering, " What
is Resistance to Traffic Psychology?" Let me explain. This is the
process where people think that they drive so well and are not willing to
change or even try to change. They are showing a "resistance" to making
a change that could benefit themselves and others that share the road
with them. Resistance can take many forms such as not trying with an "I
don't care attitude" or "changing is too hard to do." Like I stated in my
latest paper: everyone thinks that their driving is the best. Sure it is OK to think this but when someone offers
to help you modify your bad behaviors then it is a must to take up the
offer. Although people may think this they know deep inside that there
is something that can be modified. I never thought I had problems with
driving until I took this class and from what I've learned in the past
semester, there are many things that I need to change. If you haven't
read my Report 3 yet, click here to find out
what I'm in the process of modifying. It's hard stuff. Once a person is
set in their ways and have been doing something for a long time it is
very hard to change that behavior. I'm trying to overcome this behavior
when I drive and I think I'm slowly overcoming it!
Back to the top? Section 1:
Procedure
For this paper it was sort of like conducting a mini experiment. We
were required to get 2 subjects. From there they (we) had to: 1. Identify
the problem, 2. Develop a plan, 3. Finally, put the plan to work. I chose to work with my friend Tami who
is 22 years old and has a high school diploma and some college. She has
been my best friend for almost 15 years so I thought it would be easier to work with
her. My other subject was my mom. She also has a high school diploma
and some college. She is 44 years old. Tami says that she speeds all
the time and doesn't think it's a problem and my mom has also admitted to a problem of
tailgating people on the road.
The first
part of my experiment is done. They have stated that they do bad things
on the road. At first, when I approached them Tami felt like I was
attacking her and she started to get all defensive. My mom was a little
more easy going and atleast willing to try. I explained to them the importance of traffic psychology
and I also told them that it would help them as well as others on the
road.Tami
Tami is an outgoing person and feels that her speeding is a slight
problem but never thought twice about it. She was very hard to
approach since she thought this way but I tried my best. I had told
her that I am doing a paper in my Traffic Psychology class and that I
needed 2 subjects who had problems while driving. She asked me "You're
not going to ask me are you Chris?". What was I to say? I told her
"Well, you were on my mind and I think that you do speed quite often so
I was wondering if you would help me out and be one of my subjects?
She hesitated and said "Yah I do speed but it's nothing. Everyone does
it so there's nothing wrong with it." We talked for awhile and finally
she agreed to help me out. I was thinking "Not only is she helping me
out but she's also helping herself out. She may not see it now but she
will later- I guarantee it!" My approach to her was to identify her problem and my method to her was eveytime she felt like she wanted to speed that she
should count backwards from 5 to 1 and really take a good look at herself
and ask herself what is the true reason for her speeding? What is the
driving force behind her wanting to overtake everyone on the road? She
needed to ask herself these questions before the problem could be
corrected. I also asked her to ask herself when she drives if she feels
some evil force is trying to take over her. She says that since she has
a fast car she can't help it but I say that is no excuse. I told her to observe herself while she drove and that I would call her 3
times in one week to get her self observations. I also gave her a small
note pad and a pen to record her driving observations. She was
instructed to write down her observations as soon as she got to her
destinations and try to make them as accurate as possible. She was now on
her way to modifying her behavior! After the first phone call with her she
told me that after talking to me about traffic psychology, she felt bad
everytime she sped. She said she had to fully monitor herself while she
was behind the wheel. On our second call she told me that she forgot and
sped the day before (I had talked to her on Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday). She said that if she doesn't talk to me then it doesn't bother
her so I told her to observe herself some more. I told her to read me
what she had written down so far and she responded by saying "Monday-here
I am stuck in traffic again. I know that I am part of Chris' experiment
for her paper but I swear as soon as this traffic starts moving I will
overtake everyone and I'll be on my way!! (At work she wrote) " Well, as
soon as the traffic opened up I wanted to speed so badly but I had
counted backwards from 5 to 1 like Chris instructed and thought to myself
"Is it necessary for me to speed? Will I feel better if I do? Will I
feel evil if I do?" She said that after all that thinking she was
already at her destination and she didn't have time to speed. She
thought that maybe her solution to speeding could be to think of other
things such as this when she feels like speeding. On her way home from
work she said she wanted to speed but didn't. She told me she remained
the speed limit all the way home from town to Ewa Beach! I was proud of
her! Finally on Friday I rode with her and she did a very good job. She didn't even speed once. She
even said that it did not even occur to her to speed. She told me that
she felt evil when she was speeding like she was a demon on the road
waiting for some competition.Some psychological aspects that could be used to explain
her resistance in the beginning could be her longing for someone to race her since she does have a fast car and for to feel that good feeling when she wins. I think that her self-esteem is so low that the only
type of satisfaction she got was when she would beat someone on the road and then she would feel good about
herself. I was in the car with her once when she decided she wanted to race this Porsche. We were
going almost 125mph on the H1 and I was praying for my life when we finally won. I had explained to her even
in the past that I thought she had a problem with speeding and how ironic that I am now in a Traffic
Psychology class! I could spot her unnatural behavior in the past so I guess I am a good Traffic
Psychologist.
Back
to the top?Tami's ConclusionAfter
doing this experiment with me she said she feels like she is a
different person on the road. She said she feels more relaxed. She also said she feels more clean and feels
like she is now a good person. She is now even encouraging her friends to observe their driving
behaviors and modify their bad ones. She is also very interested in our Traffic Psychology class and I
strongly recommended her to take it because you begin to notice a lot of things about your driving behavior
that you never noticed before. She even wants all her friends to take the course too!MomMy
mom is typically a good driver in my opinion. She seems to not swerve in
and out of lanes, will always stop at yellow lights, etc.. She seems to
follow the rules of the road pretty well. Out of my two subjects she was the one who seemed to be the most
willing to Undo her negative driving behavior. I had approached her
the same way by telling her that I have a paper on Resistance to Traffic
Psychology due and that I needed 2 subjects. I told her that I already
got Tami and that I needed her to be my second subject. She didn't see
why I was asking she thought she drove good and so did I. We sat down
and started eliminating all the stuff that she doesn't do and finally
came down to the last one on the list which was tailgating. Now that we
thought about it she does do this quite often. Especially when she is
running late for work. She tried to back out of it saying there was
nothing wrong with tailgating someone if they are going too slow but then
I told her that why should she violate someone else's private space
(their car) just because she is in a hurry? She agreed with
me.First, since I live at the dorms and I would not be there in
the car with her I told her to write down her observations of herself as
soon as she got to her destination. I told her to watch her self when
she drove. I also used the same technique on her as I did for Tami that
when she felt like she was going to tailgate someone to count backwards
from 5 to 1, think to herself "Is this right?", "Am I being evil by doing
this", "Is this really infringing upon someone elses privacy or proximial
space?". I told her that I would call her on Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday too and for her to keep her self observations on hand when I
called.So Monday evening came and I called her at home. She
explained to me that because she did not tailgate she was late for work.
I wouldn't think she would do something like this! Work is important and
if I saw that I was running late then I would do what I had to get there
on time but my mom is true to her word. I suggested to her that maybe
the reason why she tailgated was because she was in a hurry. She agreed
and we came up with the idea that maybe she should leave atleast 15-20
minutes earlier for work so she would not have to tailgate but still get
there in time. I told her to try it and to let me know on Wednesday when
I would call again.Wednesday came so I gave my mom a call. She
told me that leaving early did help a lot. She said she didn't even feel
the need to tailgate the past 2 days. She didn't have any self
observations of herself. All she said was when she wants to tailgate she
counts backwards and then thinks of me and the other people in front of
hers space and doesn't feel the need or the urge. It is working! I told
her to keep up the good work and I would see her on Friday when she came
to pick me up to go home for the weekend.Friday finally came and
she came to pick me up as usual. It felt different this time because I
could actually watch to see how she deals with the need to tailgate
someone. So, we're on the road and the person in front of her is going
so slow. She had the choice to either 1) Change lanes, or 2) Stay
behind him and use her new techniques to not tailgate. Surprisingly, she
stayed behind him and then I could her count "Ichi, ni, san, shi, go"
(Japanese counting). She began to speak outloud "OK, it's your choice to
go this slow but I will not tailgate you! It is an evil thing to do and
I don't want to be an evil person!". She just lowered her speed and
stayed behind him and then eventually changed lanes. I was thinking
"Wow-what a good job she did, I should try it on my self with my bad
driving behavior!". I was thinking to myself that my subjects could lie
and just tell me that they didn't speed or tailgate but when I was
actually in the car with them I could see them applying the techniques
that I gave them to use when they are feeling like they want to do
something bad on the road such as tailgating or speeding. I also trust
them not to lie and be honest with me.Mom's ConclusionMy
mom told me that she was very happy that she participated in this
experiment. It has taught her to judge her time a little more carefully
and to give respect to people's proximial space. She also said that
she feels like a new person and that she feels "clean". When I first
took this class she was asking me questions like "What kind of class is
that?" I told her that I didn't really know because the class hasn't
started yet. Even she has noticed a change in my driving behavior.
In the past I would always call people names while I was driving and it
would drive her mad! She used to tell me that I better not drive
anymore if I was going to act like that. Then the other week she made
a comment on how my attitude has gotten better while I was behind the
wheel. That made me feel good because my driving techniques that I
learned in class must be working!!
Back to the top?Overall
ConclusionMy
overall conclusion of this paper is that I feel that it did my subjects
good by participating in it as well as help others that share the road
with them. My subjects can now learn to apply this to many other
aspects of their life. They do not have to feel evil anymore for doing
bad things on the road since they have learned to tackle their bad
behaviors. They can still better themselves if they need to as well as
help others that are close to them. Conquering these types of
behaviors could actually lead them to live longer lives by being safer
drivers and will eventually lead them to heaven. |
