I said, "Well Kelly, this how it's gonna work." "Since it's saturday, I want you to start on monday." "I want you to take this note pad and when you get to work and after you get home I want you to record; When you tailgated and what you did about it and about your feelings throughtout this process." "On monday, wedensday, and friday, I want you to call me after work and tell me how it went." "Okay?" She said, "Got it."
After she new what to do I had to explain to her some techniques she will be using to change her negative driving behavior. I told her that the first step in changing this behavior is first recognizing it. I told her that if she were to be consciously aware of that negative behavior it will help her undo it. After she observes herself doing it she has to undo it. How to undo this is by first physically undoing it, for example, if she were tailgating and then realize she was doing it she would immediately stop doing it. Then I told her to tell herself outloud that tailgating is a bad and that she isn't a bad person so she shouldn't be doing that and then I told her to appologize in her mind to the person she tailgated. Then I wanted her to shut off her stereo for five minutes as punishment. Hopefully she will come to associate tailgating with punishment and slowly distinguish it because she's in love with her stereo and to turn it off on her would be a very harsh punishment. Then I told her that we will both collaborately modify the plan if it is not working right on the nights she talks to me about it.
Step 4
Monday
When I arrived home I anxiously awaited Kelly's call. I wondered if she was at all successful. While I was watching t.v. she called. She told me that she tailgated only twice today and caught herself doing it when she couldn't help it. I asked her if she undid the negative behavior by telling herself it was wrong to do that but she said she honestly tried but upon doing it she felt silly for talking to herself. I also asked her if she punished herself for doing that negative behavior and she told me that she turned off the stereo for the full time the first time she tailgated but the second time she didn't bother because she said it wasn't working anyway.
I told her that it was important for my experiment that she completes the plan. She agreed but said that it's hard. I asked her what do you mean by hard? She said that if she doesn't tailgate the guy in front then she feels as if she's being pressured by the guy in back. I asked her if she knows for a fact that the guy in back is trying to pressure on her because she won't pressure the guy in front of her to speed up. She told me that she didn't know that for a fact but that's how she feels. I told her what she was doing was living in this fantasy and in this fantasy she feels justified. I told her that this fanatasy was probably not real and she that she shouldn't make decisions based on these kinds of assumptions.
From this I was not able to tell if my plan was unsuccesful because she never completed it. I think the problem was not with my plan but maybe a motivational factor. I think if she was somehow motivated to carry out the plan maybe she would unconciously learn some traffic psychology without even knowing it.
The problem was how to get her motivated. Then it popped into my head, if I bet her that she couldn't carry out the plan then I think she'd be motivated to carry out the plan. I felt this way because she likes to bet and hates to lose, at least with this bet she has full control of winning. I asked her if she'd like to put a wager on her performance; the criteria is that she would have to undo her negative driving behavior everytime she would be consciously aware of it and to also record her performance on the notepad I gave her. Enthusiasticaly she suggested a money wager but I was low on the funds so I said, "How about making the loser wash and wax the winners car." She said, "Okay." "Is saturday fine for you?" Then I told her, "Don't you mean fine for you?" With that note I told her that I"ll talk to her on wednesday.
Wednesday
She called me on wednesday evening. The first thing she said to me was that she only tailgated once on tuesday and that she did the speech to herself and after she turned off her stereo for the full five minutes. On wednesday, however, she said she tailgated about four times; twice getting to work because she was late, Once on her way to the bank during her lunch break and twice on her way home because there was traffic and she got tired of being cut. I asked her if she undid her negative driving behavior and she told me she did but that didn't stop her from tailgating afterwards. She said it just aggitated her more that she had to turn-off the stereo and recite that silly monologue. I can hear her resistance to traffic psychology through her excuses because the grounds in which she tried to justify her behavior was not good enough.
I suggested to her that maybe the consequences of her actions were not aversive enough, so I suggested that her punishment for tailgating should be extended for fifteen minutes and that she would have to recite her speech once immediately after she tailgated and once after her fifteen minutes was up. She of course tried to tell me that it wouldn't work because she'd still continue to do it. This was her way of getting away with the punishments but I insisted and told her that that was the deal so she of course had to abide by it, at least until this was done.
I also asked her how she felt during her attempts to not tailgate and she told me that it was still frustrating because she feels that she has to be passive about the whole process. I asked her to elaborate and she told me that that (tailgating) was a way for her to express her dislike for the slow driver, but then I asked her, "Are they at all physically threatening your life?" and she said, "No." Then I asked her, "Are they breaking the law." and she said, "No." Then I told her that the problem does not lie with the slow driver's behavior because he/she did not break the law nor did they put you in any kind of danger therefore the problem lies with you. Then she said, "What do you mean; My problem, he's the slow one." Then I explain to her that she is going to have to change her conception of the situation because if she doesn't she will always see these kind of situations as negative. I told her if she gets behind a slow driver and feels the urge to tailgate them then she should remind herself that they are not doing anything wrong and that they have the Right to go the speed limit and you should respect that. Then she told me I was right but she didn't think it was realistic. On that note I said, "See you friday."
Friday
She called me and asked me to meet her for dinner. I agreed hoping that I won my bet. At dinner I asked her how it went and she told me pretty good. She said on thursday she never tailgated once but had a hard time trying not to do it. I asked her how she felt when she was all done driving and she told me that she felt normal. I asked her if it felt good to accomplish such a arduous task but she told me that it felt good to win the bet. I asked her how did you win the bet, you didn't tell me about today's driving. She said she tailgated once today and when she did it she undid it with the speeches and the fifteen minute stereo deprivation punishment. I congradulated her on such a good job and thanked her for her time.
Conclusion
Even though I lost a bet I gained a better insight into my traffic psychology techniques. I learned that even though I can have the most suitable plan it won't assure them to complete it. There must be a motivational incentive to assure that the plan is carried out completely. I also learned that the persons resistance can give you better insight in the modification of the driving plan. In the future I will modify my plan to incoorperate a motivational component and also a thought reconstruction.
JIMMBO
Introduction
The next person I choose for some traffic psychology was my old friend Jimmbo. Jimmbo has been my friend since we were in high school. Jimmbo is a really laid back kind of guy. I really never seen Jimmbo get angry, he just laughs everything off. As far as his driving is concerened, he's really pretty mellow. I never experienced a bad time while he drove but I bet he's has at least one negative driving behavior.
My approach strategy: Jimmbo
I thought that it would be a great idea to take a drive with Jimmbo before I approached him with the idea of trying out some traffic psychology. I called him up an asked him if he wanted to come with me to Waikele. I chose Waikele because I knew it would be a long enough drive to at least find one negative driving behavior and I would also have enough time to pitch the idea to him. Being that he's so laid back I was pretty confident that he'd agree.
The Process
Step 1
I called him to see if he wanted to go to Waikele and he agreed. I also asked him if he could drive and he said yes. On the way Jimmbo seemed to be driving fine, he never sped, tailgated, nor ran any lights. It wasn't until we reached a road construction that had everyone merge into one big lane where he commited his first negative driving behavior. He changed his lanes without signaling. After that I noticed that he never signaled when he turns, I know that it wasn't a great sin but it still was a negative driving behavior none the less.
When we arrived at waikele I brought up the fact that he changed lanes without signaling and wondered what he thought about it. He said that he didn't really think about it at all. I asked him if he was aware that changing lanes without signaling was unlawful and ontop of that not courteous to other drivers. He responded with little resistance by asking me if I cut someone off and I told him that he didn't but I asked him if it bothered him that he did that. He told me that it really didn't but asked if it bothered me. I told him that it did a little. He wanted to know why but I thought that my explanation would deviate from my purpose so I kind of ignored his question and asked him if he identified it as a problem. He told me no because he wasn't hurting anyone but I explained to him that it is not courteous to other drivers and in that way it is a problem. He got a little defensive at first but finally he agreed that it was.
Step 2
After we identified his negative driving behavior I asked him if he was willing to help me out by trying out some traffic psychology for at least one week. He told me that he would and asked me what he had to do. I told him that all he had to do was try and be aware of his negative driving behavior (No Signaling) and when he catches himself doing it or done it he must mentally undo his behavior. He asked me how he should do it and I told him to simply remember that what he did was a big disservice to other drivers and that he was also breaking the law then I told him to recite a short speech out loud to himself: "I did a bad thing by not signaling. It was selfish, lazy and unlawful. I am not that kind of person and I apologize for doing this kind of negative driving behavior." Then I told him that he had to punish himself by not smoking a cigarette the rest of his driving trip since he enjoys doing that. He agreed but a little to easily. I told him that it was important for him to carry out my plan exactly how I told him or else my project wouldn't work and of course he said he understood.
Step 3
I told him that he can start on Monday. I also told him that he had to record his driving behavior and his feelings on a notepad after every time he drove and he had to call me on monday, wednesday and friday night to tell me his progress. He seemed to understand what I was saying so said I'll here from him on monday.
Step 4
Monday
I called him up monday night and he wasn't home. I left a message with his room mate to have him call me back when he got home and he never called back.I wonder if he forgot.
Wednesday
I caught him wednesday evening at blockbuster video and he acted as if forgot about my project so I asked him and he said he hasn't switched lanes once since monday so he felt like he didn't need to call me. I really didn't believe him so I asked him if he was sure and he said that he was. I also asked him what helped him to stop changing lanes without signaling and he said that he enjoyed smoking his cigarettes too much so I told him that he still had to report back to me on friday to tell me if he gave in to his evil ways.
Friday
I called him friday and he told me that he did his negative driving behavior only three times and that he commited them all that day because he said he didn't care after he messed up the first time because he already wasn't allowed to smoke so it didn't make a difference. I asked him if he recited the speech and he told me that he did but it didn't mean much since he was already bummed out about not smoking.
Conclusion
I realized with Jimmbo that his big motivational factor was his smoking. The moment he had to give it up, he just gave up on the whole plan. His resistance to change was soley motivated by his love for his nictone and that wasn't the case I believe that any other punishment wouldn't have worked for him. I also asked him to continue trying to be a traffic psychologist for his own good and I hope that he does.
