REPORT 3
My Driving Personality Makeover Plan
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"YEAH RIGHT!" Thats the first thought that came into my mind when we
were told that we had to do a personality makeover plan for driving. I
didn't thing I had a problem with my attitude when it came to driving.
I have never received a citation for a moving violation (in the USA), or
never been involved in an accident. I work for a major transportation
company and have always received high marks from my bosses and people in
the public. One of these high marks include a "driver of the year" award
given to me by the Honolulu City Council May 1995. The majority of my
fellow employees and bosses voted in my favor during a in company
election for this award. To also add to the all this bragging, I have
received numerous promotions to key positions in my company. So as you all
can see, I have been put on a pedestal so high that it is almost
impossible for me to listen to anyone that says I have to change. Berna
Collado has a well written Taxonomy of Driving
Behavior for Traffic Psychology that I suggest you take a look at.
My thinking of that I am the best driver on the whole planet has led
to behaviors that are considered unhealthy. Dr James mentioned in class
that some of these unhealthy behaviors is the role of the "punisher."
When he spoke of the characteristics of this type of person on the road,
I saw myself. Letitua Lujan has a section on differents types of SLOWLY...ONE AT A TIME!
Being a "Road Judge", there are numerous things that I do to people
that aren't very psychologically healthy on my part. I would like to change
all of
those behaviors but I know that I have to do it one at a time to make
sure that I am cured of each of those dangerous things that a road judge
does. For this plan, I will try to change the most dangerous one of all-
chasing another car down at all cost to get him or her back for what ever
he or she did to another driver. This is the worst because at times I don't
stop until I
can get them back. I waste lots of gasoline doing this self perceived
good deed.
This is exactly what I thought when I started to plan my personality
makeover plan. I mean, nothing has ever happened to me in the past; not a
ticket or an
accident and I feel I am doing a good deed. I'm sure that those poor
victims out there enjoy watching me getting there perpretrator back. Dr.
James
would probably say that this is probably one of my fantasies from playing
this "Top Dog" role. Now that I have come to a time in my life that I have
so much more to lose (family members, expensive cars,), this would be a
great opportunity to do a driving personality makeover.
Alan Furukawa from class G2 has a section called "The Driver
From Hell" which is about losing control-somthing that I noticed that
I often do on the road. I spent a period of one week observing each time a
felt like I had
to chase someone down and serve justice. All of my observations were
done from April 1, 1996 - April 5, 1996. These days were from Monday
through Friday during the morning and afternoon traffic jams. I excluded
the weekends since that is when I work. My driving attitude is much
different when I am working due to the obvious; I can't afford to get
fired.
The following is how many times I felt like chasing a driver down for
something they did to another driver:
Mon.-7
Tue.-3
Wed.-3
Thu.-5
Fri.-11
I tried to rationalize the high number of my bad thoughts on Monday to the
bad attitudes of most drivers on the road since it is the beginning of
a work week. I felt a certain tension and bad animosity among drivers on
the road. Tuesday and Wendsday are about the same. I had a hard time
forgetting that I was doing a self-witness report and would try to "be
a nicer driver" so I wouldn't think anything bad about myself.
I tried to remember to just think and do as I usually do on Thursday.
That explains the increase of incidents. Friday was a tipical Friday
for me. The streets and highway are usually jammed from morning to
evening. So many drivers making so many bad moves and so many bad
thoughts running through my head.
After observing myself for those five days, I discovered that I had a
bigger problem than I thought. I fit right into PUTTING IT TO THE TEST
I didn't have any false hopes and didn't expect myself to change my
behavior overnight. I new that it was going to take some time. The main
thing is that I am now aware of the driving personality problem that I
have and to work on it. I used the week of April 8, 1996 - April 12, 1996
to do a second self witnessing report on myself to see if I was really being
honest with myself and everybody around me, and if I was really going to try
to change my behavior. The following is once again how many times I felt
that I had to play a "road judge" role:
Mon.-1
Tue.-5
Wed.-2
Thu.-0
Fri.-1
I started off good on Monday morning since I was trying extra hard to
do my self modification excersices. By that afternoon I slipped a little.
Tuesday was awful. I was already in a bad mood when I got on the road
due to waking up late and having have to rush to school. Since I missed
an important class, I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day which
meant that I also brought my bad attitude on the road in the afternoon.
Wednesday was slightly bad, but on Thursday, I finally defeated the "Road
Judge" in me. One major thing I had to add to my self modification plan
was a physio-psychology technique: Deep breathing. Everytime I felt
angry at a certain driver, I would start to breath deeply to slow down my
racing heart and rising blood pressure from the anger that was building up.
This along with preparing myself
mentally has had a positive affect with only one incident the following day.
What I am about to mention is old but very relevant to my behavior
and traffic psychology. I fit right into the Type-"A" personality
description. You know, those who must be at the front leading, the workaholic, and the
manager type. These are also people who die at 45 years old from heart
attacks, strokes and severe burn out. Fitting into this type of
personality has always been hard and exhausting but at the same time
rewarding for me in the sense that it has helped me achieve many things My
self modification plan not only will
change my driving personality but may also help me get out of the Type-"A"
personality classification.
personalities. My driving self-modification plan so far is somewhat a success. There
needs to be more time spent on my plan. One weeks self-witness report
isn't going to show if I will be successful for the rest of my life. I
feel that I have won in a sense that I have accepted, and have started an
honest attempt to change my behavior. I also now realize the
unrationality of my thoughts and behavior, and the effects that it can
have on other drivers, my loved ones, and especially...me! See
Rochelle Tactacan's section on Good Driving Habits.
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