Anger Coach Show. Interview with Dr. Tony Fiore regarding aggressive driving psychology and traffic emotions education. December 1, 2006. Listen to the audiotape at: angercoach.com/blog/2006/11/angercoach-show.htm

 

 

Interview questions for Dr Leon James

and notes for their Answers.
December 1, 2006

 

 

1.     How do you define “road rage” and “aggressive driving”?

Aggressive driving is driving with angry emotions fueled by a subjective mentality vs. supportive driving which is driving with cooperative emotions and an objective mentality.

 

To drive with a subjective mentality means to take things personally, while to drive with an objective mentality means to treat what the other driver is doing by noticing without blaming.

 

By withholding yourself from blaming the other driver, you gain emotional power and you reduce affective load upon yourself while driving.

 

When we are occupied in our mind blaming another driver for this or that action we notice, we are wasting mental energy pursuing that line of thinking. It will not change anything about the traffic. The blaming game we play with ourselves while driving is a delusional activity. It may be called driving with emotional impairment.

 

2.     What are the zones of aggressive driving that you write about in your books?

 

Aggressive driving is driving under the influence of impaired emotions. There are three categories of impaired emotions:

  1. Impatience and Inattentiveness
  2. Power Struggle
  3. Recklessness and Road Rage

The majority of motorists drive in an emotionally impaired state at certain times. Some motorists drive in this state more often than others, and pose a serious risk to themselves and others. Driving violations can be identified by reference to these three categories of impaired emotions. Each category of impaired emotion leads to different types of traffic violations.

Category 1: Impatience and Inattentiveness

  • Driving through red
  • Speeding up to yellow
  • Rolling stops
  • Cutting corners or rolling over double line
  • Blocking intersection
  • Not yielding
  • Improper lane change or weaving
  • Driving 5 to 15 mph above limit
  • Following too close
  • Not signaling when required
  • Erratically slowing down or speeding up
  • Taking too long

Category 2: Power Struggle

  • Blocking passing lane, refusing to move over
  • Threatening or insulting by yelling, gesturing, honking repeatedly
  • Tailgating to punish or coerce
  • Cutting off in a duel
  • Braking suddenly to retaliate

Category 3: Recklessness and Road Rage

  • Driving drunk
  • Pointing a gun or shooting
  • Assaulting with the car or battering object
  • Driving at very high speeds

 

Additional information on this issue from DrDriving.org is available here:

 

www.angercoach.com/pdfs/anger_bee_0402.pdf

www.drdriving.org/articles/chart.htm
www.drdriving.org/surveys/9zone_chart.htm

 

3.     Do aggressive drivers see themselves as such?

 

If you ask drivers to estimate what percentage of drivers around them are aggressive, they say it’s about 80 percent. Later if you ask them what percentage of time are you aggressive, they say 30 percent of the time. Hence there is a 50 percent awareness gap of one’s aggressive driving.

 

There is also the definition gap. The majority of drivers do not agree that certain behaviors are aggressive, even if it is illegal, as for example, tailgating when the driver won’t move over, or making an insulting hand gesture, yelling at the other driver, switching lanes without signaling, or not making a full stop at stop signs.

 

4.     Is there a gender or age factor in aggressive driving?

 

Aggressive driving is a cultural norm. We are socialized into it by parents, TV, and car talk. Up to now women were driving less and were in greater control of their emotions, expressing little overt anger, regardless of what they felt inside. But now women drivers are adopting more aggressive norms and passing it on to the next generation.

 

5.     What causes aggressive driving behavior?

 

The factors that contribute to aggressive driving are:

·        culture training (parents, TV, car talk)

·        socialization (back seat of the car as infants)

·        emotional territoriality (“He is doing this to me personally.”)

·        not valuing civility (“Express yourself and the hell with everybody else.”)

·        valuing competitiveness in driving (“The smart guy gets there first.”)

·        wanting to retaliate, automotive vigilantism (“Can’t let him get away with it.” or the mistaken belief that one can teach others drivers a lesson)

 

6.     What can be done about it? What works best?

 

lifelong driver education and AWM technique – see articles and book at www.drdriving.org/articles/

See also Table below:

 

DrDriving's HINTS on How to

Arrive alive || Drive smart  || Stay healthy || Be supportive || Help speed up traffic flow ||  Be a good role model to your kids  ||   Stay in control of the situation || Stay cool and maintain your composure

Slowly count to ten

While you force yourself to count slowly, your adrenaline in the blood goes back down to normal levels.  Take deep breaths as you do this.

Forgive and forget

Think about the people who are waiting for you to arrive and how you don't want to disappoint them.  Tell yourself it's just not worth the hassle.

Make funny noises

Laughter not only interrupts your negative thinking, it unloads the stress.  Try animal sounds or any nonsense noise--really get into it.

Use the Castanza Technique

When you're in a bad mood, act the opposite of what you feel like.  It worked for George on Seinfeld--remember that episode?

Act as-if

Do your courtesy waves and put on a pleasant face.  The way you drive is contagious.  You're influencing others' behavior, not by retaliating, but by peacemaking.

Shrink your emotional territory

Develop an attitude of latitude. Think of positive reasons why drivers do things that annoy you. Perhaps they're sick or confused.  Maybe they're rushing to the bathroom. Maybe they just got some bad news. Maybe...

Come out swinging positive

Don't be rude to the rude. Seize control by defusing anger. Apologize, don't argue, be sympathetic. Don't challenge anything. Go out of your way to appear friendly and peaceful.

Drive with emotional intelligence

It's intelligent to choose positive explanations, rather than negative because they are less disturbing, more community oriented, less alienating, and ultimately more satisfying than the "you stupid clown" approach.

Commit yourself to a Lifelong Program of Driver Self-improvement
Keep a Driving Log or Diary and make appropriate entries after each trip. Or, you can record yourself while driving, speaking your thoughts aloud.  What a revelation when you listen to it later!  It's a wake-up call to a driving personality makeover.

 

7.     What are some specific “self-talk” phrases that work most effectively to control anger when frustrated on the road? What affect does “self-talk” have on changing one’s perspective of bad drivers on the road?

 

See these sources where it is explained:

http://www.drdriving.org/articles/violence.htm

http://www.drdriving.org/articles/book_toc.htm

http://www.drdriving.org/articles/psychology.htm

 

8.      Tell us about your new Road Rage Video course and how listeners can order it.

 

This course is described here:  www.drdriving.org/courses/

 

Excellent with the book:  ROAD RAGE AND AGGRESSIVE DRIVING

Book excerpts here..    www.drdriving.org/articles/book_toc.htm

The principal objectives of the RoadRageous Video Course are:

It is also being used with professional drivers, law enforcement, military personnel, traffic courts, driver education schools, and individual home study (video by mail or online)

Order or see clips:   RoadRageous Video Course at AIPS

 

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