Chapter 12 - Social, Personality, and Affective Constructs in Driving

Abstract

This chapter highlights the importance of personal and social influences on driving outcomes. There are numerous categories of individual differences that can impact driving; traffic psychology has often focused on personality variables. One of the most widely studied personality predictors of negative driving behavior is sensation seeking, which is defined as a trait characterized by the pursuit of novel, diverse, and extreme experiences. To achieve these goals, high sensation seekers often display a willingness to take disproportionate physical and social risks. Driving provides an excellent opportunity for high sensation seekers to satisfy the desire for sensation given the inherent potential for arousal, excitement, danger, speed, and competition. In addition the issue of aggressive driving has received a great deal of attention from both scientific and public communities. However, there are differing conceptualizations of the term “aggressive,” which has made it difficult to interpret and compare conclusions in this area. Following the motivational approach to aggression, many have treated traffic aggression as actions intended to physically, psychologically, or emotionally harm another within the driving environment, including drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Also most traffic research has treated driver stress as the outcome of a negative cognitive appraisal of driving situations. Each driver brings a unique and rich experience base, skill set, expectation, interpretation, and reaction to the distinctive state driving context, yet research has been successful in identifying consistent patterns that can heighten the likelihood of negative driving outcomes.