Effects of alcohol and perceived controllability in optimistic offender drivers

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The aim of this study was to analyse how the complexity of the situational context in driving and the effect of alcohol influence the use of internal and external factors in prefactual thoughts and performance in a simulated driving task performed by optimistic and pessimistic drivers who attend rehabilitation courses. 72 drivers took part on a voluntary basis. 21 of them were offender drivers attending intervention, awareness, and rehabilitation courses for recouping points deducted from their licences. 43 drivers were attending courses for advanced professional driving licences or the like. The participants followed a route in a driving simulator. At the training stage, we adjusted the task difficulty to induce a high or low perception of control; in addition, we established the condition of alcohol intake or not. On the basis of the outcome obtained in this stage, the participants had to report the resources they required for improving their outcomes. We used different factor ANOVAs to analyse our results. In all cases, the tests were conducted a posteriori with Bonferroni adjustment in order to analyse the interactions. The most interesting differences are noted under the condition of high difficulty and no alcohol intake, where lower control is induced among the participants and where the drivers have not consumed alcohol. In contrast to non-offending pessimistic and optimistic drivers, optimistic offender drivers think their results would be better if there were external factors. We may contend that optimistic offender drivers think they are more likely to achieve the outcomes they want. This thinking may be motivated by the fact that this group does not perform better than the rest of the groups.