Determinants of Emotional Experiences in Traffic Situations ... - OPUS

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18 Introduction possessing a higher anger trait, gender, age, driving experience and driving motivation could also affect the frequency and intensity of anger experiences in traffic situations. For example, men report greater levels of anger than women when impeded by other drivers (Deffenbacher et al., 1994), whereas women become angrier in the presence of direct hostility, illegal actions or traffic obstructions (Parker et al., 2002). Older drivers tend to show less aggressive driving behaviour because of weaker anger experiences than young drivers (Lajunen & Parker, 2001; Lajunen, Parker & Stradling, 1998). As a predictor of anger, driving experience shows an inconsistent pattern and is highly dependent on gender (Lajunen & Parker, 2001). It could influence levels of driving anger in various situations, such as when face with direct hostility or reckless driving; however, according to Björklund (2008), this was valid only for females. In male populations, no such effect has been observed. To date, there has been no complete predictive model of anger (or any other emotion) and driving behaviour that combines a wider range of personal characteristics with an in-depth description of traffic situations simultaneously. To complete the proposed model (Figure 1), the possible outcomes of an elicited emotion in traffic must be addressed. Therefore, the next section describes different functions of emotions, the cognitive processes or actions they can influence and what insights are already present in the traffic psychology domain. 1.5 Emotion and Behaviour Emotions can trigger behaviours that are often expressive, goal-directed and adaptive (Kleinginna & Kleinginna, 1981). Several strategies exist to regulate emotional experiences with specific actions (Gross, 1998). These strategies include a) situational selection, b) situational modification, c) cognitive change, d) attention deployment and e) response modulation. The first four strategies are attention-focussed, in that they occur before appraisals and give rise to strong emotional responses, whereas the last strategy, being more response-focussed, occurs after the emotional response is generated (Gross & Munoz, 1995). Situational selection is the most forward-looking regulation, in which the individual chooses situations that generate a more favourable emotional impact. In situational modification, the person takes action to change situational characteristics to influence one’s emotional experience. Cognitive change as a method of emotional self-regulation refers to an internal reappraisal of the situation. An internal method of situation selection is attention deployment; furthermore, there can be redirection, concentration or withdrawal of attention in a given situation, all of which can modify the experience of emotion-inducing features, and therefore, the emotion itself. Response modulation refers to managing one’s emotional expressive behaviour, including the physiological, experiential or physiological aspects of the emotional response (McRae & Gross, 2009).
Introduction 19 On the behavioural level, traffic psychologists usually concentrate on aggressive or risky driving patterns as a consequence of elicited emotions (Nesbit et al., 2007), a method comparable to the response modulation form of emotion regulation. The experience of anger, for example, could cause higher driving speeds (Lajunen & Parker, 2001; Björklund, 2008), stronger accelerations (Stephens & Groeger, 2009) and more speeding violations (Mesken et al., 2007). Anxiety might be associated with more driving errors, which could possibly lead to dangerous traffic situations (Dula & Ballard, 2003; Dula, Adams, Miesner & Leonard, 2010; Fairclough, Tattersal & Houston, 2006). Nevertheless, these behaviours are not exclusively a consequence of an elicited emotion, and many researchers claim that they can occur simply due to characteristics of the situation or the person, with no specific emotional experience involved (DeJoy, 1992; Ulleberg, 2001; Yagil, 1998). There is yet little evidence of how these personal and situational characteristics are related to important emotional experiences on the road and how they influence behaviour (Björklund, 2008). 1.6 Research Questions of the Dissertation Derived from this introduction, several fruitful fields of research are available in traffic psychology. The proposed model and its components are not yet fully developed, and more experimental data are needed to examine its full potential. The research lines in this dissertation are therefore threefold and can be formulated along the following questions: I. Which emotions are present in traffic and how are they elicited? In traffic psychology, the focus is often anger. Other emotions, such as anxiety or happiness, are very seldom on the research agenda. Database research 2 reveals that in the domain of traffic and emotion, 90% of all articles (229 between 1985 and 2012) addressed anger (or one of its correlates, such as aggression, irritation and stress), with only 10% examining anxiety (such as PTSD or fear). Furthermore, no focus has been given to more complex emotional states, such as pride or guilt (Tangney, 1991; Tangney & Dearing, 2002; Frijda, 1986), and how they can be elicited in non-clinical populations. Thus, no domain-specific knowledge exists about the elicitation modalities, cognitive processes or outcomes of these emotions in traffic contexts. A first step, then, should be the assessment of the potential of emotions other than anger and anxiety and which conditions are necessary to trigger them in traffic situations. The goal of the article ‘The Emotional Spectrum in Traffic Situations: Results of Two Online- Studies’ (Roidl, Frehse, Oehl & Höger, 2012) was to test whether there are emotions in traffic situations other than anger and anxiety and, if yes, under what circumstances is this extended range of possible emotions reported. The appraisal theory of emotion was applied to elicit specific emotional !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 Database query (December 2012) using ISI Web of Science and IP Thompson Reuters restraining the results to peer reviewed publications in traffic contexts and English language with the keywords: driving anger / aggressive driving / driver irritation / driver stress / driving anxiety / driving fear. !
Page 1 and 2: Determinants of Emotional Experienc
Page 3 and 4: Acknowledgements I would like to th
Page 5 and 6: Abstract Emotions play a prominent
Page 7 and 8: 2.3.2.2.5 Testing H5 ..............
Page 9 and 10: List of Tables Chapter 2: The Emoti
Page 11 and 12: Introduction 11 1. Introduction 1.1
Page 13 and 14: Introduction 13 (Deffenbacher et al
Page 15 and 16: Introduction 15 emotions varies vas
Page 17: Introduction 17 Therefore, a precis
Page 21 and 22: Introduction 21 A coherent model of
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Page 27 and 28: Introduction 27 Reason, J., Manstea
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Emotional States of Drivers and The
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127 General Conclusion impact is si
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