The study used a cross-sectional survey design to investigate anger, impulsivity, sensation seeking and driver attitudes as correlates for self-reported acts of risky driving behaviour (RDB), among young drivers. A non-probability sample of 306 university students from two universities in the Durban region completed the self-administered questionnaire. A key focus area included an examination of age and gender differences in the above-mentioned constructs. Fifty four percent of the sample were male (N = 165) and 46% female (N = 141). The mean age of males and females in the sample was 29 years and 25 years respectively. The majority of the sample (75%) indicated that they drive either on a daily basis or 3-6 days a week. With regard to the relationship between the various personality constructs and selfreported acts of RDB, the results indicate that driver anger, sensation seeking, a sense of urgency and a lack of premeditation and perseverance were significantly related to self-reported acts of RDB. That is, drivers with higher driver anger, sensation seeking, urgency, and with a greater lack of premeditation and perseverance in daily activities were statistically more likely to report riskier driving acts. With respect to gender differences, males reported significantly more acts of RDB, while females displayed a significantly lower amount of premeditation in their general daily activities. However no other significant gender differences were observed. The results suggested that driver attitudes were significantly related to self-reported acts of RDB on most indicators. That is, drivers with a negative attitude towards RDB-related behaviours reported significantly less engagement in RDB-related actions.Finally, with respect to age differences, older drivers (25 years and older) reported significantly more negative attitudes towards rule violations/speeding and the careless driving of others. Also, older drivers reported a significantly lower sense of sensation seeking and urgency in life. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sci.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Darbas skirtas Lietuvos vairuotojų agresyvumo ir saviveiksmingumo įvertinimui bei analizei. Tyrimo tikslas: išanalizuoti Lietuvos vairuotojų agresyvumo lygį ir jo sąsajas su saviveiksmingumu. Patogiosios atrankos metodu apklausta buvo 18-74 metų 196 respondentai. Psichologiniam įvetinimui naudotas A.H. Buss’o ir M. Perry „Agresijos klausimynas“, J. L. Deffenbacher’o ir bendraautorių “Vairavimo pykčio skalė”, bei S. George ir kolegų „Adelaidės vairavimo saviveiksmingumo skalė“. Rezultatai atskleidė, kad vairuotojams pasižymintiems aukštesniu agresijos lygiu būdingesnis didesnis pyktis už vairo negu mažiau agresyviems vairuotojams. Taip pat vairuotojai su žemesniu saviveiksmingumu labiau linkę pykti už vairo, negu vairuotojai su aukštesniu saviveiksmingumu. Vertinant lyties skirtumus, vyrai vairuotojai pasižymi aukštesniu agresijos lygiu negu vairuotojos moterys. Moterys vairuotojos nėra labiau linkusios pykti už vairo negu vairuotojai vyrai. Tuo tarpu, vyrų vairuotojų saviveiksmingumas yra aukštesnis negu moterų vairuotojų. Logistinė regresijos analizė nustatė, kad vairuotojų agresyvumas ir žemas saviveiksmingumas didina eismo įvykio tikimybę. / The paper was designed to analize and evaluate the aggressiveness and self- efficacy of Lithuanian drivers. The aim of this study was : to evaluate the level of aggressiveness of Lithuanian drivers and to eveluate the reliationship between self- efficacy and aggressive driving. The data was collected from 196 participants ( 18-74 years old). Buss - Perry Aggression Questionnaire, Deffenbacher and his colleagues’ Driving Anger Scale (DAS) and George and his joint authors’ Adelaide Driving Self-Efficacy Scale (ADSES) were used for psychological evaluations. The results showed that more aggressive drivers tend to express the higher levels of driving anger, than less aggressive drivers. Drivers with lower self- efficacy reported more driving anger than drivers with higher self- efficacy either. The results of sex differences revealed that men are more aggressive drivers than women. Women didn’t express the higher level of driving anger compared with men. The level of driving self- efficacy was higher for men than for women. The Logistic regression found the drivers’ aggressiveness and low self- efficacy to increase the probability to crash involvement.

South Africa is among those countries that have the highest rate of road accidents in the world. Road accidents have a negative impact on a country's development; therefore reduction of road accidents is a priority for the South African government in general, and road transporters in particular. Unitrans Fuel and Chemical (UFC) is one of the major road transporters of dangerous goods in South Africa; this study was undertaken to explore the impact of negative attitudes on safety compliance at UFC by its truck drivers. The focus of the study was informed by the element of human failures, and the role played by such failures in road accidents. In light of driver behaviour being a product of non-tangible elements such as attitudes, feelings and beliefs, the quantitative study undertaken, sets out to explore the impact of negative attitudes on safety compliance. A sample was taken from the UFC's Clairwood depot, and data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics. Other non­ parametric tools were also used to analyse data. The findings are presented in Chapter Four. The researcher used a Likert Scale instrument to measure elements of attitude amongst UFC drivers. The results clearly indicate attitude plays a major role in the lack of safety compliance by drivers. The study also provides recommendations to address issues of driver attitude that are clearly illustrated by the figures in Chapter Four. Recommendations will allow UFC to address areas of negative driver attitude displayed by respondents to the questionnaire. The study recognizes that changing driver behaviour is not an easy task, and commends UFC for the effort applied in addressing this problem. / MBA. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2012.

The present study aimed the adaptation of the Driving Log, a questionnaire that assesses aggressive and risky driving behaviors in a day by day basis, with 395 Spanish participants. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the questionnaire fitted properly in two correlated factors, labeled as Risky Driving and Aggressive Driving. Subsequent analyses showed that the number of drives is significantly associated to Risky Driving, while the number of occasions in which anger is experimented correlated with Risky Driving as well as Aggressive Driving. Other findings suggest that men behave in a more risky and aggressive mannerthan women. Young people follow this same tendency in comparison to their elders. / El presente estudio tuvo como objetivo la adaptación del Driving Log, un cuestionario que valora los comportamientos agresivos y arriesgados al volante, en una muestra española de 395 personas. El análisis factorial confirmatorio mostró que el cuestionario ajustaba satisfactoriamente en dos factores, etiquetados como Conducción Arriesgada y Conducción Agresiva. Los análisis posteriores mostraron que el número de trayectos realizados se asoció significativamente a la Conducción Arriesgada, mientras que el número de veces en que se experimentó ira lo hizo tanto con la Conducción Arriesgada como con la Conducción Agresiva. Igualmente, se vio que los hombres se comportaban de forma más arriesgada y agresiva que las mujeres, y que los jóvenes lo hacían en mayor grado que los mayores.

This study sought to investigate the relationship between cell phone conversation type and dangerous driving behaviors. It was hypothesized that more emotional phone conversations engaged in while driving would produce greater frequencies of dangerous driving behaviors in a simulated environment than more mundane conversation or no phone conversation at all. Participants were semi-randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) no call, (2) mundane call, and, (3) emotional call. While driving in a simulated environment, participants in the experimental groups received a phone call from a research confederate who either engaged them in innocuous conversation (mundane call) or arguing the opposite position of a deeply held belief of the participant (emotional call). Participants in the no call and mundane call groups differed significantly only on percent time spent speeding and center line crossings, though the mundane call group consistently engaged in more of all dangerous driving behaviors than did the no call participants. Participants in the emotional call group engaged in significantly more dangerous driving behaviors than participants in both the no call and mundane call groups, with the exception of traffic light infractions, where there were no significant group differences. Though there is need for replication, the authors concluded that whereas talking on a cell phone while driving is risky to begin with, having emotionally intense conversations is considerably more dangerous.

Aggressive driving is a phenomenon that has taken on tremendous significance in society. While the issue has been studied from perspectives of several disciplines, relatively few comprehensive empirical investigations have been conducted. This may be due, at least in part, to a scarcity of comprehensive theoretical works in the field, from which methodical research hypotheses could be derived. This paper reviews major extant theories of general aggression to offer a rationale for choosing a particular framework to apply to the topic of aggressive driving. The social-cognitive model of aggressive driving is recommended, as it takes into account wide-ranging cognitive, situational, and dispositional factors. Implications for future research are also considered.

Driving anxiety that has developed following crashes has been studied relatively frequently, but anxiety per se and its effects on driving has not as yet garnered much attention in the literature. The current study included 1121 participants and found higher levels of general anxiety were related to a wide variety of dangerous driving behaviors. While there were clear and expected sex differences on many dangerous driving variables, there were still more such differences with regard to anxiety levels and independent of sex, higher levels of anxiety were associated with greater levels of dangerous driving. Of particular import, it was found that the high anxiety group had caused significantly more crashes and engaged in more DUI episodes than the low and/or medium anxiety groups. Taken as a whole, the results suggest there is a tremendous need for more research in the area of anxiety and dangerous driving and that interventions for highly anxious drivers may well be warranted.

Government reports indicate that, on average, more than 3000 people die due to distracted driving each year, accounting for nearly 10% of all fatal car crashes. Other reports claim that two-thirds of fatal car accidents result from aggressive driving. Previous research has been inconclusive regarding how personality impacts distracted and aggressive driving behaviors. Therefore, the goal of this current study is to fill the gap in the literature concerning the role that personality plays in distracted and aggressive driving behaviors. We also explored the role that distracted and aggressive driving behaviors played in accident involvement. A sample of (N=327) participants were recruited using social media and the UCF SONA System. They were asked to self-report their driving behaviors and personality traits by completing a series of online questionnaires (ADBQ, BFI, DBQ, DDQ, DEMO, and IPIP NEO PI-R). Using this data, bivariate correlations were run using the Pearson Correlation Coefficients to determine the role that personality (OCEAN) plays in distracted and aggressive driving behaviors. We used the DDQ and the IPIP NEO PI-R to evaluate the relationship between personality and distracted driving, and we found that personality traits: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism were all significant predictors of distracted driving. Openness was the only one of the five personality traits to have no significant correlation. We used the ADBQ and the IPIP NEO PI-R to assess the relationship between personality and aggressive driving, and we found the same four personality traits: Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, and Neuroticism were all significant predictors of aggressive driving. Openness was, again, the only one of the five personality traits to have no significant correlation. Backward regression analyses were performed to determine what caused these relationships. The regression analysis displayed trait subscales: Morality, Cooperation, Self Discipline, Activity Level, Excitement Seeking, Anger, Emotionality, and Liberalism, each significantly contributed to driver distraction. Another backward regression analysis reveals trait subscales: Morality, Self-Efficacy, Dutifulness, Self Discipline, Anger, and Artistic Interests, each significantly contributed to driver aggression.

The Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) was created to measure drivers' self-reported propensity to drive dangerously (Dula & Ballard, in press). In the early stages of development, the DDDI and each of its subscales (Dangerous Driving Total, Aggressive Driving, Negative Emotional Driving, and Risky Driving) were found to have strong internal reliability (alphas from .83 to .92), and there was evidence of construct validity. In Study One, the alpha coefficient of .91 for the DDDI Total scale indicated excellent internal reliability for the measure and good internal reliability was demonstrated for its subscales with coefficient alphas equal to .81 for the DDDI Risky Driving subscale, .79 for the DDDI Negative Emotional subscale, and the DDDI Aggressive Driving subscale. Additionally, convergent and divergent validity was shown for the DDDI, but evidence was weaker for the validity of the separate subscales. Factor analysis demonstrated that the DDDI seemed to measure a unitary construct. In Study Two, coefficients of stability were generated from a four-week test-retest procedure, which were .76 for the DDDI Risky Driving subscale, .68 for the DDDI Negative Emotional subscale, .55 for the DDDI Aggressive Driving subscale, and .73 for the DDDI Total. In Study Three, the percentage of variance accounted for in criterion variables by different models ranged from 13.6% to 47.7%, where the DDDI Negative Emotional and DDDI Total scales frequently accounted for large portions of variance. In Study Four, the percent of variance accounted for in criterion variables by different models ranged from 22.0% to 65.6%, where some of the DDDI scales were regularly found to account for significant variance. Thus, it was concluded that the DDDI is a measure with high levels of internal reliability and reasonable stability across time, and that face, construct, and predictive validity was demonstrated. However, the evidence in support of the present division of subscales was weak, though present. Therefore, should further data fail to produce more substantial evidence for the validity of the DDDI subscales, a singular dangerous driving measure would be warranted, and the number of items should be shortened as guided by results from factorial analysis. / Ph. D.

This study followed a qualitative research approach, and semi-structured interviews regarding the subject matter were conducted with the knowledgeable and experienced respondents in the Gauteng traffic-related departments. A literature review was also conducted to provide a comprehensive understanding of the research problem in both local and international context. The research stresses the fact that motorists are continuing to lose their lives on Gauteng province, as a result of violent traffic disputes, therefore people suffer financial, physical, psychological as well as social effects as a consequence of such actions. The findings revealed that all the traffic stakeholders are working cooperatively towards implementing the crime prevention strategic plans, but for policing road rage in particular there is no specific strategy in action. In addition, this study reveals that it is impossible for the traffic police to curb road rage incidents because the latter occur as a result of unpredictable human behavior. / Police Practice / M. Tech. (Policing)