Aggressive Driving: A Literature Review

2018

Most of the road accident happened in Malaysia involved young driver and motorcyclists.Aggressive behavior on the road has been highlighted as contributing factor of such event.This paper provides a review of current research on young driver behavior, focusing on factors that influence aggressive driving, given that this behavior has received the greatest attention in the young driver literature.The review discusses the concept of aggressive driving, factors influence such behavior and types of aggressive driving that being done by young drivers. In the final section of the paper, recommendations for future research are provided.

Using 300 purposively selected private and commercial automobile drivers in Lagos, Nigeria as participants, and with a combination of FGD, interview and questionnaire, the study investigated the influence of psychosocial factors such as (locus of control, age, years of driving experience, marital status and educational status) on aggressive behavior among the drivers based on the frustration -aggression hypothesis. Given the chaotic traffic situation in Lagos, premise was that the aggressive instincts in human beings would be more pronounced among the drivers thereby negatively affecting their behavior. Result showed that commercial drivers were significantly higher on aggressive driving behavior. Younger drivers were more aggressive than older ones. Aggressiveness was attributed to other factors in the environment other than the drivers themselves. The need for training of drivers in proper and acceptable way of driving within their cultural context was emphasized.

School of Technology Management & Logistics (STML), 2019

This could be seen from Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department (2017) reported that about 3.3 million car accidents and 34,195 fatalities were recorded from year 2013 to 2017. Worst, in 2017, there were 667,275 car accidents and 6,983 fatalities of drivers and occupants. Table 5.1 shows in detail numbers of cars involved in road accidents last 5 years.

2011

2011

Many drivers in highly motorised countries believe that aggressive driving is increasing. While the prevalence of the behaviour is difficult to reliably identify, the consequences of on-road aggression can be severe, with extreme cases resulting in property damage, injury and even death. This research program was undertaken to explore the nature of aggressive driving from within the framework of relevant psychological theory in order to enhance our understanding of the behaviour and to inform the development of relevant interventions. To guide the research a provisional 'working' definition of aggressive driving was proposed encapsulating the recurrent characteristics of the behaviour cited in the literature. The definition was: "aggressive driving is any on-road behaviour adopted by a driver that is intended to cause physical or psychological harm to another road user and is associated with feelings of frustration, anger or threat". Two main theoretical perspectives informed the program of research. The first was Shinar's (1998) frustration-aggression model, which identifies both the person-related and situational characteristics that contribute to aggressive driving, as well as proposing that aggressive behaviours can serve either an 'instrumental' or 'hostile' function. The second main perspective was Anderson and Bushman's (2002) General Aggression Model. In contrast to Shinar's model, the General Aggression Model reflects a broader perspective on human aggression that facilitates a more comprehensive examination of the emotional and cognitive aspects of aggressive behaviour. Study One (n = 48) examined aggressive driving behaviour from the perspective of young drivers as an at-risk group and involved conducting six focus groups, with eight participants in each. Qualitative analyses identified multiple situational and person-related factors that contribute to on-road aggression. Consistent with human aggression theory, examination of self-reported experiences of aggressive driving identified key psychological elements and processes that are experienced during on-road aggression. Participants cited several emotions experienced during an on-road incident: annoyance, frustration, anger, threat and excitement. Findings also suggest that off-road generated stress may transfer to the on-road environment, at times having severe consequences including crash involvement. Young drivers also appeared quick to experience negative attributions iv about the other driver, some having additional thoughts of taking action. Additionally, the results showed little difference between males and females in the severity of behavioural responses they were prepared to adopt, although females appeared more likely to displace their negative emotions. Following the selfreported on-road incident, evidence was also found of a post-event influence, with females being more likely to experience ongoing emotional effects after the event. This finding was evidenced by ruminating thoughts or distraction from tasks. However, the impact of such a post-event influence on later behaviours or interpersonal interactions appears to be minimal. Study Two involved the quantitative analysis of n = 926 surveys completed by a wide age range of drivers from across Queensland. The study aimed to explore the relationships between the theoretical components of aggressive driving that were identified in the literature review, and refined based on the findings of Study One. Regression analyses were used to examine participant emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses to two differing on-road scenarios whilst exploring the proposed theoretical framework. A number of socio-demographic, state and trait person-related variables such as age, pre-study emotions, trait aggression and problem-solving style were found to predict the likelihood of a negative emotional response such as frustration, anger, perceived threat, negative attributions and the likelihood of adopting either an instrumental or hostile behaviour in response to Scenarios One and Two. Complex relationships were found to exist between the variables, however, they were interpretable based on the literature review findings. Factor analysis revealed evidence supporting Shinar's (1998) dichotomous description of on-road aggressive behaviours as being instrumental or hostile. The second stage of Study Two used logistic regression to examine the factors that predicted the potentially hostile aggressive drivers (n = 88) within the sample. These drivers were those who indicated a preparedness to engage in direct acts of interpersonal aggression on the road. Young, male drivers 17-24 years of age were more likely to be classified as potentially hostile aggressive drivers. Young drivers (17-24 years) also scored significantly higher than other drivers on all subscales of the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) and on the 'negative problem orientation' and 'impulsive careless style' subscales of the Social Problem Solving Inventory-Revised (D'Zurilla, Nezu & Maydeu-Olivares, 2002). The potentially hostile aggressive drivers were also significantly more likely to engage in v speeding and drink/drug driving behaviour. With regard to the emotional, cognitive and behavioural variables examined, the potentially hostile aggressive driver group also scored significantly higher than the 'other driver' group on most variables examined in the proposed theoretical framework. The variables contained in the framework of aggressive driving reliably distinguished potentially hostile aggressive drivers from other drivers (Nagalkerke R 2 = .39). Study Three used a case study approach to conduct an in-depth examination of the psychosocial characteristics of n = 10 (9 males and 1 female) self-confessed hostile aggressive drivers. The self-confessed hostile aggressive drivers were aged 24-55 years of age. A large proportion of these drivers reported a Year 10 education or better and average-above average incomes. As a group, the drivers reported committing a number of speeding and unlicensed driving offences in the past three years and extensive histories of violations outside of this period. Considerable evidence was also found of exposure to a range of developmental risk factors for aggression that may have contributed to the driver's on-road expression of aggression. These drivers scored significantly higher on the Aggression Questionnaire subscales and Social Problem Solving Inventory Revised subscales, 'negative problem orientation' and 'impulsive/careless style', than the general sample of drivers included in Study Two. The hostile aggressive driver also scored significantly higher on the Barrett Impulsivity Scale-11 (Patton, Stanford & Barratt, 1995) measure of impulsivity than a male 'inmate', or female 'general psychiatric' comparison group. Using the Carlson Psychological Survey (Carlson, 1982), the self-confessed hostile aggressive drivers scored equal or higher scores than the comparison group of incarcerated individuals on the subscale measures of chemical abuse, thought disturbance, antisocial tendencies and self-depreciation. Using the Carlson Psychological Survey personality profiles, seven participants were profiled 'markedly anti-social', two were profiled 'negative-explosive' and one was profiled as 'self-centred'. Qualitative analysis of the ten case study self-reports of on-road hostile aggression revealed a similar range of on-road situational factors to those identified in the literature review and Study One. Six of the case studies reported off-road generated stress that they believed contributed to the episodes of aggressive driving they recalled. Intense 'anger' or 'rage' were most frequently used to describe the emotions experienced in response to the perceived provocation. Less frequently

Transportation Research Procedia, 2016

The presented paper deals with the phenomenon of aggression in road traffic among Austrian car drivers. The conducted study is based upon the frustration-aggression hypothesis as a theoretical framework and employs a combination of established measurement tools and a mixed design of qualitative and quantitative methods. A telephone survey (n=1,500 car drivers) and focus groups including also pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists were carried out in 2014. Survey data was aggregated to a traffic related aggression score to build groups of high, medium and low aggression. Results indicate a clear relation between high aggression scores and accidents in the past three years. All surveyed aberrant driving behaviours are claimed to occur more often with others than committed by the respondents. Furthermore, observed aggressive behaviours of others is related to high emotional constraint and often serves as justification of one's own aggression in traffic. The concept of the 'fundamental attribution error' for observed behaviours can serve as a starting point to design countermeasures.

Background: Aggressiveness on the roads and / or anger behind the wheel are considered to be a major traffic safety problem in several countries. However, the psychological mechanisms of anger and/or aggression on the roads remain largely unclear. This study examines a large cohort of French employees followed over the 1994-2001 period to establish whether psychometric measures of aggression/hostility were significantly associated with an increased risk of injury accidents (I-A).

1989

The report addresses the topic of aggression in driving, with a consideration of a number of subject areas: theories of aggression; the definition of aggressive behaviour in driving; measurements of aggression; extreme forms of driver aggression; less extreme forms of driver aggression. The report's conclusions focus on society's role in aggressive behaviour, strategies for coping with aggression, including driver education and screening, and directions for future research.

IATSS Research, 2004

This study explored the influence of situational factors on aggressive driving from within the framework of a frustration-aggression model of aggressive driving. Through the use of driving scenarios, a number of situational characteristics were manipulated to examine their effect on the level of anger reported by participants and their likely behavioural response. The situational characteristics examined included the age, gender and anonymity of the offending driver, and the sense of time pressure as well as the gender of the participants. The results confirmed that the situational characteristics of a potentially frustrating road event can influence both the anger reported by participating drivers and their likely behavioural response.

Traffic accidents are a major cause of death and injury in the world. Generally speaking about aggression, evidence has shown that drivers who use to express more aggressive behaviors tend, at the same time, to have higher rates of road crashes or traffic incidents. Furthermore, in most cases, the situations that appear aggressive behaviors are typical of normal current traffic conditions, making this behavior into something very common and very serious road safety issue. It has been also related with the clear lack of Road Safety Education that is evident in most of the countries. The aim of this study was to describe the factors and perceptions related to aggressive behavior of verbally insulting and shouting out while driving. In this study, it was described an extensive list of behaviors that experts consider more or less unanimously as "aggressive driving", one of them described as shouting and insult. In this study, the sample was obtained from a random sampling by proportional representation to population segments of age, sex, region and size of the municipality. The survey is aimed at Spanish drivers over 18 years. The starting sample size was 1,100 surveys. As result shout and insult are not considered a dangerous offense as it is driving under the influence of alcohol. Multiple modes of bad or risky maneuvers, will be banned from a legal point of view, uncomfortable and restrict other drivers and pedestrians, creating violent situations for risk and stress. The degree of social tolerance towards such behaviour is variable. Some individuals are limited to ignore them, accepting them as something inevitable. Multiple types of risky maneuvers and deliberated misbehaviors, which are (formally and informally) already forbidden from a legal point of view, uncomfortable and restrict other drivers and pedestrians, creating violent situations for risk and stress, are still performed among drivers. In short, aggression on driving is one of them. As a conclusion, there are a high prevalence of this phenomenon among Spanish drivers. Furthermore, most of the aggressive expressions related to shouting and cursing on the road ate preceded by subjective factors such as stress, fatigue and personality traits, which may be intervened thorough the strengthen of road safety education and road safety campaigns.