Attitudes Toward Driving Safety and Their Modification

Author(s):  
D. H. Schuster

This paper reviews and discusses the measurement of attitudes toward traffic safety and the attempts to change these attitudes and related driving behavior. Psychological testing of such attitudes and personality characteristics is fairly well developed and there are some instruments of good reliability and useable validity. Efforts to modify driver attitudes and behavior are inconclusive and only mildly encouraging. Considerable research needs to be done before the attitudes and behavior of drivers can be changed to improve traffic safety in the United States.

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Iversen ◽  
Torbjørn Rundmo ◽  
Hroar Klempe

Abstract. The core aim of the present study is to compare the effects of a safety campaign and a behavior modification program on traffic safety. As is the case in community-based health promotion, the present study's approach of the attitude campaign was based on active participation of the group of recipients. One of the reasons why many attitude campaigns conducted previously have failed may be that they have been society-based public health programs. Both the interventions were carried out simultaneously among students aged 18-19 years in two Norwegian high schools (n = 342). At the first high school the intervention was behavior modification, at the second school a community-based attitude campaign was carried out. Baseline and posttest data on attitudes toward traffic safety and self-reported risk behavior were collected. The results showed that there was a significant total effect of the interventions although the effect depended on the type of intervention. There were significant differences in attitude and behavior only in the sample where the attitude campaign was carried out and no significant changes were found in the group of recipients of behavior modification.


2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise E. Porter ◽  
Geoffrey P. Alpert

Recent events, particularly in the United States, have highlighted strained police-citizen relations and the importance of citizens viewing police as legitimate and trustworthy. Perceptions of unreasonable police officer conduct, particularly related to demeanor and physical force, are often at the center of public complaints. The present study used survey data to explore the attitudes of 577 Australian police recruits regarding behaving disrespectfully toward, and using force against, citizens. Over all, recruits’ attitudes were positive, likely reflecting present screening processes. However, some variation was evident and predicted by selected police culture dimensions, including cynicism and police authority, as well as officer characteristics and background factors. Further, attitudes more supportive of disrespect and force were, in turn, predictive of the code of silence for such behavior, measured through hypothetical unwillingness to report colleagues’ behavior. The implications for understanding police attitudes are discussed, as well as attempts to reduce negative attitudes and behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenxuan Hou ◽  
Emine Sarigöllü ◽  
Myung-Soo Jo ◽  
Dapeng Liang

Although different self-perspectives can prompt different mindsets, leading to different responses, little is known about how self-perspective impacts pro-environmental behaviors. This study explores the effect of self-perspective, i.e., either self-immersed or self-distanced perspective, on environmental attitudes and behavior. Based on an online survey of 409 respondents in the United States, we find that pro-environmental behaviors are perceived as more important and less costly from a self-distanced perspective, compared to a self-immersed one, which in turn facilitates more engagement in pro-environmental behaviors. Furthermore, a self-distanced perspective is more prevalent than a self-immersed perspective when individuals are less satisfied with and perceive less control over their pro-environmental behaviors. This study extends the self-perspective theory to research on pro-environmental behaviors, and offers useful implications for individuals to address conflicts between environmental and self-interested considerations, as well as for public policy makers and practitioners to promote more engagement in pro-environmental behaviors.


2004 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 791-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veysel Yilmaz ◽  
H. Eray Çelik

Different research traditions have attempted to explain individual differences in risky driving behavior and traffic accident involvement. This study was designed to improve a model for risky driving attitudes (RDA) and to understand the mechanisms underlying drivers' risk-taking behavior in traffic. The questionnaire used in this study was composed of “the driver's behavior” questionnaire, improved by Reason, Manstead, Stradling, Baxter, and Campbell, (1990), and “the scales measuring attitudes and behavior” questionnaire, improved by Ulleberg and Rundmo (2003). The questionnaire survey was carried out among 600 drivers. Analysis revealed that risky drivers' attitudes are related to factors such as obedience to speed rules, risk-taking tendency in traffic and positive attitudes towards traffic.


1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 531-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth D. Wald ◽  
Dennis E. Owen ◽  
Samuel S. Hill

Most studies of contextual influences on political attitudes and behavior have treated geographical areas as the operative social environment. As early research on social influence processes noted, the conditions that promote consensus among inhabitants of a common environment are likely to be present in formal organizations that encourage face-to-face interaction. Churches possess many of the characteristics that should maximize behavioral contagion and are thus fertile ground for the dissemination of common political outlooks. This expectation is tested by assessing the link between theological and political conservatism in 21 Protestant congregations. The theological climate in the churches is found to contribute strongly to the members' political conservatism over and above the personal commitment of respondents to traditional Christian values and a variety of social and attitudinal variables. As churches constitute the single most widespread form of voluntary organizational affiliation in the United States, their potential political impact appears to be considerable.


1988 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Curtis Brown ◽  
Gary A. Cretser ◽  
Thomas E. Lasswell

There have been many attempts to isolate and measure the effects of status inconsistency (S-I) on a variety of dependent variables, including self-evaluation (Goffman, 1957), social isolation (Geschwender, 1967), political attitudes and behavior (Lenski, 1954), political extremism (Rush, 1967), prejudice (Geschwender, 1970), and psychological stress (Hornung, 1977) among numerous others. These efforts have not, for the most part, dealt satisfactorily with the identification problem demonstrated by Blalock (1965, 1966, 1967, 1968), Hodge (1970), and Hope (1975). This problem arises when one tries to separate the effects of two or more status indicators. A model that tends to overestimate S-I effects is used in the present article. Status consistency's main effects are controlled by using only consistent individuals. The model is employed to explain the variance in an array of dependent variables that have been linked to S-I. This is accomplished using two recent NORC General Social Surveys for the United States and comparative data from a Euro-barometer survey drawn from seven Western European countries. Evidence generated by “objective” measures offers little support for significant empirical effects of S-I. The few significant effects that emerge in one sample are not replicated in the others.


HortScience ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melinda Knuth ◽  
Bridget K. Behe ◽  
Charles R. Hall ◽  
Patricia T. Huddleston ◽  
R. Thomas Fernandez

In the coming decades, no natural resource may prove to be more critical to human health and well-being than water. There is abundant evidence that the condition of water resources in many parts of the United States is deteriorating. In some regions of the country, the availability of sufficient water to meet growing domestic uses, and the future sufficiency of water to support the use of landscape plants where we live, work, and play is in doubt. Conservation through water efficiency measures and water management practices may be the best way to help resolve water problems. Yet, consumer perceptions and attitudes and behavior toward water conservation may differ widely, particularly in the presence of drought. This study sought to add to the current horticulture and water conservation literature by exploring consumer attitudes and behavior during real and perceived drought situations, especially in terms of their landscape purchases and gardening/landscaping activities. Study findings could better inform educational programs and marketing strategies, helping to ensure the future demand of Green Industry products and services. With a national sample of 1543 subjects, an online survey tool was used to classify respondents into categories based on whether they accurately perceived if the region in which they lived was experiencing drought. We hypothesized that consumers were heterogeneous in their attitudes and behavior regarding plants and water conservation, depending on their real and perceived drought situations, and that their attitudes affected their behavior regarding plant purchases. Results confirmed this hypothesis. Attitudes and behaviors for those who correctly perceived they were in drought were different from those who correctly perceived they were not in drought, as well as those who incorrectly did not perceive they were in an actual drought.


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