Driving anger, sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and boredom proneness in the prediction of unsafe driving.

The present study investigated the potential contribution of sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and boredom proneness to driving anger in the prediction of aggressive and risky driving. Two hundred and twenty-four college student participants completed measures of trait driving anger, aggressive and risky driving, driving anger expression, sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and boredom proneness. Findings provided additional support for the utility of the Driving Anger Scale (DAS; Deffenbacher, J.L., Oetting, E.R., Lynch, R.S., Development of a driving anger scale, Psychological Reports, 74, 1994, 83-91.) in predicting unsafe driving. In addition, hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that sensation seeking, impulsiveness, and boredom proneness provided incremental improvements beyond the DAS in the prediction of crash-related conditions, aggressive driving, risky driving, and driving anger expression. Results support the use of multiple predictors in understanding unsafe driving behavior.

Validation of the propensity for angry driving scale.

PROBLEM: This study examined the validity of the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale (PADS). Measuring road rage: Development of the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale in predicting aggressive driving. METHOD: The PADS and the Driving Anger Scale. Development of a driving anger scale. Psychological reports, 74, 83-91.) were administered to 232 college student volunteers with measures of aggressive and risky driving. RESULTS: Convergent and discriminant validity of the PADS were supported through relationships among measures of similar constructs. The PADS significantly (p<.05) predicted moving tickets, minor accidents, aggressive driving, risky driving, and maladaptive driving anger expression, above and beyond gender, miles driven per week, and trait anger. DISCUSSION: Findings suggest that the PADS is a useful predictor of aggressive driving and has some advantages over the DAS. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: The PADS is an effective predictor of aggressive driving that complements established measures like the DAS and provides researchers with another valuable tool for the assessment of aggressive driving.

Activity interests and Holland's RIASEC system in older adults.

Leisure activities are widely used in research to predict important outcomes, but the existing studies use different classification schemes and apparently rely on the intuition of the researcher to classify activities. The goal of the current study was to use the Holland RIASEC personality system to empirically classify activities using a sample of older adults. Nine activity scales were identified. The correlation of these activity scales with the Holland system showed that they could be reliably classified; further, multidimensional scaling suggested that the pattern of relationship could be interpreted in terms of the RIASEC hexagon. The overall findings suggest that Holland's RIASEC system may offer a useful way to classify many activities.