The dangers of rumination on the road: Predictors of risky driving.

Past studies found many different types of factors can influence dangerous driving behaviors. Driver inattention, such as driving under the influence or using a cell phone while driving, was found to contribute to risky driving behaviors. Rumination is a cognitive process that may also contribute to risky driving behaviors due to its influence on attention and limited executive processes.

Impulsivity and physical aggression: examining the moderating role of anxiety.

Individuals vary in their propensity to engage in aggressive behaviors, and recent research has sought to identify individual differences that contribute to a person's propensity for physical aggression. Previous research has shown that impulsivity and aggression have a consistent relational pattern among many different samples. However, not all impulsive people will engage in aggressive behavior, perhaps because of other factors such as level of physiological arousal from anxiety.

Ritualistic, theistic, and existential spirituality: initial psychometric qualities of the RiTE measure of spirituality.

An expanded model to conceptualize sacred human experiences is discussed wherein the term Spirituality is broadened to include: (1) Ritualistic Spirituality, (2) Theistic Spirituality, and (3) Existential Spirituality. However, a measure incorporating this expanded model does not yet exist. A 67-item self-report questionnaire was developed and data were collected from 1,301 undergraduate students.

Differing types of cellular phone conversations and dangerous driving.

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.

Examining relationships between anxiety and dangerous driving.

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.

The Dula Dangerous Driving Index: an investigation of reliability and validity across cultures.

The aim of this study is to further establish the validity and reliability of the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI). The reliability and validity of the instrument was investigated by comparing data from a US university sample, a US community sample, and a sample of Belgian traffic offenders. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis supported the presence of a four-factor structure with items for Drunk Driving forming a separate scale apart from items for Risky Driving, Negative Cognitive/Emotional Driving and Aggressive Driving.

Policing the drunk driver: measuring law enforcement involvement in reducing alcohol-impaired driving.

Introduction: With many thousands of deaths still annually attributable to driving under the influence (DUI), it remains imperative that we continually address the problem of producing and sustaining effective countermeasures, and that we subject these efforts to empirical scrutiny. This article presents relevant findings from state-wide datasets.

Results: A formula generating a potentially useful metric for assessing aspects of the DUI prosecutorial chain is presented, focusing on the rate of proactive DUI arrests.

Risky, aggressive, or emotional driving: addressing the need for consistent communication in research.

Problem: Researchers agree that a consistent definition for aggressive driving is lacking. Such definitional ambiguity in the literature impedes the accumulation of accurate and precise information, and prevents researchers from communicating clearly about findings and implications for future research directions. This dramatically slows progress in understanding the causes and maintenance factors of aggressive driving.