Driving locus of control and driving behaviors: Inducing change through driver training

Abstract Locus of control perceptions have been used to predict driving safety as a stable, dispositional variable. Based on social learning theory, this study tested whether a defensive driving training program coupled with observer feedback could influence domain-specific locus of control beliefs regarding controllability of accidents and therefore impact driving behaviors. Over a 5-week period, 112 individuals’ driving locus of control and driving behaviors were assessed two times, before and after a defensive driving training program and observer feedback. Drivers experienced significant changes in their driving locus of control perceptions. Specifically, drivers reported significantly lower externality and higher internality after training as compared to before training. The changes in driving locus of control predicted an increase in safe driving behaviors. In addition, pretraining motivation to learn predicted a decrease in externality, whereas pretraining self-efficacy predicted the increase in internality. The results indicate that driving locus of control can be influenced by training and observer feedback, and the changes in driving locus of control can predict change in driving behaviors. Findings of the study point to the potential for organizations to enhance driving safety by influencing drivers’ locus of control perceptions.

[1]  J. Rotter.  Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. , 1966, Psychological monographs.

[2]  P M Salmon,et al.  Changing drivers' minds: the evaluation of an advanced driver coaching system , 2007, Ergonomics.

[3]  D. R. Kouabénan.  Occupation, driving experience, and risk and accident perception , 2002 .

[4]  John P. Robinson,et al.  Measures Of Personality And Social Psychological Attitudes , 1991 .

[5]  J. M. Geringer,et al.  Self-management training for improving job performance: a field experiment involving salespeople. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[6]  D. P. Hurford,et al.  Facilitation of internal locus of control in adolescent alcoholics through a brief biofeedback-assisted autogenic relaxation training procedure. , 1997, Journal of substance abuse treatment.

[7]  Adrian Furnham,et al.  Personality correlates of convicted drivers , 1993 .

[8]  Timothy T. Baldwin,et al.  THE PERILS OF PARTICIPATION: EFFECTS OF CHOICE OF TRAINING ON TRAINEE MOTIVATION AND LEARNING , 1991 .

[9]  John B. Willett,et al.  Questions and Answers in the Measurement of Change , 1988 .

[10]  J. Rotter.  Some Problems and Misconceptions Related to the Construct of Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement , 1975 .

[11]  An Empirical Study of the Relative Error Magnitude in Three Measures of Change. , 1984 .

[12]  J. Rotter.  Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement , 1990 .

[13]  Kenneth A. Wallston,et al.  Development of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scales , 1978, Health education monographs.

[14]  Türker Özkan,et al.  Multidimensional Traffic Locus of Control Scale (T-LOC): factor structure and relationship to risky driving , 2005 .

[15]  J. Jamieson,et al.  Dealing with baseline differences: two principles and two dilemmas. , 1999, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[16]  Richard W. J. Neufeld,et al.  Use of the Simple Change Score in Correlational Analyses' , 1987 .

[17]  E. Diener,et al.  Love, work, and changes in extraversion and neuroticism over time. , 2006, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[18]  David Rogosa,et al.  A growth curve approach to the measurement of change. , 1982 .

[19]  Paul E. Spector.  Development of the Work Locus of Control Scale , 1988 .

[20]  R. Schmidt,et al.  New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training , 1992 .

[21]  W. Shadish,et al.  Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference , 2001 .

[22]  T. Lajunen,et al.  Driving experience, personality, and skill and safety-motive dimensions in drivers' self-assessments , 1995 .

[23]  G V Barrett,et al.  Selected Hand Test personality variables related to accidents in female drivers. , 1978, Journal of personality assessment.

[24]  R. Perry,et al.  Assisting At-Risk College Students With Attributional Retraining and Effective Teaching1 , 1994 .

[25]  H. Levenson.  2 – DIFFERENTIATING AMONG INTERNALITY, POWERFUL OTHERS, AND CHANCE , 1981 .

[26]  W. Arthur,et al.  Prediction of Vehicular Accident Involvement: A Meta-Analysis , 1991 .

[27]  H. Lefcourt,et al.  Research With the Locus of Control Construct , 1981 .

[28]  Donald T. Campbell,et al.  A Primer on Regression Artifacts , 1999 .

[29]  David Rogosa,et al.  Myths about longitudinal research. , 1988 .

[30]  Mark Snyder,et al.  Personality and social behavior , 1985 .

[31]  Miri Cohen,et al.  Comparing Relaxation Training and Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy for Women With Breast Cancer , 2007 .

[32]  B. Collins,et al.  Four components of the Rotter Internal-External scale: belief in a difficult world, a just world, a pedictable world, and a politically responsive world. , 1974, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[33]  R. West,et al.  The relative success of a self-help and a group-based memory training program for older adults. , 2009, Psychology and aging.

[34]  Raymond P. Perry,et al.  Enhancing academic achievement in college students through attributional retraining and instruction. , 1990 .

[35]  K. Schaie,et al.  Methodological issues in aging research , 1990 .

[36]  J. Willett,et al.  DEMONSTRATING THE RELIABILITY THE DIFFERENCE SCORE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF CHANGE , 1983 .

[37]  Sally Lechlitner Lusk,et al.  Predictors of Hearing Protection Use among Workers: Implications for Training Programs , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[38]  G. Affleck,et al.  Blaming others for threatening events. , 1990 .

[39]  F. E. Vanosdall,et al.  Prediction of police officers' traffic accident involvement using behavioral observations. , 1995, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[40]  Van Horn,et al.  Locus of control , 1973 .

[41]  Stephan P. Swinnen,et al.  Summary knowledge of results for skill acquisition: support for the guidance hypothesis , 1989 .

[42]  Jiaquan Xu,et al.  Deaths: final data for 2006. , 2009, National vital statistics reports : from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics System.

[43]  E. J. Phares,et al.  Responsibility attribution: role of outcome severity, situational ambiguity, and internal-external control. , 1972, Journal of personality.

[44]  Darrell Anthony Luzzo,et al.  Attributional Retraining Increases Career Decision‐Making Self‐Efficacy , 1996 .

[45]  P. Warr,et al.  TRAINEE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE OUTCOMES OF OPEN LEARNING , 1995 .

[46]  P. Allison.  CHANGE SCORES AS DEPENDENT VARIABLES IN REGRESSION ANALYSIS , 1990 .

[47]  M. Quiñones.  Pretraining context effects: Training assignment as feedback. , 1995 .

[48]  M. Lachman.  Locus of control in aging research: a case for multidimensional and domain-specific assessment. , 1986, Psychology and aging.

[49]  Geneviève Fournier,et al.  Validation of a Five-Level Locus of Control Scale , 1999 .

[50]  Sharon Clarke,et al.  A meta‐analytic review of the Big Five personality factors and accident involvement in occupational and non‐occupational settings , 2005 .

[51]  H. Lefcourt,et al.  Locus of control. , 1991 .

[52]  E. I. Signori,et al.  On the Study of Personality Factors in Research on Driving Behavior , 1974, Perceptual and motor skills.

[53]  C. R. Anderson.  Locus of control, coping behaviors, and performance in a stress setting: a longitudinal study. , 1977, The Journal of applied psychology.

[54]  Dennis Doverspike,et al.  Locus of control and auditory selective attention as predictors of driving accident involvement: A comparative longitudinal investigation☆ , 1992 .

[55]  N. Schmitt,et al.  THE INFLUENCE OF TRAINEE ATTITUDES ON TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS: TEST OF A MODEL , 1986 .

[56]  Timothy T. Baldwin,et al.  Transfer of Training: A Meta-Analytic Review , 2010 .

[57]  B. Strickland,et al.  Internal-external expectancies and health-related behaviors. , 1978, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[58]  Avshalom Caspi,et al.  It's not just who you're with, it's who you are: personality and relationship experiences across multiple relationships. , 2002, Journal of personality.

[59]  John D. Lee,et al.  Fifty Years of Driving Safety Research , 2008, Hum. Factors.

[60]  A. Tziner,et al.  Effects of Trainee Characteristics on Training Effectiveness , 2007 .

[61]  Jason L. Huang,et al.  Influencing Learning States to Enhance Trainee Motivation and Improve Training Transfer , 2011 .

[62]  J. Rotter.  Internal versus external control of reinforcement: A case history of a variable. , 1990 .

[63]  Michael J. Tews,et al.  An empirical examination of posttraining on-the-job supplements for enhancing the effectiveness of interpersonal skills training. , 2008 .

[64]  B. Roberts,et al.  Plaster or plasticity: are adult work experiences associated with personality change in women? , 1997, Journal of personality.

[65]  D. H. Schuster,et al.  Attitudes Toward Driving Safety and Their Modification1 , 1970 .

[66]  T. Mischel,et al.  The self : psychological and philosophical issues , 1977 .

[67]  Christina M. Rudin-Brown,et al.  BEHAVIOURAL ADAPTATION TO ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL (ACC): IMPLICATIONS FOR PREVENTIVE STRATEGIES , 2004 .

[68]  T. Rundmo,et al.  Personality, risky driving and accident involvement among Norwegian drivers , 2002 .

[69]  D. W. Zimmerman,et al.  GAIN SCORES IN RESEARCH CAN BE HIGHLY RELIABLE , 1982 .

[70]  Stephen J. Guastello,et al.  Do we really know how well our occupational accident prevention programs work , 1993 .

[71]  P. Burns,et al.  Risk taking in male taxi drivers: Relationships among personality, observational data and driver records , 1995 .

[72]  J. Jamieson.  Correlates of reactivity: problems with regression based methods. , 1994, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[73]  C. Brockmann,et al.  Unspecific postevent information, attribution of responsibility, and eyewitness performance , 1987 .

[74]  H. Lefcourt.  7 – THE CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL-MULTIATTRIBUTIONAL CAUSALITY SCALES , 1981 .

[75]  H. Eysenck.  Dimensions of Personality , 1947 .

[76]  D. Abrahamson,et al.  Replication of dimensions of locus of control. , 1973, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[77]  D. Commerce.  Statistical abstract of the United States , 1978 .

[78]  June E. Chance,et al.  Applications of a social learning theory of personality , 1972 .

[79]  R O Nolan,et al.  Driver performance measurement based on dynamic driver behavior patterns in rural, urban, suburban and freeway traffic , 1975 .

[80]  John W. Jones,et al.  Development and Validation of the Safety Locus of Control Scale , 1985, Perceptual and motor skills.

[81]  D. C. Shapiro,et al.  Summary knowledge of results for skill acquisition: support for the guidance hypothesis. , 1989, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[82]  Eleanor M. Smith,et al.  Relationships of goal orientation, metacognitive activity, and practice strategies with learning outcomes and transfer , 1998 .

[83]  J. Colquitt,et al.  Toward an integrative theory of training motivation: a meta-analytic path analysis of 20 years of research. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[84]  A. Caspi,et al.  Work experiences and personality development in young adulthood. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[85]  Graham P. Bartley.  Traffic accidents : causes and outcomes , 2008 .

[86]  A. Comrey,et al.  Internality and externality as correlates of involvement in fatal driving accidents. , 1987, The Journal of applied psychology.

[87]  Michael F. Hoyt,et al.  Internal-External Control and beliefs about automobile travel , 1973 .