| Summary: | This thesis examines the relationship of anger expression with other facets of the
anger construct and applies these to account for individual differences in risky driving
behaviors. Anger expression as measured by the Behavioral Anger Response Questionnaire
is compared to measures of hostile attitude, trait driving anger, Type-A personality, and
anxiety to further evaluate the construct validity for this new measure of anger expression as
it relates to anger level at large and to angry driving. Driving-related anger is then related to
traffic violations and motor vehicle accidents given that anger is know to contribute to risky
driving and that the resulting traffic accidents are one of the leading causes of disability and
death in our society.
A large sample (N = 316) of active drivers of varying ages (range = 17-67 years)
filled out a questionnaire package containing measures of driving anger, hostile attitude,
Type-A personality, anger expression as measured by the Behavioral Anger Response
Questionnaire, demographics, and driving behaviours. Analyses were first conducted to test
the nomological network of general and driving related anger variables and differentiate
anger level from anger expression. Driving anger was found to be related to hostile attitude
(r = .33, p<.001), anxiety (r = .29, p<.001), anger out (r = .33, p>001), and rumination (r =
.24, p<.001). As for driving behaviours, more men reported receiving tickets for moving
violations (X²(l) = 15.58, p<.001), and being involved in minor (X² (l) = 4.51, p<025), and
major motor vehicle accidents (X² (l) = 5.95, p<.025) over the past five years, but not motor
vehicle accidents overall (X² (l) = 3.56, p>.05). A greater number of participants under 30
years of age reported involvement in motor vehicle accidents as well (X² (l) = 11.77,
p<.001). Next, driving anger related variables were used to test predictive models of who
received tickets for moving violations and who has an accident history. After controlling for
age, gender, and hours driven per week, none of the psychological variables or tested
interactions of these variables with age or gender predicted the receipt of tickets for moving
violations, or major motor vehicle accident involvement. The receipt of tickets for moving
violations, however, along with an interaction between anger out, age and gender, predicted
M V A involvement (X² (9) = 36.52, p<.001), for women under 30 years of age (odds = 1.47
for also increase in anger out). === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
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