In general, aggressiveness in both males and females has been shown to decrease with age, (e.g. Parry, 1968). However, as Parry (1968) noted, "...Anxiety feelings, on the other hand, tend with age to increase among female motorists and decrease among male motorists". Parry (1968) gave little indication as to the cause of this phenomenon save for the possibility that, "...the upward anxiety trend in the female road user population has a psychological basis, difference in temperament being the basic difference between men and women road users". This hypothesis was borne out by Parry's (1968) assumption that women had overall a less aggressive nature both in and outside the motoring situation.

Recent work has also indicated that women in general exhibit greater anxiety than men whilst driving. However, most of the explanations put forward tend to suggest a strong sex-role stereotypic influence. The stereotype of the father driving the family long distances on the motorway, and the mother doing the 'school run' before going down to the supermarket remains a reality in many households. Dominant and critical male family members can lead to diminished self-confidence and increased anxiety in females, which in turn leads to lack of familiarity with motorways and the responsibility of driving long distances.

Anxiety is widely established as being divided into two classifications (e.g. Spielberger, 1966; Spielberger, 1972): State-anxiety (A-state) denotes an individual's situational reaction to some perceived threat with reactions best described as; subjective, consciously perceived feelings of inadequacy and tension accompanied by an increased arousal of the autonomous nervous system. Morris, Davis & Hutchings (1981) described this affect as, "... negative expectations and cognitive concerns about oneself, the situation at hand and potential consequences. ...[And] one's perception of the physiological affective elements of the anxiety experience, that is, indications of autonomic arousal and unpleasant feeling states such as nervousness and tension [and palpitations]". State-anxiety varies in intensity and duration depending upon; the number of stressful stimuli operating on the individual, and the duration of the subjective threat caused by these stimuli. Such feelings of anxiety may be triggered by any of a number of factors. For example, anger, lack of control over personal efficiency, i.e. being overwhelmed by over-scheduled events, lack of sleep, being in a crowded space, excessive caffeine or antihistamines in the bloodstream, and of course stress. As McMurray (1970), and later Selzer & Vinokur (1974) found, individuals high in emotional stress from significant life events were more likely to be involved in RTAs, therefore it is highly plausible that state-anxiety have some moderating effect on poor driving performance.

Ideally, the desire would be to directly investigate state-anxiety in the driving situation, thereby concentrating on an anxiety specific to motoring. However, the measurement of state-anxiety in relation to driving is infeasible as a questionnaire would have to be administered to the respondent immediately prior to their commencement of driving, thus negating the use of the postal method of questionnaire delivery. In addition, it would be fraught with methodological concerns that could effect the reliability and validity of the study; such as the recipient's familiarity with the route to be driven; the time of day; and number of miles about to be driven.

Less specific, but more practical to measure, trait-anxiety (A-trait) is a tendency to perceive certain situations as threatening, and to respond to these situations with varying levels of state-anxiety. Moreover, as Spielberger (1972) reasoned, it is primarily through experiences that some individuals acquire low or high trait-anxiety. For example, prior involvement in an RTA, a history of unreliable vehicles, or as stated earlier; a scathing partner. Byrne (1994) saw this predisposition as being pervasive whilst driving and crucial in the identification of hazards and potential risk when he discovered that participants with a low trait-anxiety score were faster than those with a high trait-anxiety score in detecting threatening and distracting stimuli. Additionally Byrne (1994) found some indication that those exhibiting high trait-anxiety were more generally distractible as opposed to their counterparts. In the light of his findings, Byrne (1994) suggested that participants with high trait-anxiety were more likely to be selectively distracted by specific threatening stimuli. This certainly corresponds with Spielberger's (1972) theory that stated that in comparison to individuals with low trait-anxiety, individuals with high trait-anxiety would be more likely to perceive situations as threatening, and so respond with a more intense state-anxious reaction. Whereby, repeatedly encountering the same or similar, stressful situations may lead to the development of specific psychological defence mechanisms with the sole purpose of reducing the state-anxiety. This could be conveyed to the driving situation with individuals high in trait-anxiety being slower to recognise possible risks and hazards on the road. Moreover, these individuals may also be likely to let their attention wander while driving, especially when some object or situation they have learnt to perceive as a threat comes into view. As the point of any defensive compromise is to keep the conflicts, it resolves out of conscious awareness. This also may ultimately lead to a failure to face up to the threatening situation and carry on 'blindly' into it, or the display of characteristics not unlike an animal 'freezing' in the glare of an oncoming vehicle.

Moreover, a misperception of aggressive intent could lead to the anxiety prone driver to engage in risky driving. For example, a recent survey, commissioned by Green Flag Motoring Assistance and the road safety organisation BRAKE, revealed that many drivers break speed limits because they are frightened of other road users. Intimidation, through close driving, by other motorists is the reason given for speeding by almost three quarters of people interviewed in the collaborative study. When asked in more detail, 72 percent of the respondents claimed that they had broken the legal limit simply because they felt 'under pressure' to do so.

Some personalities are more prone to experiencing anxiety. The Type A characteristic, sense of urgency, of thinking that any obstacle can be overcome by working harder and longer, works against the ability to develop psychological hardiness. When stressors are encountered, arousal levels increase, and the tendency is to combat them by increasing arousal levels or effort even further. However, at high arousal levels coping responses become more primitive (Straw et al., 1981). Patterns of response that were learned more recently are the first ones to disappear, which means that the responses that are most finely tuned to the current stressful situation are the first to go. The ability to distinguish between fine-grained stimuli deteriorates, so the extra energy expended by individuals trying to cope becomes less and less effective. Research has shown that highly stressed individuals find it difficult to learn new responses, to concentrate, to resist from relying on old non-adaptive behaviour patterns, and to perform complex responses (Weik, 1984). The implications for driving are clear.

Ten items related to Trait-Anxiety were also included in the questionnaire. These were further divided into two factors; somatic-anxiety, and cognitive anxiety. These items were adapted from Spielberger's Trait Anxiety Scale (1979), the foremost method for investigating trait anxiety.

Please return to the main page.