Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Friday, September 6, 2013
Driving Anxiety in the News
Chesapeake Bay Bridge: Saving drivers too scared to cross: "For those in the state of Maryland, that journey may involve driving
across the long and notoriously nerve-racking Chesapeake Bay Bridge,
ranked as one of the scariest in the world to cross. The trip is too much for some motorists, who pay someone else to drive them and their cars across the water."
Monday, November 22, 2010
Book Review: Wish I Could Be There
Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life by Allen Shawn is a mixture of lay science and psychology with a meandering memoir.
The author gives a nuanced and rather mannered account of his collection of general and specific phobias, predominantly agoraphobia--expressed in part by difficulty driving in some situations.
This book might give some people a little insight into the life of a phobic person. However the text is not well organised and doesn't really success as either a discussion of phobia or as a memoir.
Wish I Could Be There: Notes from a Phobic Life
Friday, September 3, 2010
New study into gender and anxiety
Women suffer from anxiety, including specific phobia, at about twice the rate of men. Mohamed Kabbaj (Florida State University) has won a $1.8 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to look into these sex differences. He will be investigating, among other things, the role of testosterone and a gene designated zif268, or 'zif' for short.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Pedestrian Thinking
Monday, July 19, 2010
EXPERIMENTAL REPORT: Wanna drive?
TITLE: Wanna drive? driving anxiety and fear in a New Zealand community sample
AUTHOR: Taylor, J & Paki, D.
JOURNAL: New Zealand Journal of Psychology, July 2008
ABSTRACT: "Driving anxiety can impact everyday functioning and is common following motor vehicle crashes. However, no research has investigated its general community prevalence, despite the consistent finding that driving anxiety is not always a function of a vehicle crash. The present study explored the frequency and characteristics of driving anxiety and fear in a general community convenience sample of 100 participants who completed a questionnaire about driving anxiety, avoidance behaviour, and types of driving-related cognitions. Most of the sample described no anxiety, fear, or avoidance in relation to driving. However, 8% reported moderate to extreme anxiety about driving, and 7% described moderate to extreme driving fear. Women reported more driving anxiety, fear, and avoidance than men. These results indicate the need for more formal methods of establishing prevalence to clearly ascertain the extent of population-based driving anxiety and fear and its effects, so that research can begin to focus on developing effective treatment approaches for those whose anxiety has a psychological and functional impact." [full text]
MY TAKE: This study is trying to find out how common driving anxiety is in the general public. Moderate to severe anxiety (significant enough to have a noticeable effect on their life) was found in 8% of the sample. I think that would have to be considered a pretty large proportion. As is usually the case driving anxiety was more common in women, although general trait anxiety was the same in both genders. The situations rated as most stressful were being tailgated, motorways, fog and heavy traffic.
AUTHOR: Taylor, J & Paki, D.
JOURNAL: New Zealand Journal of Psychology, July 2008
ABSTRACT: "Driving anxiety can impact everyday functioning and is common following motor vehicle crashes. However, no research has investigated its general community prevalence, despite the consistent finding that driving anxiety is not always a function of a vehicle crash. The present study explored the frequency and characteristics of driving anxiety and fear in a general community convenience sample of 100 participants who completed a questionnaire about driving anxiety, avoidance behaviour, and types of driving-related cognitions. Most of the sample described no anxiety, fear, or avoidance in relation to driving. However, 8% reported moderate to extreme anxiety about driving, and 7% described moderate to extreme driving fear. Women reported more driving anxiety, fear, and avoidance than men. These results indicate the need for more formal methods of establishing prevalence to clearly ascertain the extent of population-based driving anxiety and fear and its effects, so that research can begin to focus on developing effective treatment approaches for those whose anxiety has a psychological and functional impact." [full text]
MY TAKE: This study is trying to find out how common driving anxiety is in the general public. Moderate to severe anxiety (significant enough to have a noticeable effect on their life) was found in 8% of the sample. I think that would have to be considered a pretty large proportion. As is usually the case driving anxiety was more common in women, although general trait anxiety was the same in both genders. The situations rated as most stressful were being tailgated, motorways, fog and heavy traffic.
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