Regulating road rage

Abstract

Road rage has been a problem since the advent of cars. Given the ubiquity of road rage and its potentially devastating consequences, understanding road rage and developing interventions to curb it are important priorities. Emerging theoretical and empirical advances in the study of emotion and emotion regulation have provided new insights into why people develop road rage and how it can be prevented and treated. In the current article, we suggest an integrative conceptual framework for understanding road rage, based upon a psychological analysis of emotion and emotion regulation has been suggested. We begin by defining road rage and other key constructs. We then consider the interplay between road rage generation and road rage regulation. Using an emotion regulation framework, we describe key points at which emotion‐regulation difficulties can lead to road rage, followed by strategies that may alleviate these difficulties have been described. We suggest that this framework usefully organizes existing research on road rage, while exposing key directions for future research.

Targeting maladaptive anger with brief therapist-supported internet-delivered emotion regulation treatments: A randomized controlled trial.

“…One promising approach focuses on the role of emotion regulation in treating maladaptive anger (Bjureberg & Gross, 2021; Denson et al, 2012; Frazier & Vela, 2014; Hesser et al, 2017; Roberton et al, 2012). Results from laboratory experiments indicate that the use of emotion regulation strategies is linked to improvements in maladaptive anger (Anderson & Bushman, 2002; Denson et al, 2012; Mauss et al, 2007; Szasz et al, 2011; Zhang et al, 2017).…”

“…Two particularly interesting candidate strategies are mindful emotion awareness (i.e., observing thoughts and feelings in a nonjudgmental way) and cognitive reappraisal (i.e., reinterpreting thoughts and situations; Bjureberg & Gross, 2021; Denson et al, 2012; Roberton et al, 2012; Szasz et al, 2011; Wright et al, 2009). Increased skills in these strategies may address core mechanisms that can modulate the emotional experience (e.g., anger) and eventually extinguish inappropriate habitual behavioral responses (e.g., anger expression and suppression).…”

Validation of the metacognitive skills questionnaire for drivers of vehicles (CHMC)

“…In line with the driving task, current research works have advanced in cognitive processes to explain differences in drivers' conducts (Hu et al, 2013). For example, there are a series of variables, like age, gender and experience, as well as cognitive variables, like mistaken judgment, which are related with driving mistakes (Taubman- Ben-Ari et al, 2004;Wiesenthal and Singhal, 2006;Bjureberg and Gross, 2021). Failures in the cognitive procedure are associated with lack of confidence and the possibility of having an accident being more likely, as some recent research works have recently demonstrated (Chai et al, 2017).…”

Anger profiles among individuals seeking treatment for maladaptive anger: Associations with emotion regulation

“…Maladaptive anger has been associated with a wide array of negative intraindividual outcomes such as an increased risk for developing health problems (e.g., coronary heart disease; Chida & Steptoe, 2009), emotional disorders (Cassiello‐Robbins & Barlow, 2016) and substance abuse (Laitano et al, 2021). Moreover, maladaptive anger may result in interindividual consequences such as intimate partner violence (Hesser et al, 2017), assault (Maiuro et al, 1988) and road rage (Bjureberg & Gross, 2021). Despite the high prevalence of intra‐ and interindividual costs, the research field has not yet established an accepted typology for various forms of anger (Lee & DiGiuseppe, 2018).…”