Dangerous Driving: A Dangerous Behaviour

Abstract

Driving, or navigational behaviour, is the most complex and risky of all the systems that individuals engage with on a regular basis around the world. Sensation-seeking is understood as “the looking for diverse, new, complex, and extreme level of sensations and the motivation to take physical, social, authorized, and economic risks” (Zuckerman,2008). Locus of control is the “perception that events are determined by one's own behaviour (internal control) or by such outside forces as other people or fate (external control)” (Covington, 2007). The above variables seem to determine dangerous driving behaviour. Dangerous driving behaviour has been measured using the Dula Dangerous Driving Index (Dula, 1999), sensation-seeking has been measured using the Sensation-seeking Scale (Zuckerman-Kuhlman, 1993) and locus of control has been measured using the Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966). The sample comprised 78 (48 males and 30 females) subjects with a mean age of 26.05 years. Care was taken that all the subjects of the sample possessed a driving license for at least two years. t-test and Pearson's product-moment correlation was used to analyse the data. Dangerous driving behaviour was found to vary with the levels of sensation-seeking and locus of control, respectively. The study has also brought out non-significant differences across gender. The study has important implications for the development of traffic training safety modules.