Its made me think about the mentality or usual driving mode of drivers, it must be really complicated. I suppose there are whole books on this? For example, boy racers, female drivers, older people.
One of my brother's is doing a Doctorate in Behavioral Psychology, very interesting person to talk to because he can give you insight into things you would never have considered yourself.
I have worked in and around medical fields for the last 12 years, Psychology is fascinating. but one thing about psychology is that everyone is different in their psychology, people have different ways of thinking to one another about the same things.
So recently I have been reading recently about the "Inner Monologue" and was in my 40s surprised to find out that quite a large amount of the population do not have one. You can look this up if you want but basically its the voice you have in your own head that you use to discuss your own inner thoughts or feelings, i,e right now while I am typing this I have a conversation of sorts going on in my head about what I am going to write next. Films like "look whos talking" where the baby's inner voice is verbalized as a narrative tool in the movie is a prime example of this.
(interestingly people who do not have an inner monologue, struggle to relate to films that use this narrative style)
The Film Inside out looks at the development of human emotions through childhood and the interaction between the emotions and how one or the other can lead to your response to specific situations. While it is a "kids film" its all based on clinical psychology and the work of specialists and theories around emotions.
In the film the main character Riley is governed by happiness, there is a scene where they cut to the inside of Mums head where sadness is in charge, and when they cut to dad, anger is in charge of his thoughts.
People who do not have this have a whole different way of thinking and interacting with the world, then if you throw into that someone's upbringing, other social factors etc you'll quickly find that is very difficult to work out anyone's psychology, or how they will react to any specific situation, however with behavioral psychology if you can control the situation you can sort of force people to behave in a way that most people would behave in a given situation.
My driving style changes a lot depending on situation, If for example it is a long drive, I will get settled in and pace myself, as I know over the course of 600 miles, letting a car out here or there isn't going to make the world of difference.
If I am in a hurry. I will make rapid progress, over taking, using the right hand lane at roundabouts etc etc, all the things you would do to get somewhere quickly. I did some training to be a driving instructor years ago, so I am always ridiculously safe but people still really do not like it if you over take them, even with no other car around.
Then in London the style changes again, much more aggressive, pushing between cars, finding gaps where there isn't one etc. I would never drive like this around where I live but it works in london because people in london know how to drive in london.
My wife never changes or alters her driving style and so struggles in some situations, she becomes quickly overwhelmed in london for example.
Anyway I am going to end this here as I could go on all day about psychology, the gist is, everyone is different but when it comes to driving you can make your life a lot easier if you understand why people do the things they do, and you can get them to do what you want them to do, if you know how to engineer the situation.
