Treatment of Road Rage in Private Practice (Part Ii) | Robert Nemerovski, Psy.D., Therapist in San Francisco, CA 94118, 94904

(continued from Part I)

In individual psychotherapy, clinicians can borrow from the research and help patients make their driving anger ego-dystonic, take responsibility for their anger responses, alter aggressive driving behavior, modify faulty cognitions, and learn relaxation and more adaptive coping skills. In addition, based on my research and clinical experience, it is important to help angry drivers:

-Exercise social perspective-taking (e.g., “That driver who’s tailgating me must be late for work. I’ll just get out of her way.”);
-Think socially rather than selfishly (e.g., “We’re all in the same boat.”);
-Play it safe and smart (e.g., Move to a different lane; pull over and calm down)
-Exercise altruism (e.g., Purposely allow others to merge and pass.);
-Practice forgiveness: (e.g., “Let it go.”);
-Use humor (e.g., “He must be rushing to his driver’s education class. He needs it!”);
-Lower the stress and anger triggers under our control (e.g., leave ten minutes early; listen to relaxing music instead of aggravating talk radio; put down the phone).

In addition, I have found that integrating psychodynamic approaches that help patients identify and work through unconscious processes that feed their anger, such as sources of shame, disempowerment, resentment, and fear, can help lower the anger response on and off the road. Finally, the most important step in the treatment of the angry driver is getting him or her into therapy. I have heard from a number of concerned family members of “road ragers” that their loved ones’ aggressive driving behaviors frighten them, but they deny and rationalize their behavior as a reasonable response to the offensive or improper driving of others. Unfortunately, many angry drivers don’t accept responsibility for their role in the driving anger-aggression cycle until it’s too late and someone has been injured or worse.

References

Baxter, J. S., Macrae, C. N., Manstead, A. S. R., Stradling, S. G., & Parker, D. (1990). Attributional biases and driver behaviour. Social Behaviour, 5, 185-192.
Berkowitz, L. (1993). Aggression: It's causes, consequences, and Control. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Best, J., & Furedi, F. (2001). The Evolution of Road Rage in Britain and the United States. In J. Best (Ed.), How Claims Spread: Cross-National Diffusion of Social Problems (pp. 117-126). Edison, NJ: Aldine Transaction.
Britt, T. W., & Garrity, M. J. (2006). Attributions and personality as predictors of the road rage response. British Journal Of Social Psychology, 45(1), 127.
Deffenbacher, J. L., Filetti, L. B., Lynch, R. S., Dahlen, E. R., & Oetting, E. R. (2002). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of high anger drivers. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40(8), 895-910.
Deffenbacher, J. L., Huff, M. E., Lynch, R. S., Oetting, E. R., & Salvatore, N. F. (2000). Characteristics and treatment of high-anger drivers. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47(1), 5-17.
Fong, G., Frost, D., & Stansfeld, S. (2001). Road rage: a psychiatric phenomenon? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 36(6), 277-286.
Fumento, M. (1998). 'Road Rage' vs. reality [Electronic Version]. Atlantic Monthly. Retrieved December 5, 2007 from http://www.fumento.com/atlantic.html.
Galovski, T. E., & Blanchard, E. B. (2004). Road rage: A domain for psychological intervention. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 9(2), 105-127.
Galovski, T. E., Malta, L. S., & Blanchard, E. B. (2006). Road Rage: assessment and treatment of the angry, aggressive driver. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
James, L., & Nahl, D. (2000b). Road Rage and Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare: Prometheus Books.
Larson, J. A. (1996). Steering clear of highway madness: A driver's guide to curbing stress and strain. Wilsonville, OR: BookPartners, Inc.
Marchand, L. A. (1970). Byron: a portrait. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Mizell, L., Joint, M., & Connell, D. (1997). Aggressive Driving: Three Studies: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Mohr, P., Howells, K., Gerace, A., Day, A., & Wharton, M. (2007). The role of perspective taking in anger arousal. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(3), 507-517.
Nemerovski, R. A. (2009). Anger in the car -- An examination of the role of perspective-taking in the anger response while driving. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (Accession Order No. AAT 3394712)
Parkinson, B. (2001). Anger on and off the road. British Journal of Psychology, 92(3), 507-526.
Roche, P. (Ed.). (2001). Sophocles: The Complete Plays. New York: Signet Classics.
Underwood, G., Chapman, P., Wright, S., & Crundall, D. (1999). Anger while driving. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 2(1), 55-68.

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Bio:
Dr. Robert Nemerovski, Psy.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Marin and San Francisco. He works with adolescents, adults, and couples, and he specializes in Anger and Road Rage, Men’s Issues, Anxiety Disorders, and Aging. Dr. Nemerovski is on the board of the Marin County Psychological Association and serves on two committees of the San Francisco Psychological Association.