Through Dr. James' PSY409a course, a student learns how a driver is a representation of skills and errors through the three behavioral domains of the self (the threefold self). By viewing a person’s driving skills and errors through the threefold self, the quality of that individual's driving can be determined analyzed between two domains: an aggressive driver or a supportive driver. A goal of a driver should be to want to become an Emotionally Intelligent, or a supportive driver. An Emotionally Intelligent driver is a person who understands the 18 Behavioral Zones of Driving, or driver taxonomy (Table 2) through the threefolds self. This person is a driver with a focus that his or her responsibility is not about just about the self, but it is about being responsible on the road with the concern of others around them. In order to understand what it means to be responsible for, or to have concern for other drivers other than yourself is first learned through the threefold self.
The threefold self contains three domains: affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor selves. The affective self, or “head honcho” is a person’s goals, motivations and feelings while driving. For instance, a person who practices to be a supportive driver (emotionally intelligent driver) would want to feel responsible for his or her own errors and to quickly be able to change them for the safety of others and their self. Through the affective self follows the cognitive self, or “manager” of the threefold self who takes the goals, motivations and feelings of the affective self and uses them as goals for its reasoning. The cognitive self provides reasoning and justification for an action that he or she will eventually make on the road. Still following the affective example, if another driver suddenly tries to squeeze their way in, a supportive driver may justify the cause for that other person’s actions to help alleviate any possible aggression that my arise through him or her. An example of justification may be if you know that an exit is coming up soon and it is usually hard to change into that lane to use the exit, he or she may think, “Oh, maybe this person needs to get off at the next exit, I should give the driver a little more room.” This reasoning if followed by the sensorimotor self, or the “worker,” who does the action because the ‘manager’ gave it the okay. In this case, this supportive driver would give the other driver room to get into the lane so he or she can possibly take that exit.
Once a driver understands the basic concepts of the threefold self, which is a person’s goals, emotions, and motivations, have a downward influence on the “lower habits” (the other ‘selves), the driver can take into consideration the 18 Behavioral Zones of Driving.
