The concept of traffic psychology is not new to South Africa, but it is not often something that practitioners discuss in professional forums. This is somewhat strange, as traffic is probably one of the most ubiquitous topics of discussion for any person who finds themselves in it on a regular basis. More specifically, you will often find that South Africans lament the lack of driving skills or basic courtesy of drivers on the roads today. This, combined with added stressors such as construction on the roads, ill-maintained roads and traffic jams, probably makes the mention of traffic in a conversion a daily occurrence for any driver or passenger.

There is very little published research on driving behaviours in South Africa, but internationally, traffic psychology is a thriving field of research and practice. There are some reports on the incidence of road rage, and many transport companies make use of special assessments to select their drivers, but very few of these studies are published, so very little is publicly known about this field in South Africa.

JvR recently conducted some preliminary research into the link between driving behaviours and aspects of personality. A brief (and very broad) questionnaire on different types of driving behaviours was created, and this was administered to a sample of South Africans along with two personality questionnaires in order to investigate whether there were any links. The personality questionnaires used were the Basic Traits Inventory and the Hogan Personality Inventory.

The preliminary research conducted during the study revealed some patterns in driving behaviour and its relationship with aspects of personality. The results indicated that drivers who engage in more risky driving behaviours such as aggressive driving, answering their cell phone while driving, and who get caught breaking the driving laws are also likely to be involved in more road accidents than those who do not engage in such risky behaviours. There were also correlations between aspects of personality such as level of personal energy, self-discipline, and willingness to admit mistakes and the number of accidents incurred.

There were notable differences in personality style between professional drivers and ordinary drivers. Professional drivers reported being more conscientious, agreeable, having higher personal energy, being more sociable and being more adventurous than ordinary drivers. They also reported being somewhat less likely to remain calm under pressure, and less likely to seek out the limelight.

The findings related to personality and risky driving behaviours were also illuminating. However, in many of these cases the size of the groups was small, so there is limited generalisability of the results. Various trends and patterns in personality traits were found for different admissions of risky driving behaviours. Further research into these areas may provide useful insights into the characteristics and behaviours that can lead to accidents, and perhaps aid the selection of safe drivers and promotion of safe driving behaviour. In addition, research into the aspects of personality that predict safer driving behaviour is needed.

You can download the summary of the findings or the full technical report below. If you have any questions about the results, please contact Nicola at research@jvrafrica.co.za.

Personality and Driver Behaviour summary
Personality and Driver Behaviour, Full Report

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JvR is pleased to offer a new range of products to South Africans, from Schuhfried in Austria, namely the Vienna Test System, CogniPlus, RehaCom, and an excellent Biofeedback system. These systems are internationally recognised and respected for their quality, and we are excited about their potential in the South African context. The four systems are suitable in a variety of application areas, such as clinics, personnel, aviation, sport, military, and traffic psychology, and research. Read more about the Vienna Test System in this week’s article:

** A Demo of the VTS will be on display at SIOPSA 09 **

Vienna Test System

The Vienna Test System (VTS) is a computerised psychological assessment that consists of various personality, intelligence, and special ability assessments. The VTS was developed by the SCHUHFRIED Company in the early 1980s and has years of research backing the test system. The company was founded in 1947 in Austria and is now available in 65 countries, on all 5 continents.

Areas of Application

The Vienna Test System and associated products can be used in a number of applied fields in psychology, namely: Clinical and Health Psychology, Neuropsychology, Personnel Psychology, Traffic Psychology, Aviation Psychology, Sport Psychology as well as Educational Psychology.

What makes the VTS a unique system is that besides the personality and intelligence tests that it offers, it provides one the opportunity to capture abilities such as: …

• Senso-motor coordination
• Reactive stress tolerance
• Reaction time and motor speed
• Visual perception speed
• Field of vision and peripheral perception
• Time, motion, distance, speed estimation and anticipation
• All forms of attention
• Ability to deal with stress
• Fine motor abilities
• Activation and arousal as well as audiometer.

Administration

The test system consists of administration software, tests and special input or peripheral devices (hardware) which some of the tests require. The VTS consists of more than 80 tests which consist of electronic versions of paper-and-pencil tests, objective personality tests, multimedia tests, adaptive tests, and interactive tests. Once the system has been installed and set up on the computer, one is able to select the tests that one wants to use or, alternatively, can select from special standard test batteries.

Each test begins with an instruction phase and then allows the candidate to complete some practice items before the test begins.

Reporting

Once the candidate has completed the test, the results are immediately available in a short report which provides the percentile ranks of the raw scores for each test variable. The report also includes other important information such as the test protocol, which gives details about the candidate’s responses and the time taken to work each item. A longer diagnostic report is also available. There is also a “ranking function” that allows the test user to rank the candidates’ test results, once the weightings have been entered by the test user. The evaluation system then determines the fit between the candidate and position based on the weightings supplied.

Expert Systems

The Expert Systems consist of standardised validated test batteries that take all the test results into account when providing a report. The VTS presently contains two expert systems, namely the Expert System Aviation and the Expert System Traffic. The Expert System Aviation provides an overall assessment of the candidate’s cognitive ability and safety-related personality traits, related specifically to that field. The Expert System Traffic on the other hand, can be used to assess driving-specific abilities. There is also a Neuropsychological Test Battery for neuropsychological screening.

For more information on or a demonstration on the Vienna Test System; and how it can improve your selection/development and retention of employees, please contact us on info@jvrafrica.co.za or capeinfo@jvafrica.co.za

You can also find more info on some of the other Schuhfried Assessments in our website’s catalogue section.

HOGAN Assesment Systems recently released a very interresting article regarding the correlations between personality and performance. Click the link at the bottom of the page to see the full (FREE) report and all its appendices.

The following is taken from the Hogan website: 

http://www.hoganassessments.com

Companies want proof that personality assessments predict job performance. The Hogan Business Outcome Highlights study provides nine case studies that demonstrate the relationship between personality and job performance. Highlights from the study include companies that achieved an $8 million ROI, 16% lower accident rates and $175,000 more in individual sales.

Click here to download the FREE report!