Self-regulatory driving practices of old and young drivers

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Psikoloji Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2015

Öğrenci: DERYA AZIK

Danışman: TÜRKER ÖZKAN

Özet:

The aim of the current study was to investigate self-regulatory driving practices of old and young drivers by examining underlying factors and possible benefits on drivers’ aberrant behaviors. 258 active male drivers (120 older, 138 younger) participated in the study. Older drivers’ age range was determined as 60-75 and younger drivers’ age range was determined as 21-30. For testing motivator factors of self-regulatory driving practices, Health and Functional Abilities Scale (Molnar et al., 2013), Self-Rated Abilities Scale, Driving Confidence Scale (Parker et al., 2001) were adapted to Turkish Sample and a pplied to older and younger drivers. After that, for testing self-regulatory, driving behaviors Advanced Decisions and Patterns of Travel Scale (Molnar, et al, 2013) was revised and mini-version of this scale was used. Lastly, for understanding possible safety benefits of self-regulation, Turkish version of Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) (Lajunen, & Özkan, 2004) was applied. The results show that behavioral mechanism of older, younger drivers were different, and there were no mediation effect of self-regulatory driving practices between possible underlying factors (health and functional abilities, self-rated driving abilities, driving confidence) and aberrant driver behaviors for older drivers. For younger driver groups, the mediation effect of strategical self-regulation was found between situational confidence and lapses. Generally, while tactical self-regulatory strategies were predicted negatively aberrant behaviors of the participants, for strategical self-regulat ion adverse relations were found which only supports tactical self-regulatory behaviors possible benefits for older and younger drivers. Limitations and contributions of the study were discussed in light of the related literature.