Traffic psychology

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Traffic psychology or also the psychology of traffic is an area of psychology or traffic science with a long scientific tradition. Some of the first empirical studies of psychology dealing with transport-related issues, especially with as mobility competence referred to fitness to drive motor vehicles .

In the German-speaking countries, the focus of traffic psychological practice has since been on traffic psychological diagnostics and on counseling, rehabilitation and retraining for drivers who suspect suspected drivers. In this area, the new road traffic laws in Germany since 1999 have resulted in an expansion of professional fields of activity.

Traffic psychologists are busy with diagnostics (medical-psychological examination - MPU) as well as with the improvement ("retraining, traffic rehabilitation, driver improvement") of the driving ability. Ergonomic traffic psychology and mobility psychology should be emphasized as smaller but steadily growing fields. Traffic pedagogical questions and problems are mainly dealt with by trained traffic pedagogues. Although traffic also takes place in the air, on waterways and rails, the consideration of motorized individual traffic, i.e. road traffic and driving, predominates. Therefore, psychological issues, such as the behavior of pedestrians and cyclists, can be described as marginal issues.

History of traffic psychology

The roots of traffic psychology lie in Germany. At the beginning of the last century, traffic psychologists dealt with the selection of tram drivers and locomotive drivers in the wake of increasing motorization, and from 1915 also systematically with other vehicle drivers (cf. Hugo Münsterberg ).

After the Second World War , the focus was initially on the assessment of war disabled drivers in the sense of a review of performance restrictions and compensation options.

The first 'Medical-Psychological Institutes' were founded at the beginning of the 1950s. In the following years, with the onset of mass motorization, the focus shifted to checking behavior-related and "character" doubts about suitability, for example due to traffic violations with and without alcohol.

Since the mid-1970s, an additional field of work has been the follow-up training and rehabilitation of drivers who have been suspicious of alcohol while driving. These evaluated group programs were gradually expanded at the beginning of the 1990s and finally supplemented by 'traffic psychological therapy', which works with more psychotherapeutic means, especially in one-on-one conversations with drivers (some of them also pilots) who have seen traffic problems.

The assessment of fitness to drive as well as the group-related measures to restore fitness to drive have been subject to regular reviews by the Federal Highway Research Institute since 2000 .

Areas of traffic psychology

Traffic psychology can be understood as a cross-sectional discipline of general and applied psychology with a strong connection to industrial and engineering psychology. Your interest in knowledge is fundamental, application and thus also practical. The focus is on the experience and behavior of people in traffic and transport systems and the psychological processes on which they are based. It is an innovative research field with z. Partly own methodology and theoretical approaches. It has been strongly interdisciplinary since the beginning and cooperates with engineers, computer scientists, doctors, economists, lawyers and administration.

The following areas of traffic psychology can be distinguished in an overview (cf. Schlag, 1999).

Traffic psychological diagnostics

The majority of traffic psychologists deal with road users and assess their suitability to drive : In Germany, almost 100,000 drivers have to undergo a medical-psychological assessment every year because the traffic authorities have concerns about their suitability for driving vehicles. This applies to prospective and young drivers as well as experienced and older drivers who become conspicuous because of the special nature or an accumulation of violations of the traffic regulations. The assessment is intended to answer the question of whether those affected are willing and able to comply with laws and regulations in road traffic in the future (negative selection, e.g. traffic offenses, alcohol, drug and medication abuse, physical defects, failure during the driving test). These reports are based on a medical-psychological examination (MPU) and are drawn up by the officially recognized assessment bodies for fitness to drive. A positive selection is z. B. made in the selection of professional drivers or in early issuance of driving licenses. The traffic psychologist works in a field of tension: He has to reconcile the overall societal goal of reliable road safety with individual interests for unrestricted mobility, as the loss of a driver's license often has significant consequences for existence and quality of life.

The so-called assessment guidelines for suitability to drive (Schubert et al., 2005) support the actions of all bodies that are concerned with the examination and determination of aptitude deficiencies according to driving license law. The current edition describes 18 different investigation occasions (including organic and organic-psychological abnormalities, passenger transport) and offers event-related criteria for the assessment. These are specified in a separate work "Assessment criteria: Formation of assessments in fitness to drive diagnostics" (currently in the 3rd edition, DGVP / DGVM, 2013) and are processed by a "Standing Working Group DGVP and DGVM (see below) for the further development of the assessment criteria". This ensures transparency for those affected; for those involved in traffic psychology, medicine, justice and administration, guidelines and assessment criteria are the binding basis that enables uniform decisions.

Traffic psychological advice and intervention

Road safety cannot be achieved through sanctions alone. Numerous measures therefore aim at changing attitudes (driver improvement). They are aimed at different target groups (young people, novice drivers, older road users) and address different abnormalities: alcohol, drugs or delinquency, e.g. B. by aggression offenses. The "courses with legal consequences", also known as § 70 courses, are offered to those drivers who have committed alcoholism and whose deficiencies can be remedied by taking part in the course according to the assessment of the experts. After that, the driving license will be issued without a new assessment. Anyone who voluntarily takes part in the traffic psychological counseling can, among other things, U. reduce his points account. The role and task of the traffic psychological advisor are defined by law. Pedagogically oriented measures problematize risky attitudes and behavior . They are intended to promote the development of new, adapted behaviors and support their integration into everyday life. Evaluation studies prove the positive effect of these measures.

People with profound aptitude deficiencies (alcohol, traffic violations, delinquency) need therapeutic, rehabilitative measures. For this, the term traffic therapy has become established, in which the individual problem is dealt with and alternative attitude and coping patterns are developed. The rehabilitation programs are mostly based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, but also on individual psychological or systemic concepts. Evaluation studies are also available for these programs which confirm their usefulness. This field of work, which could also be described as clinical traffic psychology, has grown in importance in recent years.

Accident and Safety Research

Accident research and improvement of traffic safety for different (age groups, types of traffic participation), at the same time with reference to traffic route and vehicle design; Perception , cognition and attention while driving, willingness to take risks and driving motives, interactions and social psychology of driving.

Training and education

Influencing behavior through legal (enforcement), pedagogical (education), vehicle and roadside (engineering) measures; and outside of school traffic education , driver training , driving instructor training, traffic education, campaign design and marketing (encouragement).

Research and advice

Questions of spatial mobility and traffic planning ; Transport policy : mobility management , mode choice , psychological aspects of the design of traffic routes and the traffic environment, offering quality and quality management .

Vehicle and traffic space design

Questions of ergonomics , but also the handling of vehicle-related offers ( e.g. risk compensation ), analysis of essential driving tasks and the requirements that drivers need to cope with them, design of vehicles ( driver assistance systems ), acceptance of technical and organizational innovations ( e.g. road pricing , Toll ). When it comes to the design of traffic areas (e.g. traffic flow, development, signaling), it is essentially a question of developing behavioral and experience-related design criteria for a road area design that is congruent with expectations.

Rail, aviation and shipping

Although these are fields of work with a long tradition, they can be understood - at least in German-speaking countries - as areas that are rather separate from "normal" traffic psychology. Topics such as personnel selection, human-machine interaction, work-organizational and social relationships in the workplace, training and further education, implementation of accident analyzes and crisis intervention are predominant.

Study traffic psychology

As an independent discipline, traffic psychology is hardly represented at university level. However, there are a number of ways to become more familiar with traffic psychology or even to obtain a qualification in traffic psychology:

  • At the Chair of Traffic Psychology at the TU Dresden (current owner: Tibor Petzoldt), the main focus of the course in psychology is on traffic psychological topics. These are primarily ergonomic traffic psychology, traffic safety, mobility psychology, lighting technology.
  • At the chair for general and industrial psychology at the TU Chemnitz , at the chair for engineering and traffic psychology at the TU Braunschweig , traffic psychology content, especially in the field of ergonomic traffic psychology, is an integral part of the training. All of the chairs mentioned conduct extensive research in traffic psychology in interdisciplinary cooperation, primarily with engineers and computer scientists.

Since 2013 there have been two new (either full-time or part-time) courses that explicitly provide for a qualification with the professional title of traffic psychologist:

  • At the University of Bonn a “Master's in Traffic Psychology”. The entry requirement is a BSc in psychology, the master’s course is designed for three years and focuses on the classic occupational profiles of traffic psychological assessment and rehabilitation.
  • At the Psychological University Berlin (PHB) a master’s degree in “Transport Psychology”. This term expresses a modern and integrating understanding of all facets of traffic psychology: design of the transport and traffic system; Mobility and security management; Traffic psychological assessment and rehabilitation. Entry requirement is a diploma / master’s degree in psychology; the training lasts two years.

Specialized psychologist for traffic psychology BDP

The certification certifies profound, up-to-date theoretical knowledge as well as in-depth, reflective and verified professional experience, special problem-solving skills and the ability to act independently and responsibly towards individuals and organizations in the fields of traffic psychology.

literature

Books

  • PE Barjonet (Ed.): Traffic psychology today. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston / London 2001.
  • Ch. Chaloupka-Risser, R. Risser, W.-D Zuzan: Traffic psychology, basics and applications. facultas, Vienna 2011.
  • DGVP / DGVM (ed.): Assessment criteria. Kirschbaum Verlag, Bonn 2013.
  • W. Fastenmeier, H. Gstalter: Driving task analysis as a tool in traffic safety research and practice. In: Safety Science. 45, 2007, pp. 952-979.
  • W. Fastenmeier, I. Pfafferott, R. Risser, W. Schneider: Ergonomic approaches in traffic psychology. In: Road traffic technology. 51/11, 2007, pp. 573-577.
  • D. Klebelsberg: Traffic Psychology . Springer, Berlin 1982.
  • H.-P. Krüger (Ed.): Fields of application of traffic psychology. In: Encyclopedia of Psychology: Traffic Psychology. Volume 2, Hogrefe, Göttingen 2009.
  • RW Novaco: Psychology of Transportation. In: International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences . 2001, pp. 15878-15882.
  • BE Porter (Ed.): Handbook of Traffic Psychology. Elsevier, London 2011.
  • J. Raithel, A. Widmer: Deviant traffic behavior. Basics, diagnosis and therapy. Hogrefe, Göttingen 2012.
  • T. Rothengatter, D. Huguenin (Eds.): Traffic and Transport Psychology. Theory and Application. In: Proceedings of the ICTTP 2000. Elsevier, Oxford 2004.
  • B. Schlag (Ed.): Performance and mobility in old age. (= Mobility and Age series of the Eugen Otto Butz Foundation. Volume 03). TÜV-Media Verlag, Cologne 2008.
  • W. Schubert et al. (Ed.): Assessment guidelines for suitability for driving. Comment. Kirschbaum Verlag, Bonn 2005.
  • D. Shinar: Traffic safety and human behavior. Emerald, Bingley 2008.
  • G. Underwood (Ed.): Traffic and Transport Psychology. Theory and Application. In: Proceedings of the ICTTP 2004. Elsevier, Oxford 2005.
  • M. Vollrath, J. Krems: Traffic Psychology. A textbook for psychologists, engineers and computer scientists. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2011.
  • GJS Wilde: Target risk: dealing with the danger of death, disease and damage in everyday decisions . PDE Publ., Toronto 1994, ISBN 0-9699124-0-4 .

Magazines

See also

Web links

Professional and scientific representation

Congresses

There are various national and international series of congresses that are organized in different rotations.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New appointment to the professorship for traffic psychology. Retrieved December 10, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Data from the master’s course “Psychology of Transport”. (No longer available online.) Psychological University Berlin gGmbH, archived from the original on April 29, 2014 ; accessed on May 9, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.psychologische-hochschule.de
  3. ↑ BDP section traffic psychology. Professional Association of German Psychologists, accessed on May 9, 2014 .