Driving as a source of stress

1. The Effectiveness of Music and Relaxation Training in Reducing Driver StressDavid L. WiesenthalYork UniversityDwight A. HennessyBuffalo State College of SUNY&Fiorella S. LubertacciYork University

2. Driving as a source of stress • Driver stress is conceptualized as the result of an interaction between personality variables (trait stress) and environmental factors (congestion, heat, noise, etc.). • Driver stress elicits both physiological effects (increased heart rate & blood pressure) and psychological consequences (heightened aggression, anger, anxiety, mood changes) in both home and work environments.

3. While traffic congestion is stressful for all motorists, driver stress is greatest for those who are predisposed to stress because of their heightened trait stress levels.

4. Music reduces stress • Lowered tension • Lowered arousal • Lowered physiological effects (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, skin conductance) • Increased immune response • Increased performance and perceptions of situational control

5. How does music reduce stress? • Music serves as a distraction from stressful stimuli • Music facilitates relaxation

6. Wiesenthal, Hennessy & Totten (2000) • High and low trait stress drivers • Both high and low traffic congestion conditions on Highway 401 were experienced by all subjects who were regular commuters • Self-selected music or no music conditions

7. Results • Drivers who listened to music in high congestion reported lower state stress scores than those who did not listen to music. • In low congestion conditions, there was no difference between the music and no-music groups in state stress scores.

8. Figure 1: The Effect of Music on State Driver Stress

9. Deep Breathing and Stress • Breath control is the core component in relaxation techniques (yoga, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, childbirth education, etc. • Effective in treatment of tension, anxiety, panic attacks, pain management, etc.

10. Breath Training and Driving • Deffenbacher, Huff, Lynch, Oetting & Salvatore (2000) taught relaxation skills (including deep breathing) to reduce driver anger. • Following a variety of self-managed relaxation coping initiatives, drivers were seen to have reduced anger.

11. Breath Training and Driving • Drivers were not assessed in their vehicles. • Drivers were asked to imagine situations that had previously angered them and apply the therapeutic interventions to them. • Intensity and duration of emotions, aftereffects may be different in memory.

12. Retrospective accounts of anger and experiences surrounding the driving scenario may not have the same emotional effects as the actual situation while it is being experienced.

13. Hypotheses • State stress levels will be higher for high trait stress drivers, for both pre-and post-tests. • State driver stress levels will increase following the commuting trip for all groups. • Drivers who receive the deep breathing training will have significantly lower state stress levels post commute than drivers in the music condition.

14. Deep Breathing Training • Participants (40 commuters on major highways in the Toronto area, average age=27 years) met the experimenter for training and were presented with tape recorded instructions. • Participants practiced the deep breathing exercises.

15. Music Condition • Participants were provided with Relaxation, a tape recorded selection of synthesized music and bird songs and were told to play the tape when driving.

16. Experimental Design • Low and High Trait Stress (median split) • Deep breathing or relaxation music • All drivers were assessed only in high congestion.

17. Four Experimental Groups: • High-trait stress deep breathing group • Low-trait stress deep breathing group • High-trait stress music group • Low-trait stress music group

18. Prior to commuting trip, a cell phone call was made to the experimenter to administer the stress measure (pretest).After the commute, a second call was made to the experimenter to administer the stress measure (post-test)

19. Results • Cronbach  = .92 for the post commute stress measure • The only significant differences between groups was between the high trait stress-music group and the low trait stress-deep breathing group.

20. Figure 2: Treatments and Stress

21. Results • Hypothesis 1 was supported—high trait stress drivers experienced more state stress than low trait stress drivers. • Hypothesis 2 which predicted all drivers would experience elevated state stress levels after their commute, was not supported. The mean state stress score did not increase at post-test.

22. Results • Hypothesis 3 was confirmed—deep breathing drivers displayed a significant decrease in their state stress levels following their commute. • Music increased state stress for high trait stress drivers at the post-test. • No gender differences were obtained.

23. Conclusions • Self-selection of music vs. assigned music may affect perceptions of control. • The “relaxation” music may not promote relaxation, but may be perceived as irritating by some drivers. • Deep breathing may be appealing to high trait stress drivers because it augments perceptions of control.

24. Future Research • An analysis needs to be conducted of stress reduction over several commuting trips rather than on a single trip. • The study of the decrease in stress over time following the commute needs to be considered. • Additional research on music and deep breathing needs to compare both the rate as well as the magnitude of stress reduction.