Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T16:05:30.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Study of Dichotomous Thought Processes in Accident-prone Drivers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Lynette Plummer
Affiliation:
27/581 Bunnerong Road, Matraville, N.S.W. 2036, Australia
S. Sunder Das
Affiliation:
c/o School of Psychiatry, Prince Henry Hospital, Little Bay, New South Wales, 2036, Australia

Extract

When a frequency distribution of motor vehicle accidents in any particular group is analysed, there is found to be a number of individuals who have a greater proportion of accidents than can be explained by chance alone. Research on the psychology of accident causation has been aimed largely at isolating particular personality characteristics which seem to be associated with high accident liability. However, the results from past research have been far from encouraging. Very little has been conclusively proved regarding the bearing of any one attribute on the accident rate, and there is still no single specific factor that is psychometrically capable of being identified as a predictor of accident liability.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

A synopsis of this paper was published in the August 1972 Journal.

References

Marcus, I. M., Wilson, W., Kraft, I., Swander, D., Southerland, F., and Schulhofer, E. (1960). ‘An interdisciplinary approach to accident patterns in children.’ Monograph Social Research in Child Development, 25, 3954.Google Scholar
Neuringer, G. (1961). ‘Dichotomous evaluations in suicidal individuals.’ Journal of Consulting Psychology, 25, 445–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Neuringer, G. (1967). ‘The cognitive organization of meaning in suicidal individuals.’ Journal of General Psychology, 76, 91100.Google Scholar
Neuringer, G. (1968). ‘Divergencies between attitudes towards life and death among suicidal, psychosomatic and normal hospitalized patients.’ Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 32, 5963.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Osgood, C. E., Suci, C. J., and Tannenbaum, P. H. (1957). The Measurement of Meaning. Urbana.Google Scholar
Parry, M. H. (1968). Aggression on the Road. London.Google Scholar
Selzer, M. L., and Payne, G. E. (1962). ‘Automobile accidents, suicide and unconscious motivation.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 119, 237–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shneidman, E. S. (1961). ‘Psycho-logic: A personality approach to patterns of thinking’, in Contemporary Issues in Thematic Apperceptive Methods (eds. J. Kafan, and G. Lesser). Springfield, Ill. Google Scholar
Sutton, T. A. (1969). ‘Dichotomous thought in homicidal and non-homicidal-suicidal persons.’ Undergraduate thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, N. (1967). ‘The psychology of fatal accident’, in Essays in Self-destruction (ed. E. S. Shneidman). New York.Google Scholar
Tillman, W. A., and Hobbs, G. E. (1949). ‘The accident-prone automobile driver. A study of psychiatric and social background.’ American Journal of Psychiatry, 106, 321–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traffic Accidents (1970). Current Affairs Bulletin, 45(8), 148–28.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.