U of M News Wire
December 20, 2007
U of M study says safety attitudes behind the wheel are vastly different between rural and urban drivers
By Elizabeth Giorgi
U of M News Wire
Rural drivers may need to reconsider how safely they are driving -- especially rural pickup drivers, according to a new University of Minnesota study. University researchers have proven that rural drivers are more complacent when it comes to common safety practices on the road than their urban counterparts.
Research fellow in the HumanFIRST Program in the ITS Institute Mick Rakauskas surveyed drivers in six Minnesota counties, three urban and three rural, and discovered that drivers in rural areas practiced riskier driving behaviors and were less aware of the danger in doing so. Rural drivers more frequently admitted to driving while under the influence and not using their seatbelt every time they drive. The worst offenders were rural pick-up drivers who were the least likely to wear their seatbelts.
"The most interesting thing about the research is that people were willing to tell us the truth about their behaviors - that rural drivers aren't wearing their seatbelt and think that drunk driving isn't that dangerous, so education may help prevent crashes for these risk factors," Rakauskas said.
Minnesota crash data in rural areas back these findings. The researchers believe that rural drivers are more likely to have fatal crashes due to their decreased perception of the importance of safe driving. The data show that there are more crashes caused by drunk driving in rural areas and drivers wore their seatbelts less frequently in fatal and injury-causing crashes.
To further understand the findings, Rakauskas used the HumanFIRST Program's driving simulator. The simulator's car has a motion base that can be driven through a virtual environment -- one rural and one urban -- and allows the researchers to gauge how safely people drive. The researchers found that when projecting a rural virtual environment, all drivers had a more difficult time keeping the vehicle near the center of their lane, often edging close to the road boundaries. But when driving in an urban virtual environment, drivers seemed more cautious, especially older drivers who often had a more difficult time maintaining safe driving behavior.
While rural drivers may be riskier drivers, the results of this survey lend to some promising solutions to prevent crashes. Promoting safety with the teen drivers, educating drivers on potentially dangerous behaviors and developing new ways to implement safety into rural infrastructures -- many rural fatalities can be prevented.
For a fully produced feature and an interview with the researcher, visit: http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/newsservice/Multimedia_Videos/roadresearch.htm
----------
To forgive or not to forgive
University of Minnesota graduate student Ling-Hsuan Tung studies the healing impact of forgiveness
By J. Trout Lowen
U of M News Wire
At some point in our lives, each of us has been hurt by another, be it betrayal by a friend, rejection by a partner or victimization by a criminal. And at some point, we have had to decide whether to carry that hurt indefinitely or to forgive.
Ling-Hsuan Tung, a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at the University of Minnesota, has watched many clients struggle with that decision, and she’s seen the healing impact that deciding to forgive can have. “When clients tell me they finally, truly forgive the person, they mention feeling free,” Tung says. “What happened still matters, but it helps them to free themselves from being hurt.”
Through her work as an intern counselor at Bethel University’s Counseling Services and at the Walk-In Counseling Center in Minneapolis, among other places, Tung has discovered that it’s important not to push clients to forgive, however. “If it’s a very serious offense, then it’s really hard. You cannot push yourself to forgive right away.” That’s particularly true, she says, for some of her clients who have a strong faith that encourages forgiveness.
But what makes a person decide to forgive? That’s the question Tung’s dissertation research seeks to answer. “My hope is to learn more about the factors that affect people's choice to forgive and reconcile, and by knowing those things, to help us develop better skills to help clients to be able to forgive,” Tung says.
A native of Taiwan, Tung began researching forgiveness as a master’s student at the University of Minnesota; she designed a study to determine how likely someone is to forgive using eight short scenarios that ranged from intimate offenses, such as adultery and incest, to more distant events including plagiarism and a car accident. She asked subjects to read the scenarios and respond as the victim to three questions: Would they forgive the offender? Would they tell the offender they had forgiven them? And would they reconcile with the offender?
Tung also examined the effect of four variables on that decision: the scenario itself, whether there was an apology, the closeness of the relationship prior to the offense and the time elapsed since the offense. Among the most significant factors that influence the decision to forgive, Tung says, are the severity of the offense and whether the offender has apologized.
While it might seem like common sense that someone is more likely to forgive after an apology, Tung’s adviser, educational psychology professor Tom Hummel, says Tung’s research is unique in that it seeks to actually quantify how much more likely someone is to forgive by using techniques more common in economic and marketing research. Having the more precise results could help clinicians treating both victims and offenders, he says.
Now Tung is broadening her research. She recently completed interviews with 128 graduate and undergraduate students using scenarios similar to the first study, but expanding the variables to include options such as the offender’s intent and whether the victim is religious.
She is also probing more deeply into the question of reconciliation. Forgiveness doesn’t always include reconciliation, Tung notes. In some cases, such as sexual assault, the victim may want nothing to do with the offender, but forgiveness is still possible, even if the offender never knows of the decision, Tung says.
Deciding to forgive, she explains, can give patients a sense of power and control. “It’s important to empower clients, to say you have the control, you have the power to say you're going to forgive the person.”
----------
Growing Concerns
A parenting question-and-answer column with Dr. Martha Erickson of the University of Minnesota
Question: Our 5-year-old son, who started kindergarten this year, is outgoing and confident during the day, but at night he still likes to take his old “blankie” to bed with him. My husband teases him about it, saying, “Look at the big baby!” Should we push him to give up the blanket? And, if not, how can I get my husband to quit the teasing?
Answer: Your son sounds like a well-adjusted 5-year-old, eagerly going off to school and then coming home for a good night’s rest. What possible harm can come from sleeping with his cozy old “blankie”? Kids today are surrounded with stressful, frightening images and they’re often expected to grow up too fast. In my opinion kids today need and deserve all the comfort they can get. Besides, how many of us adults come home at the end of the day and put on our favorite old sweat suit or flannel shirt, not just for physical comfort but because the familiar feeling gives us psychological comfort? And how many of us sleep best in our favorite pajamas or under the fluffy comforter we’ve had for years? When you think about it, that’s not all that different from the comfort your son derives from his old blanket.
That said, your concern about your husband’s teasing of your son is right on target. That kind of ridicule is a recipe for trouble. I would urge you to make time to talk with your husband privately about this. Encourage him to think about the situation from your son’s perspective. Beyond helping your husband understand your son’s legitimate need for comfort, encourage him to think about the effect of this pattern of teasing. You might begin by asking him what kind of relationship he hopes to have with his son over the next few years. Teasing and ridicule provoke shame and anger, certainly not the ingredients of a respectful, loving father-son relationship.
I wonder if your husband is passing on messages he learned in childhood – messages like, “be tough, be strong, don’t cry, don’t be soft or dependent.” He may need a nudge to realize that even the strongest men (and women) need comfort. Think, for example, of all the soldiers who have carried something from home when they have gone off to battle.
For your son, maybe the touch of that old blanket triggers warm memories of the security he felt when you and your husband used to rock him to sleep. And that probably helps him be confident and outgoing when he goes off to school each morning. I say more power to him! We all should have a “blankie” to give us those feelings at the end of a busy day.
Dr. Erickson is a senior fellow and director of the Harris Programs in the Center for Early Childhood Education at the University of Minnesota
Want to hear more parenting advice?
Dr. Erickson and her daughter can be heard every Sunday, from 2 - 4 p.m., on “Good Enough Moms,” on FM107.1 radio in the Twin Cities or via Web cast at www.FM1071.com
