This report describes an investigation of risk taking among young male drivers from the perspective offered by theories of learning. It was hypothesised that one reason young drivers increase their risk taking on the road was that safe driving practices are found to be unnecessary and thus they extinguish to be replaced by risky behaviours that are reinforced. Focus groups conducted in Canberra with young male drivers revealed that many participants had engaged increasingly in risky driving behaviours partly because they believed that they would not experience negative consequences. Increasing confidence in one's driving ability was hypothesised to be a second factor that might contribute to increases in risk taking behaviour. The confidence of the young males who participated in this study appeared to have increased during the time since they got their provisional licences. Further, this increased confidence appeared to be associated with a decrease in participants' opinion of other people's driving. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting