Psychological attachment to the car

Psychological attachment to the car

What are the psychological benefits that car driving confers? Driving is a skilled activity with a threshold level of required competence – the initial driving test; it is a social activity requiring real-time negotiation of non-intersecting trajectories with co-present transient others; and it is an expressive activity where what you drive and the manner in which you drive it on the theatre of the streets manifests a displayed identity (Parker and Stradling, 2001). Research has recently begun to look in some detail at the expressive dimension of car use (Garling et al, 2002; Hiscock et al, 2002; Lajunen et al, 1998; Parker et al, 1998; Steg et al, 1997, 2001a,b; Stradling 2002a,b; Stradling et al, 1998, 1999, 2001; Tertoolen et al, 1998).

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  ‘One of the reasons I like driving is because I’m in control’ [female; age group 36-45; drives 100+ miles per week];
  

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  ‘The problem I have with public transport is that I don’t feel in control’ [female; age group 26-35; drives 100+ miles per week];
  

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  ‘You don’t feel in control at all on public transport and you’re worried about connections all the time so you’re having to be aware of what the time is every moment’ [female; age group 26-35; drives 10-50 miles per week];
  

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  ‘Last year I came in by public transport for about two weeks. It was hell. Freezing to death on platforms waiting for trains that were late. You’re not in control of your life – that’s the only way I can describe it, you’re just not in control. If you know the traffic jam’s there then there are ways to get around it’ [female; age group 26-35; drives 100+ miles per week].
  

In the same study drivers rated their agreement with a set of twenty-five statements on the benefits and disadvantages of driving a car. Two statements received the endorsement of over 90% of the sample -

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  ‘Driving a car gives me freedom to go where I want when I want’ (95% Agreed) and
  
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  ‘Driving a car is a convenient way of travelling’ (93%).
  

But half of the sample deemed driving stressful, whether ‘… because of congestion on the roads’ (53%) or ‘… because of the behaviour of other drivers’ (53%).

Table 8.

Rotated component matrix for benefits and disbenefits of driving a car.

Scores on the first two factors, labelled as Identity (F1) and Independence (F2) had different demographic correlates. The young (17 – 20 years) and, amongst the over twenties, the relatively poor were the two groups obtaining the greatest sense of personal identity – projection, pride, power and self-expression – from driving in their car, while older drivers (> 40 years) and, amongst these, female drivers, scored highest on the independence factor. Thus different kinds of persons obtain different kinds of psychological benefit from car use. Driving a car is particularly attractive to the young and the poor because of the sense of displayed personal identity it conveys. Driving is particularly attractive to females over forty because of the sense of independence it conveys. The factors concerned with the disadvantages of driving were labelled discomfort (F3) and distress (F4) and showed little demographic variation, suggesting that they are enduring characteristics of the person.

Means that do not differ significantly (‘ns’) are omitted.