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PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:43 
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Drivers' Attitudes Towards Speeding - Psychology PhD Research

Hi, my name is Sarah Brewster and I am a postgraduate student at the University of Strathclyde. I am currently recruiting participants from the general public to take part in my research on drivers' attitudes towards speeding. I would really appreciate your help if you drive regularly, are 18 years old or over and hold a full UK driving licence.

Should you wish to participate, you will be asked to complete an online questionnaire (on two separate occasions) about your own attitudes as a driver. The follow-up questionnaire will be completed approximately one month after the first and your answers will be kept confidential. Each questionnaire should take around 20 minutes.

If you are interested in taking part, please follow the link below where you will be able to read the participant information for this study, and begin the questionnaire. (You may have to copy and paste the URL into your search box):

http://bit.ly/DriversAttitudesTowardsSpeeding

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any queries at the e-mail address provided on the web page above.

Also, if you know of any drivers who might be interested in taking part, please feel free to pass on the link to my questionnaire.

Thank you very much for your time, your help will be much appreciated! :)


Last edited by Sarah on Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:57, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 18:27 
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:welcome:

I have just requested that Sarah contacts me so that we can verify this is genuine and that we can know much more about her intentions for this survey. I am not locking this until I know a little more.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 18:37 
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Does anyone drive faster than the speed limit? Surely not, they would all be dead by now wouldn't they?

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 10:33 
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On ADUK I had a go at this but did not complete it. I found there were too many tiresome and, to me, irrelevant questions. Others on that forum did complete it so I hope some good will come of it.

Best wishes all,
Dave.


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 14:21 
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I followed some of the links and it looked genuine so gave it a go just to find out what the style was. It is pretty clear that the bias is 'speeding is bad', the last set of questions where you are supposed to pick a situation where you might be tempted to speed and a way you could help yourself not to was very one sided.

In general the questions did seem very much aimed at an inexperienced driver that would find themselves speeding rather than someone who is making a conscious decision about an appropriate speed.

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PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 18:08 
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It sounds like Sarah has been brain washed from birth by the speed kills brigade. Unfortunately we will soon have a country where the majority of drivers are so obsessed by not going over a speed limit, that they forget to indicate, switch lights on when needed, use their side of the road correctly or observe what is going on around them, on the belief that the God Speedo is overruling and will strike them dead if they don't maintain eye contact with him at all times whilst worshiping him.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 18:29 
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I started to do it but have to agree with Triple S that so many of the questions are repeated with SLIGHTLY different wording that it is so amatuerish, it's as if she really only has a handful of questions and has to invent others to fill the pages. No questions about why you feel that speed limits are wrong or why you would wish to exceed a speed limit, just the same old rubbish re-worded VERY slightly every time.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 19:38 
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I certainly came across as a speeding equivalent of 'When did you stop beating your wife?', the questions revealed far more about her attitude towards speeding than my answers would mine. There was a strange, overriding fixation with breaking the speed limit being an end in itself rather than a side effect of how a person chooses to drive. At root this shows a complete misunderstanding of what a speed limit is and assigns some mystical importance to the obedience thereof.

The repetition of questions with the same theme but different emphasis is a pretty standard tool in this kind of questionnaire, this is only an opinion formed from some minor knowledge of psychometric tests. The whole thing is probably more of an exercise in the construction of a questionnaire and what data can be extracted than the nature of the data itself. In fact, despite what I wrote above, the stilted nature of the thing may be entirely deliberate to demonstrate some theory of psychology. I do hope so as this hypothesis would be a much more satisfactory indicator of the level expected of a post graduate study than the literal appearance.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
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PostPosted: Fri Mar 29, 2013 21:08 
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Yes I gathered from the first page of questions along the line of "Do you criticise your friends work", "do you strive to ...blah blah blah" that she is trying to relate a persons outlook on their work and other success/ambitions etc. to whether they are "suicidal maniacs" (who may drive at 70MPH on a deserted NSL A road at 5AM on a summers morning).

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2013 17:40 
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Thanks to everyone who has taken part and completed the questionnaire, your help is much appreciated.
There are a lot of repeated questions phrased in slightly different ways, however this is deliberate and necessary in order to be able to state that the questions used to measure each construct (attitude for example) are reliable. These questions are standard items used in this type of research and are based on psychological theory.
Also, it is not problematic for my research that some of you are making a conscious decision to exceed the speed limit rather than speeding out of habit. There are questions to control for this, for example, you have the option to state that you 'never' speed automatically or without thinking.

Can I remind everyone that the study is still currently running and so could you please refrain from discussing what exactly was involved when completing the questionnaire as there is more than one group/condition in this study. If others know what was involved for those not in their group, the results could be contaminated.

Thanks again!


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 02, 2013 22:48 
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I can now verify that Sarah has been in touch and it appears to be an interesting study. I am not sure I can currently class it as research as such as it is open to entry and thus eliminates certain groups so the overall output is influenced by the input! :)

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