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Department of Psychology, Unit Catalogue 2007/08


PS30102 Traffic and transport psychology

Credits: 6
Level: Honours
Semester: 2
Assessment: EX 100%
Requisites:
Before taking this unit you must take PS20092 and take PS20093 and take PS20106 and take PS20107 and take PS20108 and take PS20109
Aims: This unit introduces the applied areas of traffic and transport psychology. It covers issues such as how cognitive psychological factors like attention and perception contribute to accidents/safety; it also looks at issues of driver behaviour (e.g., influences of personality, experience, etc.) and research on transport choice and environmental behaviour.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this unit students should be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of several major topics with the fields of traffic and transport psychology. They should also be able to demonstrate a more general understanding of how cognitive and social psychology can be applied to real-world issues.
Skills:

1. Has detailed knowledge of several specialised areas, some of which are at the cutting edge of research in the discipline. (T/F/A)
2. Understands the role of psychology in tackling real-world issues and the relationship between laboratory studies and in vivo studies, appreciating the strengths and weaknesses of each approach (T/F/A)
3. Can reason scientifically, understand the role of evidence and make critical judgements about arguments in psychology. (F)
4. Can adopt multiple perspectives and systematically analyse the relationships between them. (F)
5. Can pose, operationalise and critically evaluate research questions. (F)
6. Can demonstrate the ability to think critically about research evidence, the methodologies used to obtain it and the techniques used to analyse the data (T/F/A).
Content:
The application of cognitive and social psychology to traffic and transport psychology; the role of driver factors in safety and behaviour: experience, personality, risk-taking; etc.; the role of cognitive factors in safety and behaviour: attention (particularly attentional biases and capacity limits), sensory capacities, etc; risks specific to vulnerable road users; social psychology of transport choice.