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The Driver's Angry Thoughts Questionnaire: A Measure of Angry Cognitions When Driving

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Abstract

Five forms of driving-related angry cognitions were identified—Judgmental/Disbelieving Thinking (α = .94), Pejorative Labeling/Verbally Aggressive Thinking (α = .92), Revenge/Retaliatory Thinking (α = .93), Physically Aggressive Thinking (α = .93), and Coping Self-instruction (α = .83). Pejorative labeling/verbally aggressive, physically aggressive, and revengeful/retaliatory thinking correlated positively with each other and with driving anger, aggressive driving anger expression, aggression, and risky driving behavior. Coping self-instruction tended to correlate negatively with these variables. Judgmental/disbelieving thinking correlated positively with other forms of angry thinking, but was only somewhat correlated with other variables. Driving-related angry thoughts, except coping self-instruction, correlated positively with general hostile automatic thoughts. Differences in strengths of correlations with specific variables, and contributions to regression analyses supported the discriminant and incremental validity of driving-related angry thoughts. Implications for cognitive processes in anger and interventions were discussed.

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Correspondence to Jerry L. Deffenbacher.

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Deffenbacher, J.L., Petrilli, R.T., Lynch, R.S. et al. The Driver's Angry Thoughts Questionnaire: A Measure of Angry Cognitions When Driving. Cognitive Therapy and Research 27, 383–402 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025403712897

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