For Rey Writer

Summary Assignment

Name

Institution Affiliation

Source Summary Prewriting

The study looks at the psychosocial influences of texting while driving among young Australian drivers. The psychosocial influences of texting while driving cited in the article include moral and group norm, intentions, behavioral control perceptions, subjective norms, and attitudes. The researchers found that behavioral control perceptions did not have an influence on reading texts while driving, but they had an effect on sending the texts. In addition, the researchers predicted the intentions to read and send texts based on the attitudes of the young participants. Therefore, attitudes have a greater influence on whether the young person will read, write and send texts while driving. Intention predicted both readings and sending texts.

Theme: Choose: Psychology

Topic: Psychosocial Influences on Behavior

Title: Texting while Driving: Psychosocial influences on young people’s texting intentions and behavior

The text tells me that the author posits that the young driver tends to base his decision on texting and driving based on his interactions with his peers, who influence various aspects of the driver’s behavior regarding texting and driving.

Intended audience: The publication in the Accident Analysis and Prevention journal suggests that the article is intended for policy-makers, professionals in the field of counseling psychology and psychology. The publication contains technical jargon and sources from academic journals. The publication is, therefore, professional and is not easily accessible to the public who have no background in the discipline of counseling psychology.

Writer Background: The authors are part of the school of psychology and counseling at the Queensland University of Technology. Therefore, they have the professional authority and technical know-how to write on the subject because it is directly related to their field of expertise.

Writer’s angle: The topic presents an arguable claim since the research literature review conducted in the article contains gaps in research where researchers have not completely understood the psychosocial influences of reading and sending texts while driving behaviors in young people. The claim the topic makes is also an arguable one because it was possible for the researchers to make falsifiable hypothesis based on the topic and, therefore, base their research on the formulated hypothesis to obtain objective data that could either reject or accept the formulated hypothesis.

Part 1: The one-sentence summary

The researchers state that the overall main point of the source is to show that a ‘multi-strategy approach is likely to be useful in attempts to reduce the incidence of these risky driving behaviors’.

Part 2: The one-paragraph summary

The main point the researchers seek to make in the source is that psychosocial influences on young people's texting and driving behavior can be used to intervene and predict texting and driving behaviors among young people. Additionally, the researcher's state provides supporting points, such as the finding that attitudes towards texting can influence the frequency with which young people engage in texting while driving behaviors. The young people also favored texting while driving because it gained their approval from their peers, thereby making them more likely to engage in repeat texting while driving behaviors.

Part 3: The multiple-paragraph summary

The researchers posit that distracted drivers are the main cause of road accidents, and they provide literature conducted to support their contention. The researchers contend that driving and texting are different behaviors, and therefore they should be studied separately rather than as the same. The researchers adopt various theoretical models to study their topic, which include the theory of planned behavior and ‘other sources of social influence’ (Nemme and White, 2010). Based on these theories, the researchers contend that people are driven by their perceived ability to control their behaviors and their attitudes towards the behavior. On this basis, the researchers design a study to study the influences of psychosocial factors on texting and driving behaviors.

After the theoretical analysis and literature review, the researchers hypothesize that psychosocial factors would influence texting while driving. They collected data on self-reported behavior for the first week and asked the participants follow-up questions after one week to find out how psychosocial influences affected their texting while driving behaviors. After analyzing the results, they concluded that psychosocial factors have a direct influence on texting and driving behavior in young people. This confirmed their hypothesis (Nemme and White, 2010).

Part 4: Your reaction

The researchers are persuasive in arguing their main point because they use empirical literature and methods in their research to provide objective data. The study meets the needs of the intended audience by providing data that they could use for intervention in the text and driving behaviors to reduce road accidents. I trust the authors because they provide empirical data and objective data and stay away from subjective interpretations of the data. The objectivity of the data and presentation using headings, sub-headings, diagrams and tables ensures that the reader can easily access the facts without any emotional undertones obscuring objectivity.

Part 5: References

Nemme, H. and White, K.M. (2010). Texting while driving: psychosocial influences on young

People’s texting intentions and behavior. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 42(4), 1257-1265.