A conceptualization of driving behaviour as threat avoidance

A behavioural analysis of the driving task is presented, arising out of a brief review of the motivational dimensions of Wilde's (1981) theory of risk homeostasis and the zero risk model of driver behaviour proposed by Näätänen ana Summala (1976). The analysis is developed into a threat-avoidance model of driver behaviour. This suggests that, when confronted with a discriminative stimulus for a potential aversive event, what a driver does depends in particular on the rewards and punishments for alternative responses. Implications of the model for the learner driver, road safety measures and earlier conceptualizations of driver motivation are discussed.