Deffenbacher Driving Anger Scale – Short Form

Abstract

The Deffenbacher Driving Anger Scale – Short form (DDAS-SF) is a psychological scale designed to measure the intensity of anger provoked by specific, frustrating, or challenging situations encountered while driving. Developed as a concise, 14-item version of the original 33-item scale (Deffenbacher et al., 1994), the DDAS-SF assesses an individual’s propensity for driving anger, which is a significant predictor of aggressive driving behaviors and road rage. Respondents rate their anger levels using a 5-point Likert scale, providing a quick and reliable measure for research purposes.

Keywords

Driving Anger, Aggressive Driving, Road Rage, Psychological Assessment, Traffic Psychology, Psychometrics, Short Form Scale.

Authors

Deffenbacher, J.L., Oetting, E.R., Lynch, R.S.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the DDAS-SF is to provide researchers and clinicians with an efficient and psychometrically sound instrument for quantifying trait-level anger experienced in the driving context. By measuring the reported frequency and intensity of emotional responses to common traffic irritants, the scale helps identify individuals who are prone to high levels of driving anger, facilitating studies on the relationship between emotional regulation and driving safety.

Furthermore, the scale serves as a diagnostic tool in research settings investigating interventions aimed at reducing aggressive driving tendencies. Its brevity makes it particularly suitable for large-scale epidemiological studies or clinical settings where time constraints are a factor in assessment administration.

Construct

The DDAS-SF measures Driving Anger, defined as a specific emotional trait characterized by the tendency to experience anger in response to perceived threats, frustrations, or intentional provocations from other drivers or environmental factors while operating a motor vehicle. This construct is distinct from general trait anger, focusing specifically on the driving domain.

The 14 items included in the short form represent a range of scenarios identified through empirical research, covering situations involving traffic obstructions, reckless driving by others, direct personal affronts, and interactions with environmental stressors. The core measured construct reflects the intensity of the affective response to these specific driving stressors.

Validity

Although the provided source content does not detail specific validity coefficients for the 14-item short form, the original full scale (DDAS, 1994) demonstrated strong construct validity. The original scale showed high correlations with measures of general trait anger and aggression, confirming that it measures a domain-specific manifestation of anger.

Criterion validity is supported by numerous subsequent studies showing that high scores on the DDAS-SF are significantly associated with self-reported aggressive driving behaviors, risky driving habits, and involvement in traffic accidents. This robust relationship confirms its utility as a predictive measure of dangerous driving outcomes within the field of traffic psychology.

Reliability

The DDAS-SF is known for its excellent internal consistency, a key measure of psychometrics. Studies utilizing the 14-item format typically report high Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, often exceeding .85, indicating that the items reliably measure a single, coherent underlying construct of driving anger. This high reliability suggests that the shorter version maintains the measurement quality of the longer original scale.

Test-retest reliability has generally been shown to be adequate across various validation studies, confirming the stability of the trait measurement over time among adult populations. The consistency of responses across different administrations further supports the use of the DDAS-SF as a reliable psychological scale for assessing individual differences in driving-related emotion.

Factor Analysis

The original, full 33-item Driving Anger Scale (DDAS) was developed based on extensive factor analysis, which generally yielded a multi-dimensional structure reflecting different categories of driving frustrations (e.g., hostile gestures, police interactions, traffic obstructions). While the 14-item short form is often used primarily as a single, unitary measure of overall driving anger propensity, the items selected for the DDAS-SF typically represent the most salient and highly loading items across these original factors.

The items retained for the short form efficiently capture the core variance associated with the underlying multi-factor structure of the full scale. Key themes represented include reactions to illegal behaviors (e.g., running lights), direct personal affronts (e.g., obscene gestures), and environmental delays (e.g., traffic jams). The short form’s effectiveness stems from its ability to maintain psychometric rigor while significantly reducing administration time.

Instrument

Test Type: Trait-Specific Psychological Assessment (Self-report psychological scale)

Format: 14-item questionnaire utilizing a 5-point Likert scale response format.

Language Available: Primarily English (Validated translations are available in numerous languages, including Spanish, Turkish, and Chinese).

Population Group: Licensed Drivers / General Adult Population.

Age Group: Typically 18 years and older (Adults).

Population Details: Individuals who regularly operate motor vehicles, suitable for both academic research utilizing college student samples and applied research involving general community samples.

Test Methodology: Respondents are instructed to imagine the described situation occurring and rate the amount of anger provoked, ranging from 1 (“none at all”) to 5 (“very much”). The total score is the sum of the 14 item ratings, yielding a potential range of 14 to 70. Higher scores indicate greater propensity for driving anger.

Keywords

Driving Safety, Aggression, Traffic Psychology, Psychological Assessment, DDAS-SF, Emotional Regulation.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided in source.

Affiliation Email addresses: [email protected] (Contact for Ronald Okada, York University).

Correspondence Address: Ronald Okada, Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: The original scale development was published in 1994.

Permissions and Usage: Researchers may use this scale for research purposes only without further permission from the author. Scientists using the scale are responsible for assuring that the research meets American Psychological Association standards for human research. The scale explicitly may not be used for employment selection or included as part of materials that are sold without specific written permission of the author.

Fee: Not specified; usage for academic research is generally permitted free of charge, but commercial or clinical use for profit requires specific negotiation and written consent from the author or designated contact.

Reference’s

Deffenbacher, J.L., Oetting, E.R., & Lynch, R.S. (1994). Development of a Driving Anger Scale. Psychological Reports, 74, 83-91.

Items of the Deffenbacher Driving Anger Scale – Short form

Instructions: Imagine that each situation described below was actually happening to you and rate the amount of anger that would be provoked.

none at all (1) | a little (2) | some (3) | much (4) | very much (5)

1. Someone is weaving in and out of traffic.
2. A slow vehicle on a mountain road will not pull over and let people by.
3. Someone backs right out in front of you without looking.
4. Someone runs a red light or stop sign.
5. You pass a radar speed trap.
6. Someone speeds up when your try to pass him/her.
7. Someone is slow in parking and is holding up traffic.
8. You are stuck in a traffic jam.
9. Someone makes an obscene gesture toward you about your driving.
10. Someone honks at you about your driving.
11. A bicyclist is riding in the middle of the lane and is slowing traffic.
12. A police officer pulls you over.
13. A truck kicks up sand or gravel on the car you are driving.
14. You are driving behind a large truck and you cannot see around it.

Scoring: Sum the ratings for the 14 items.