Mindfulness Based Cognitive Group Therapy vs Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy as a Treatment for Driving Anger and Aggression in Iranian Taxi Drivers

Toktam Kazemeini, Bahramali Ghanbari-e-Hashem-Abadi, Asieh Safarzadeh

Department of Psychology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2013.48091                

Abstract

The frequent experience of anger while driving is associated with great rates of aggressive and dangerous behaviors. The experience of anger driving can have repercussions that extend beyond the vehicle and can be harmful to the individual driver and other drivers that are in the same road. Thus, the present research aims to compare the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Group Therapy (MBCGT) with Cognitive-Behavior Group Therapy (CBGT) on reducing anger and aggression while driving. The experimental design was pretest, posttest and follow up with randomized assignment. The sample of this study included 20 male taxi drivers who were selected through accessible sampling and participated voluntarily in the research. Participants were randomly divided into two experimental groups. The first experimental group received MBCGT and CBGT was conducted in the second experimental group. Both groups were tested three times (i.e., pretest, posttest, and one-month follow-up). The study tools used were Driving Anger Scale (DAS) and Driving Anger Expression questionnaire (DAX). Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software with covariance analysis. The results showed that MBCGT in comparison to CBGT led to significant reduction in driving anger, aggressive expression of driving anger and significant increase in adaptive/constructive expression of driving anger. These findings have been discussed theoretically and their importance in clinical importance.

Keywords

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Group Therapy; Cognitive-Behavior Group Therapy; Driving Anger and Aggression

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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