To judge a psychological state of a driver based on a change in a vehicular gap between a present vehicle and a preceding vehicle in the traveling scene of the present vehicle.

The apparatus detects the velocity of the present vehicle and the vehicular gap between the present vehicle and the preceding vehicle based on outputs from a velocity sensor 101 and a laser radar 102. A preceding vehicle velocity variation estimation part 106b estimates the velocity variation of the preceding vehicle to judge the psychological state of the driver only when it is estimated that the preceding vehicle travels stably. When judging the psychological state, a traveling scene judging part (c) judges which of "acceleration scene", "constant travel scene" and "deceleration scene" the traveling scene of the present vehicle is. A psychological state judging part carries out processing according to the judged traveling scene to judge the psychological state of the driver.