Document 6wrjKazjZ2yY0qe7YQJQBymOE

HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND INDUSTRIAL SAFETY the years and his ability to cope with indi viduals who have used this name to "nee dle" him While an individual's capacity for intel lectual achievement is determined at birth, its development and utilization will vary Some take advantage of their opportunities, whether formal or informal, to develop their capacities Others, because of conflict within themselves or with the environment, do' little to develop their potential Certain ly, it is important for the safety man to try to help provide an atmosphere in which the individual will desire not only to work to the limit of his capacities, but also to in crease his knowledge in his field of work, and in which he will feel free to express creative ideas for improving the safety pro gram Habit patterns, so important both m physical skills and in relationships with oth er people, are established through the inter action of the individual with his environ ment Some people have established habit pat terns which make them useful, contribut ing, and acceptable members of groups, while other people are avoided because they have habit patterns that make them "hard to get along with " For whatever reason, lack of motivation, limited ability to learn, or poor training, such workers soon become liabilities to a safety program because of their poorly developed and frequently un safe work patterns Interaction of environment and heredity Whether hereditary factors or environmen tal factors account more for individual dif ferences is not of great importance in this discussion It is important simply to recog nize that both heredity and environment play a part--that what one is today is the product of the interaction of the qualities with which he was born and the environ ment in which he has lived Influences of differences on safety The problem of individual differences has been related directly to the problem of safe ty in industry For some years, safety men and psychologists alike explored the con cept of "accident proneness" It was be hoved for a tune that herein was the final solution to the whole problem of safety. Such has not been the case, and this con cept has lately received less attention. This fact does not, however, minimize the im portance of the relationship between indi vidual differences, both physical and psy chological, and industrial safety Accidents related to physical characteris tics of the individual Reaction time, manu al dexterity, and visual abilities seem to have at least some bearing on safe perform ance While the extent to which they are directly responsible for accidents is neither clear nor constant, it appears that a certain minimum degree of physical competence is required for successful, accident-free per formance Some types of jobs demand su perior physical abilities while others do not It is also possible to redesign a job to allow a person with certain physical handicaps to perform efficiently and safely Most of the research to date has consid ered these things individually Recently a few studies have examined the connection between combinations of physical shortcom ings and accidents Apparently such studies were initiated because investigators realized that physical and psychological abilities op erate not as single, discrete items, but rath er m interacting combination This re search is concerned, for example, with gen eral perceptive capabilities and accidents, and not with just Are separate abilities that contribute to perception Brakeman and Slocombe, in their sum mary of ninety-one studies in the fields of physiology and experimental psychology, found reaction time to depend upon "(1) duration of stimulus, (2) visual an gle, (3) intensity of stimulus, (4) nature of surrounding conditions, (5) mode of stimulus, and (6) the mental and physical condition of the individual " Simple labora tory tests of reaction tune ordinarily do not consider these factors The attitude that it is necessary to ana lyze the requirements of certain jobs in or der to determine the importance of reaction timp to their safe and efficient performance is supported by research Cardall0 recog nized this fact when he pointed out that "critical scores can be determined for a general nsk or a specific job risk below which manipulative dexterity, rhythm, re action time, and visual acuities are predic tive of accidents" Tests can be devised to "See references at end of this chapter 5-4