Document 7RgwjNV6rE4zb3ngx2LJ0dB18

HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND INDUSTRIAL SAFETY feelings behind the learned emotional ex pressions However, after day-to-day inter action over a long period of time, one learns to tell the difference between true feelings and those shown This is useful to the foreman and the safety man in his deal ings with individuals m the shop As they go about the plant carrying out their nor mal duties, they mav discover those indi viduals having difficulties and take some ex tra precautions to avoid accidents Maladjustive results of emotion Most people have at some time seen someone break down emotionally under great stress Strong emotion in some cases leads to either maladjustive behavior or complete immobility For example, an indi vidual under stress might react in such a way as not to care what kind of behavior he exhibits and give no consideration to it This individual might lose bis job, his fnends, and even the love of his family un der certain circumstances Certainly this is maladjustive, but the individual under emo tional stress cannot evaluate his own be havior and often cares less Sometimes, little things can lead to a "blow-up '' A man working on his machine finds that his safety device constantly sticks at one point As this occurs again and again, it makes him more and more irri tated To this the individual may respond with emotion rather than in a normal way by having it repaired He may give it a shove regardless of the consequences and end up with his hand in the machine This type of accident is due to an individual's emotional response to the cumulative ef fects of minoT lmtations In emotion, the adequate solution is lost and--perhaps at the same time--several fingers Emotion thus can block out what would be everyday common sense solutions or well trained patterns of work in a given situa tion It might cause the individual to for get for a moment what he should do and cause an accident This is the individual who in reply to the question, "Why did this happen?" would say, "I just didn't think" Emotional blocking is not an un common phenomenon "Forgotten" names, addresses, telephone numbers, and tasks to be done can be emotional reactions in ev eryday situations The basis may be dislike of the individuals involved or the feeling of being forced to do something distasteful The entire emotional pattern can be reinstituted within the individual just by his remembering an emotion-producing incident and thinking about it Unlike the dog that becomes emotional at the sight of a cat and a minute later is no longer concerned, hu mans can have an emotional response with out the initiating cause being present A worker being reprimanded by his foreman may react emobonally for the moment, then seem to forget it, but several hours later become angry or fearful about the whole matter again in recalling it An accident occurring at this tune, long after the inci dent seems closed, may seem to have no immediate cause at all This is one reason for thorough investi gation at the time of the accident Extreme emotional reactions can lead to total immobilization, somewhat akin to emo tional blocking In some cases, this im mobilization may ac tually work to prevent accidents, but it is more likely to cause them Proper or norm a t reactions, of course, require some ability to control emo tional impulses and to S-IS