IA8 Human Factors Flashcards
Define Personality
- It is the combination of physical, mental, emotional and social characteristics of an individual.
- These characteristics influence the behaviour of an individual.
- Personality makes an individual unique.
- Influenced internally by genetics or externally by social environment.
- Examples: Positive, Pessimistic, Cheerful, Perfectionistic.
Define Attitude
- Is the predisposition to act in a certain way which may be determined by ancestry, beliefs, personal experience, training or environment.
- It is the way an individual behaves in certain situation.
Define Aptitude
- Is the natural ability or skill of an individual to do something.
- It is a important part of an individual’s competence.
- It is important when matching worker to task/job.
Define Motivation and give examples of key theories of human motivation
Is the driving force behind the way an individual acts or the way in which people are stimulated to act. Key theories are:
- Mayo (Hawthorne factory experiments), were demonstrated that belonging to a group, getting attention and working on a harmonious group are more important than financial benefits.
- Maslow (Hierarchy of needs), individuals are motivated by needs, the basic needs must be fulfilled first in order for an individual to achieve self-actualisation.
- Vroom (Expectancy theory), employee’s motivation depends o 3 variables: valence, expectation and instrumentality.
Outline Maslow’s model and give examples on each stage
From the lowest stage (needs) to the highest :
- Physiological, the basic requirements of life e.g. shelter, food, water, etc.
- Safety, the need for security.
- Belonging and love, the need to be part of a group, to be accepted.
- Esteem, to be recognized and respected by others and oneself.
- Self-Actualisation, to discover purpose and one’s inner potential.
Define Perception and give three examples of perception processes
The process in which people interpret information (stimuli) that they receive from their senses.
- Perception of danger, determined by their perception of the situation, past experiences and their personality.
- Perceptual set, predisposition to perceive things in a certain way. Perception is biased, based on expectations, experiences, beliefs and even culture e.g. airport security officers might be likely to spot a water bottle in a bag but then miss that the bag also contains a firearm.
- Perceptual distortion, abnormal interpretations of a perceptual experience, e.g. anorexia nervosa relates with a distorted self-image.
List the errors in perception caused by physical stressors
- Temperature and humidity (high and low).
- Noise and vibration.
- Lighting levels (high or low).
- Working in adverse weather.
- Shift work and fatigue.
- Influence of drugs and alcohol.
- Interference from PPE.
”Organisational and job factors”
What is an important concern in health and safety regarding perception?
The perception of hazards.
List a range of factors that may affect how people perceive hazards in the workplace.
- Experience
- Education and Training
- Environment Factors (physical stressors)
- The effects of fatigue
- Drugs and Alcohol
- Aptitude
- IQ
- Any form of sensory impairment (e.g. color vision deficiency)
List the types of Human Failure according to the HSG 48
Human failures in H&S are classified either as Errors or Violations.
- Errors are either,
- Skill-based (Slips of action & Lapses of memory) or
- Mistakes (Rule-based & Knowledge-based)
- Violations are either,
- Routine, often occur due to cutting corners to save time / energy.
- Exceptional, in emergency situations. or
- Situational, one-off violation.
Rasmussen three levels of behaviours are:
- Knowledge-based, relies upon a “mental model” of the system in question. It requires people to think very carefully
- Rule-based, is based upon “explicit know how” i.e. the rules can be explained in words by the person concerned. If you cannot explain it then it must be skill-based.
- Skill-based, automated and taking place without conscious actions or decisions. It is at the lowest level of the cognitive processing hierarchy.
List factors to improve individual human reliability in the workplace
- Motivation and reinforcement (incentive schemes, job satisfaction & appraisal schemes)
- Selection of individuals (skills, aptitudes, training, fitness for work, competence assessments)
- Health surveillance (support for ill-health including mental health problems).
List four Motivation and Re-enforcement methods
- Workplace incentive schemes
- Reward schemes
- Job satisfaction: Factors which lead to job satisfaction (motivators) / Factors which lead to the absence of dissatisfaction (hygiene)
- Appraisal systems: Way of finding out what problems exists within a workplace and give the opportunity for improvement.
Typically behaviour-based safety systems consist of :
- Identification of behaviours which could contribute to or have contributed to accidents
- A system of ongoing observations (as identified and defined) and feedback (intervention);
- Use of the information to identify corrective actions.
A number of organisational factors have been found to be associated with good safety performance:
- Effective communication
- Learning organisation
- Job satisfaction
- Workforce composition
- External pressures - pressures from outside the organisation including a buoyant financial state of the organisation, and the impact of regulatory bodies
