Humanism Person-based approach

This scenario illustrates a basic premise of the person-based approach. Focusing only on observable behavior does not explain enough. People are much more than their behaviors. Concepts like intention, creativity, intrinsic mohvation, subjective interpretation, selfesteem, and mental attitude are essential to understanding and appreciating the human dynamics of a problem. Thus, a person-based approach in the workplace applies surveys, personal interviews, and focus-group discussions to find out how individuals feel about certain situations, conditions, behaviors, or personal interactions. 

Two of these system variables involve human factors. Each generally receives less attention than the environment, mostly because it is more difficult to visibly measure the outcomes of efforts to change the human factors. Some human factors programs focus on behaviors (as in behavior-based safety) others focus on attitudes (as in a person-based approach). A Total Safety Culture integrates these two approaches. 

Fig. 4 Using Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Disease Modeling. Patient-specific somatic cells (e.g. skin fibroblasts) can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using specific genetic factors. Neuronal cells with specific disease phenotypes can be differentiated to neural stem cells. The development of in vitro cellular models based on patient-specific cells may lead to personalized medicine approaches with minimal side effects and improved pharmacological efficacy.

In this chapter we consider the value of theory in guiding our approaches to safety and health improvement. You will see how a vision for a Total Safety Culture is a necessary guide to achieve safety excellence. A basic principle here is that safety performance results from the dynamic interaction of environment, behavior, and person-based factors. Achieving a Total Safety Culture requires attention to each cf these. I make a case for integrating person-based and behavior-based psychology in order to address most effectively the human dynamics of injury prevention. 

The behavior and person factors represent the human dynamics of occupational safety and are addressed in this book. The basic principle here is that behavior-based and person-based factors need to be addressed in order to achieve a Total Safety Culture. These two divergent approaches to understanding and managing the human element represent the psychology of injury prevention. 

Given the foundations of humanism and behaviorism, it is easy to build barriers between person-based and behavior-based perspectives and assume you must follow one or the other when designing an intervention process. In fact, many consultants in ttie safety management field market themselves as using one or the other approach, but not both. It is my firm belief that these approaches need to be integrated in order to truly imderstand the psychology of safety and build a Total Safety Culture. 

To achieve a Total Safety Culture, we need to integrate behavior-based and person-based psychology and effect large-scale culture changes. The five chapters in Section 3 explain principles and proce-dures founded cm behavioral research which can be applied successfully to change behaviors and attitudes throughcmt organizations and communities. This chapter describes the primary characteristics of the behavior-based approach to the prevention and treatment of human problems and shows their special relevance to occupational safety. The three basic ways we learn are reviewed and related to the development of safe vs. at-risk behaviors and attitudes. 

In this chapter, I reviewed the basic principles underlying a behavior-based approach to the prevention and treatment of human problems. The variety of successful applications of this approach was discussed, based on my personal experiences. The behavior-based principles—the primacy of behavior, direct assessment and evaluation, intervention by managers and peers, and three types of learning—were explained with particular reference to reducing personal injury. 

I believe the idea of a stable personality bias can interfere with the more practical and cost-effective behavior-based approach to managing human resources, which is what this Handbook is all about. If you recall in Chapter 1, the comprehensive research comparisons by Guastello (1993) revealed this personnel selection approach to be the most popular—but quite ineffective at reducing industrial injuries. 

The calculation of indirect COI can be based on different methodologies, and there is no generally accepted standard for all circumstances. The most common approach to calculate the indirect costs of illness is the human capital method. The loss of welfare of a society in the form of nongenerated commodities and services mainly depends on the lost working hours. The method assumes that if a person had... 

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