Integrating Behavioral Science with Human Factors to Address Process Safety

ABSTRACT

Applying the science of human factors to eliminate error across all aspects of process design, management, operation, and maintenance has been a focus in the process safety area for many years. Human error has been attributed as a major cause of many high profile catastrophic accidents around the world. These accidents have resulted in national and international attention, which has led to a focus on improving organizational capabilities, systems, and in many cases, governmental regulations around human factors. This article provides a review of the field of human factors highlighting various topics in the literature, and introduces governmental regulatory bodies currently engaging organizations in a scientific approach to human factors. Finally, the need for integrating behavioral science methodologies with human factors is addressed. This is done with specific focus on how Organizational Behavior Management methodologies can work in concert with human factors to optimize process safety.     

Enforcing cooperation in public goods games: Is one punisher enough?

We experimentally investigate a finitely repeated public goods game setting where, in each round, access to sanctioning power is exclusively awarded to one single player per group. We show that our central ‘Top Contributors as Punishers’ institution – a mechanism by which a player needs to be the highest contributor in her group in order to earn the right to sanction others – is extremely effective in raising cooperation and welfare due to turnover in the top contributor role and to top contributors’ willingness to substantially sanction others. Our findings yield implications for the design of mechanisms intended to foster cooperation in social dilemma environments.     

心理学对经济学的贡献

随着人类经济活动的日益丰富与多样化,以新古典理论为核心的主流经济学不断与现实经济世界产生矛盾与冲突,许多经济现象仅通过对理性人模型的量变扩张已无法解释。认知心理学的发展为经济学考察人类的经济行为提供了坚实的科学依据。被称作＂心理学的经济学＂的行为经济学,剥去了假设理性人光鲜的外衣,强调对行为的分析应以行为的真实心理形成机制为基础,不能以主观的先验假定为依据。行为经济学更适合对我国当前整体经济行为的深入研究。将个体行为纳入经济学分析体系,这对我国构建以人为本的和谐社会具有重要的现实意义。行为经济学修正了主流经济理论中＂自利人＂的假定,吸收社会心理学关于＂利他行为＂等研究成果,不仅与我国传统道德文化相吻合,对当前构建市场经济条件下社会主义核心价值体系更具借鉴意义。     

IMPROVING THE DELIVERY OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AND RELATED SERVICES IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The utility of organizational behavior management (OBM) for improving the delivery of special education and related services in public school districts was investigated in three experimental studies. Each study employed a multiple baseline design to judge the efficacy of an OBM intervention on service delivery problems common to most public school organizations. The problems and OBM interventions were: (1) expanding the range of functioning of school psychologists through performance feedback; (2) training special service teams to develop valuable individual education programs (IEPs) with a behavioral, in-service training program; and (3) ensuring the implementation of a special education resource room program by means of program consultation. All interventions were implemented by public school program managers and staff. In each study, the particular intervention resulted in improvement in service delivery performance. Results of the studies are discussed within the context of the recently enacted legislation for the education of handicapped children and in terms of generality to mental health, business, and industrial settings.     

Pro-social behavior in the TV show “Come Dine With Me”: An empirical investigation

We investigate the influence of social approval, reputation, and individual characteristics on voting behavior in the German version of the TV show “Come Dine With Me”. Five contestants prepare a dinner for each other during the course of a week and evaluate each other’s performance. The winner receives a monetary prize. Evaluations remain concealed until the show is broadcast. Because actual voting behavior remains concealed during the show, a contestant could evaluate his/her opponents as zero in an effort to increase his/her own chances of winning, without risking later punishment in the form of low scores. However, this behavior is not observed in our dataset, which runs from 2006 to 2011. We find that all of the following have a significant influence on the evaluating behavior: the objective sophistication of a meal; the order of cooking; whether a person has already cooked; and the social similarity between contestant and evaluator. These findings help to improve understanding of the impact that reputation and social approval have on economic decision making.     

Communicating Risks and Benefits from Fish Consumption: Impact on Belgian Consumers' Perception and Intention to Eat Fish

Communicating about the health effects of fish and seafood may potentially result in a conflict situation: increasing intake is desirable because of health and nutritional benefits, but higher consumption may also lead to an increased intake of potentially harmful environmental contaminants. In order to anticipate the communication challenge this conflict may pose, the research presented here aimed to assess the impact of risk/benefit communication on Belgian consumers' fish consumption behavior and fish attribute perception. Data were collected in June 2005 from a sample of 381 women, aged between 20 and 50 years. An experimental design consisting of four message conditions (benefit‐only; risk‐only; benefit‐risk; and risk‐benefit) combined with three information sources (fish and food industry; consumer organization; government) was used. Exposure to the benefit‐only message resulted in an increase from a self‐reported fish consumption frequency of 4.2 times per month to an intended fish consumption frequency of 5.1 times per month (+21%), while fish attribute perceptions only marginally improved. The risk‐only message resulted in a strong negative perceptual change in the range of two points on a seven‐point scale. This translated into an 8% decrease of behavioral intention (from eating fish 4.5 times per month to an intention of eating fish 4.1 times per month). Balanced messages referring to both risks and benefits yielded no significant change in behavioral intention, despite a significant worsening of fish attribute perception. The presentation order of benefits and risks in the balanced message showed a tendency to affect both behavioral intention and attribute perception, with the first message component being most influential. Information source did not yield any significant impact either on behavioral intention or on attribute perceptions, independent of the message content. The results from this study provide valuable insights for future risk/benefit and balanced communication about seafood.     

合作式行为主义心理咨询理论述评

合作式行为主义心理咨询是近十几年来在美国学校心理咨询领域兴起的一种新的咨询理论,它强调家校合作,使父母和教师都参与到心理咨询中,与咨询者一起解决儿童的行为问题。该理论以行为主义理论、系统理论和生态学理论为基础,与合作式咨询、行为治疗及生态系统治疗既有联系又有区别。     

论广义模态结构词的逻辑否定及其依据

作者通过比较量词结构、认知模态词结构、规范模态词结构三者间的惊人类似,引出了源于本体论之存在或非存在的广义模态结构词的一般逻辑否定算法,从而为从命题模态到系动词模态再到情态动词模态的逻辑否定演算,提供了一种能行的研究思路。     

宗族对现代社会农民行为方式的影响--对国内近十年来相关研究的回顾与展望

改革开放以来的中国,正直社会转型期,社会政治、经济、文化等各方面的变化为农村宗(家)族势力的复兴提供了条件,宗族又迎来了其发展的"春天",各种宗族势力和宗族现象在乡村抬头,并在潜移默化中影响着农民的社会行为。本文旨在对20世纪90年代以来学者们对此问题的研究做一简要的回顾和展望。     

Psychic distance, psychic distance paradox and behavioral economics: Modeling MNC entry behavior in foreign markets

Assuming that MNCs face a much more complex environment that local enterprizes, the paper begins by discussing what economist Beckerman called psychic distance. After a historical discussion of this concept, I also discuss what O’Gardy and Lane called psychic distance paradox. Then, I argue that these two concepts have a great deal of relevance beyond their original intent of international trade-they are also relevant to FDI and all other formas of international production and exchange. Next, I argue, as I have done in several previous papers, that behavioral economics has a great deal of relevance to FDI and international productive activity; I also argue that behavioral economics can be utilized to describe the concepts of psychic distance and psychic distance paradox. Then, I develop a behavioral economics-based model that can explain the concepts of psychic distance and psychic distance paradox, and their relevance to the modes of entry of MNCs in international markets. In doing so, I argue that FDI and MNC behavior in general need not be explained outside of economics, since, in contrast to neo-classical economics, behavioral economics is capable of capturing the complexities of global markets.