Sun, C; Ahn, S and Ahn, C R (2020) Identifying workers' safety behavior-related personality by sensing. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 146(7): 04020078, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Many construction accidents are caused by workers' unsafe behavior, and evidence suggests that individuals who are not sensitive to risks are accident-prone. Therefore, identifying workers with certain personal characteristics related to habitual insensitive response to safety risks potentially can help construction managers develop individualized safety training and interventions. Although the methods by which construction managers could identify those workers with specific personal characteristics have been limited, wearable sensors provide an opportunity for construction managers to monitor individual workers' behavior without any interruptions. This study investigated whether and how sensing data about workers' behavior around hazards can reveal their personality traits related to risk-taking behavior. In particular, this research focused on a personality trait well known to be related to risk-taking behavior, locus of control (LOC). An experiment was designed to collect workers' behavioral response to various hazards in terms of gait patterns; LOC was measured using standard instruments. The analysis showed that the degree of gait change around hazards is significantly correlated with LOC score. Additionally, those with internal LOC had more consistent gait patterns over a number of repetitive exposures to the same hazard (i.e., sustained sensitivity to safety risks) than those with an external LOC. These results demonstrate the potential of using wearable sensors to identify workers with personality traits associated with unsafe behavior.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Index terms: | wearable sensor, safety training, safety behaviour, personality, evidence, construction manager, construction accident, exposure, unsafe behaviour, risk taking, experiment |
| Subjects: | decision-making and reasoning, public and environmental health, financial risk, computer vision, occupational health and safety management, behavioral psychology, evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, profession |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Cost Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here