Evaluation of Health and Safety Reliability: . Liao (2001) : .

Reliability is in question, because Pheasant contradicts Laio as he says extrovert's impulsive bahaviour makes them more injury prone. . Laio suggests introversion, however he has supported his case with the firefighter study and therefore reliable on its own in cases of firefighters etc where teamwork may be important but in various other conditions unreliable because in many other instances extroverts or people with type A behaviour are shown to be at greater risk (Magnavita- 1997-drivers with type A behaviour have greater risk of accident). -Pitts (1996) : . Quite reliable- Saldana and Peterson support this stance. .Sociologically this claim is supported by the fact that boys are socialized to be overactive and aggressive and are given guns to play with .Evidence by Saldana and Peterson suugests that boys are more than twice as likely than girls to have sports related injuries and bicycle injuries also more likely in boys. . Biologically, boys have more testosterone and therefore are said to be more aggressive and active and so are more prone to accidents which is supported also by the fact that boys are more likely to drink and drive. . However, reliability is questionable because Liao's study shows quite the opposite.

. Donaldson and Donaldson( 2000) : .Very reliable in the sense that Held and Hein (1963) show that for depth perception to develop self controlled movements are extremely important. Children are for a long time in their strollers and therefore judgement of depth and speed may be impaired while the older people do usually have limited mobility also and failing eyesight which makes the claim reliable.

- Barber(1988): . Quite reliable, the Yugoslavia incident contributes to reliability.

- Riggio(1990): . Reliable when seen in the light of the Titanic incident. There was error of omission (ignored ice berg warnings), error of comission(trying to make a record), timing error (trying to go fast) and sequence error can be seen in Three Mile Island where in a state of emergency workers took disordered actions which only made things worse.

-Fox et al(1987): .Very reliable, Tapper et al (2003) in Food Dude campaign used a similar token economy system which encourage children to eat healthy through regular letters etc from food dude. . Fishben and Ajzen(1975)support importance of a significant other which extends to this study here teamwork dramatically reduced injury rates. Reductionism vs. Holism:

Childhood injuries: holistic because its taking a various injuries into account like burns, drowning, car accidents, bicycle injuries, poisoning and suffocations. Taking age and gender into account also. Youth: holistic because its taking various causes of road accidents into consideration like motor vehicle injuries, DUIs, underage driving and not wearing seat belts/helmets. The study on drowning, however is reductionist because its only taking the effects of alcohol into consideration. Injuries by gunshot wounds has been reduced to only two causes i.e. Playing with a gun and hunting. Adult Injuries: holistic because it takes into account injuries caused by hazardous industries and transportation. When looking at workplace safety a number of factors are studied such as space, population density, noise etc. Accident proneness and personality: reductionist as it seems unlikely that we can define a single personality type that makes individuals more or less accident prone. Types of errors: the swiss cheese model can be seen to be more holistic as it takes four different points into account. Reducing Accidents: holistic as it says accidents can be reduced by changing people's attitudes, changing the environment, changing the law and the workplace. Generalizability: 1. Grunbaumm et al (2002): A large sample of youth between grades 9 and 12 improves generalisability for the given age group. There is also no gender bias, and the findings of the study can be applied to more than one situation, as safety procedures such as the use of a helmet when riding a bike, or avoiding drinking before driving can greatly reduce risks of accidents. However, the study only looked at the health and safety of a specific age group, and within that criteria, only issues looking at road traffic accidents were noted. The results might also contain culture bias for e.g. drinking in some countries such as Saudi Arabia is banned, thus lowering generalisability. 2. Gallager, 1996: Observations made of unintentional injuries from firearms is applicable to youth, and not limited by a culture bias. Gallager also looked at different races i.e. African American and European American drowing accidents, increasing generalisability. However, the prime focus was on youth alone.

3. Oliphant, 1995 (Sick building syndrome): Given unpleasant working conditions, sick building syndrome can occur to anyone, thus improving generalisability. In this way, efforts can be made to identify and then fix the issues through the application of health and safety procedures. The researcher also covers numerous symptoms. 4. Chen et al (1980) Noise: Comparisons between four and three schools in different conditions is a good representation, impacting generalisability positively. There is also sufficient evidence to support findings. However, study only looked at how the noise impacted children and the sample is geographically restricted as only the Los Angeles airport impact was looked at. 5. Sutherland and Cooper (1987): Low on generalisability as different people adjust to shift patterns differently, in their own time. The study only looked at only off-shore oil rig workers and different studies give conflicting results for example, Czeisler recommends that a slower rotation actually reduces stress, and is more preferred. 6. Pheasant (1991) Accident proneness and personality: Findings are high on generalisability as accident-proneness had been described in much broader terms, taking into account mood, illness and personal characteristics and all of these factors are likely to be a cause for one person being more accident prone than another. However, there is the issue that much depends on role of context, and the situation a person is in which is not looked at. Also, the assumption that extroverts are more likely to suffer from accidents is also lacking in evidence, and other researchers have found results indicating otherwise, hence generalisability reduces. 7. Liao, et al 2001 introversion and extroversion: These findings of introversion being more accident-prone do not support Pheasants study and thus we cannot determine the accuracy, and hence generalisability of the conclusions made. Injury data collected over a long period of time is likely to improve generalisability as it is not a Snapshot of what happened in one point in time and the sample size of 171 is large and highly generalisable. However, the factors that reduce generalisability include the fact that the study is limited the firefighters, and that

too from one city in the USA, hence creating the issue of cultural relativism. 8. Riggio (1990) types of errors: Covered various types of errors that can lead to accidents, and the conclusions were generalisable universally as these kinds of errors can be committed by any one person, and can lead to negative consequences. 9. Reasonss Swiss Cheese Model (1990): The four stages mentioned that could lead to an accident are also applicable to any one faced with any circumstance, as it takes into account environmental context as well which hugely affects accident rates. 10. Fox et al (1987) Reducing accidents: The sample might not have been representative for all workers and it is likely that some may take the token economy programme more seriously than others, hence generalisability can be low. However, we can apply this to all types of workers and given the dramatic reduction in accidents for this group, it may be possible that similar results under different conditions could be found as workers are encouraged to be more careful and observant of their surroundings. Cultural Relativism: Saldana Peterson childhood they say bicycle injuries are related to age and gender. The amount of injuries in bicycle accidents increased up to adolescence. Boys are more prone to this(10-14yrs). This is culturally relative; most children around the world, despite their culture, are exposed to the possibilities of experiencing injuries. Bicycle riding is regarded as a universal childrens act. Its also culturally relative as students are rarely ever seen without a helmet, as some countries have passed laws regarding the use of helmet while riding. Alcohol makes major contribution to motor injuries. However this is not culturally relevant as each culture has different attitude towards alcohol consumption for example in Saudi Arabia since drinking is illegal less accidents under this category are found Attitudes towards safety also effect the risks of injury (cohen and calligan). This isnt culturally relevant as different societies have different perception of work place safety. In Pakistan less emphasis on safety in dangerous work environment in the form of lack of supervision and personnel

 Czanders suggests that sick building syndrome is caused by the social dynamic of the workplace. Hence it increases the workers susceptibility to illness. This is culturally relevant as in every society a good working environment will prevent the workers from falling sick. The presence of such factors can lead to lower levels of employees falling sick Chernobyl nuclear disaster is only applicable to countries that possess nuclear energy or contains a nuclear system, or use uranium for energy use. Thus not culturally relevant Accident proneness personality- Pheasant says that personal traits may have some people to be more prone to injury than the others. He says that cognitive abilities + personality traits play a big part in injury proneness for example extroverts have more accidents than introverts. This is culturally relevant as every individual is unique and hence has their own limitation to the amount of potential injuries they are exposed to.