Integrating Individual and Organizational Perspectives for Career Development and Change

This article illustrates how traditional concepts of person-environment fit and transition can be adapted to deal with change, and highlights the advantages of an integrated organizational and individual perspective on career development. Using an adapted version of the Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment and a “Me Incorporated” metaphor, the article illustrates the need for both the individual and an organization to consider immediate and future demand and supply factors in relation to the other. In addition to placing a change overlay on training, selection and career development, the article illustrates how recommendations for dealing with organizational change can be adapted for use by “Me Incorporated”.     

A method to improve the hazard perception of young novice drivers based on Bandura’s observational learning theory: Supplement to expert commentary training

Compared with experienced drivers, young novice drivers are more likely to have traffic accidents. The main reasons are that they lack experience, their hazard perception is weak, and their visual search strategy is underdeveloped. Research shows that hazard perception training can improve the visual search strategy of young novice drivers and enhance their hazard perception ability. We propose that a driver's visual search behaviour, like any other action, can be developed by observing the behaviour of a role model. In an experiment based on a driving simulator, we clustered the visual search paths of 20 experienced drivers, selected the drivers with the best visual search behaviour, and obtained visual search path video footage to produce hazard perception training videos. Using these videos, we applied Bandura’s observation learning theory to train 20 young novice drivers. We call this approach “training based on experienced drivers' performance”. To determine the effects of training based on experienced drivers' performance, 20 young novice drivers were given the usual expert commentary training, and 20 young drivers were given no training. The results showed that training based on experienced drivers' performance and expert commentary training had positive effects on the average speed of young novice drivers through hazard sections. Compared with untrained young novice drivers, trained young novice drivers decreased their speed in response to dangerous road sections. Compared with young novice drivers who received expert commentary training and those who did not receive training, young novice drivers who received training based on experienced drivers' performance showed significant improvements in visual search. These results suggest that training based on experienced drivers' performance can help young novice drivers improve their hazard perception, especially in visual aspects. This training method can complement existing training methods for young novice drivers.     

Does age matter? Examining age-dependent differences in at-fault collisions after attending a refresher course for older drivers

The “Driver 65+” course is a voluntary refresher course offered to all drivers aged 65 years or older in Norway. The current study estimated differences in at-fault motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) between older drivers who had attended in the course and older drivers who had not attended the course.MethodsTwo samples of drivers were selected from the database of an insurance company and were sent a questionnaire in the mail. The first sample consisted of 2039 car owners aged 70 years or older who had reported a collision to the insurance company during the last 24 months. The second sample consisted of 1569 drivers aged 70 or older who had not reported any collisions during the last 24 months.ResultsThe results indicated an age-dependent effect; drivers attending the course before 75 years of age had a significantly lower risk of being the at-fault driver in a multi-MVC than older drivers who did not attend the course.ConclusionThe results indicate that the refresher course had a beneficial effect on collision risk for drivers who attended the course before reaching 75 years of age. One possible explanation of this age-dependent effect is that a certain level of visual, cognitive, and motor functioning is needed to implement the strategies learned in the course. However, the design of the study makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions about the causal relationship between course attendance and later collision involvement.     

Driving distraction at night: The impact of cell phone use on driving behaviors among young drivers

Currently, young drivers are more likely than other drivers to use cell phones while driving at night, which has become a major cause of road crashes. However, limited attention has been given to distracted nighttime driving. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the interaction effect of cell phone use and time of day (daytime and nighttime) on young drivers’ car-following performance. Forty-three young drivers engaged in a driving simulator experiment with a within-subject design that included three distractions (no distraction, talking and texting on a cell phone) and two times of day. This paper applied non-parametric tests to analyze the data and obtained the following results: (1) the standard deviation of lane position (SDLP) did not significantly differ at either time of day under no distraction, but it was significantly higher at night on straight roads and large-radius curves after introducing distractions. In addition, participants drove faster and gave less headway on small-radius curves under both distractions at night; (2) texting significantly increased the SDLP, while there was less lateral variation during the talking tasks than under no distraction on simple road sections; and (3) compared with the experienced drivers, the novice drivers drove faster during the talking tasks on small-radius curves, but there was no significant difference between groups during the texting tasks. These findings provide both theoretical and practical implications for related policy makers to enhance traffic safety.     

Driver responses to motorcycle and lead vehicle braking events: The effects of motorcycling experience and novice versus experienced drivers

In many countries, motorcyclists are over-represented in traffic collision fatalities and injuries compared to vehicle registrations. Why drivers may violate the right-of-way of motorcyclists traveling as lead vehicles in front of drivers is empirically examined in two studies that were conducted with a moderate-fidelity driving simulator. The purpose of the first study was to determine if drivers, who also held a motorcycle license (N = 16), drove cars differently than regular drivers (N = 16) around motorcycles. The two groups did not differ on responses to motorcycling braking events, which was consistent with previous research on car following. The second study compared the driving performance of sixteen novice teenage drivers (M = 16.2 years of age) to 15 experienced drivers (M = 32.9) over the span of six monthly simulator sessions. Novice drivers’ perception response times (PRT) to the braking events were significantly longer than those of the experienced drivers. PRTs to motorcycle and lead vehicle braking events decreased over sessions. For all participants, PRTs to the motorcycle events were longer than to the car events. The implications of these results for motorcyclists and drivers with different levels of experience are discussed.     

Distraction while driving: The case of older drivers

As the impairment of older drivers is especially found in perception and attention, one could assume that they are especially prone to distraction effects of secondary tasks performed while driving. The aim of the study was to examine the effect of age on driving performance as well as the compensation strategies of older drivers under distraction. 10 middle-aged and 10 older drivers drove in a simulator with and without a secondary task. To assess driving performance the Lane Change Task (Mattes, 2003) was used. This method aims at estimating driver demand while a secondary task is being performed, by measuring performance degradation on a primary driving-like task in a standardized manner. The secondary task – a self-developed computer-based version of “d2 Test of Attention” was presented both with and without time pressure. The results show that older participants’ overall driving performance (mean deviation from an ideal path) was worse in all conditions as compared to the younger ones. With regard to lane change reaction time both age groups were influenced by distraction in a comparable manner. However, when the lane keeping performance (standard deviation of the lateral position) was examined, the older participants were more affected than the younger ones. This pattern could be explained by compensation strategies of the older drivers. They focused on the most relevant part of the driving task, the lane change manoeuvres and were able to maintain their performance level in a similar way as did younger drivers. The driving performance of the older participants was not additionally impaired when the secondary task imposed time pressure. Overall, subjective rating of driving performance, perceived workload and perceived distraction was found to be similar for both age groups. The observed trends and patterns associated with distraction while driving should contribute to the further research or practical work regarding in-vehicle technologies and older drivers.     

Bus drivers' exposure to bullying at work: an occupation-specific approach

The present study employs an occupation-specific approach to examine bus drivers' exposure to bullying and their trait anger, job engagement, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. A total of 1,023 bus drivers from a large public transport organization participated in the study. The findings show that bus driving can be a high risk occupation with regard to bullying, since 70% of the bus drivers had experienced one or more acts typical of bullying during the last six months. As many as 11% defined themselves as victims of bullying, 33% of whom (i.e. 3.6% of the total sample) see themselves as victims of frequent bullying. Colleagues were most frequently reported as perpetrators. Exposure to bullying was negatively related to job engagement and job satisfaction and positively related to turnover intentions. Job engagement and job satisfaction mediated the relationship between bullying and intention to leave, respectively. Trait anger had an interaction effect on the relationship between bullying and turnover intentions. This study indicates that workplace bullying has context-specific aspects that require increased use of context-specific policies and intervention methods.     

Keep on cruising: Changes in lifestyle and driving style among male drivers between the age of 18 and 23

Despite recent improvements in general road safety levels, young male drivers in most western countries continue to be overrepresented in road traffic accidents. Lifestyle related motivational factors are a key element in the young male driver problem. Based on 379 posted questionnaires completed by the same male drivers at the age of 18 and again at the age of 23, this study examined changes in the relationship between lifestyle and driving style over a 5 year period. A number of changes in car use, driving style and engagement in different leisure time activities were found. Cruising was related to an extrovert social life as well as problem behaviours such as drink driving. At the age of 18 cruising was a part of the normal social life of the majority of the participants. However, while most drivers reduced their level of cruising as well as related problem behaviour over time, a smaller group still showed a similar life style at the age of 23. The study confirmed the importance of lifestyle related motivational factors for driving behaviour among young drivers.     

Patterns of hypnotic response,revisited

It has long been speculated that there are discrete patterns of responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions, perhaps paralleling the factor structure of hypnotizability. An earlier study by Brenneman and Kihlstrom (1986), employing cluster analysis, found evidence for 12 such profiles. A new study by Terhune (2015), employing latent profile analysis, found evidence for three such patterns among highly hypnotizable subjects, and a fourth comprising subjects of medium hypnotizability. Some differences between the two studies are described. Convincing identification of discrete “types” of high hypnotizability, such as dissociative and nondissociative, may require a larger dataset than is currently available, but also data pertaining directly to divisions in conscious awareness and experienced involuntariness.     

Self-regulation of driving by older adults: Comparison of self-report and objective driving data

Until recently, objective data have been lacking on the extent to which older adults modify their driving by driving less or avoiding situations considered challenging; a process commonly referred to as self-regulation. Advances in technology now make it possible to examine driving exposure, patterns, and habits using low-cost global positioning system (GPS) technology to record a vehicle’s location on a continuous basis along with the date and time. The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand the process of self-regulation among older adults by examining their trip-specific driving patterns using objectively-derived GPS measures of driving and comparing these patterns with drivers’ self-reports. The study used a sample of 156 adults age 75 or older, recruited from the greater Melbourne area of Australia as part of the Ozcandrive project, a partnership between Monash University Accident Research Centre and the Canadian Driving Research Initiative for Vehicular Safety in the Elderly (Candrive), a prospective cohort study of older drivers. Objective driving data were collected through equipment installed in participants’ personal vehicles. Participants were asked to drive as they normally would with the equipment installed in their vehicle. After approximately the first 4 months of driving with the device, data were downloaded and participants completed a computer-based questionnaire on self-regulation of driving. Results suggest that there was correspondence, albeit not perfect, between some objective driving measures and their comparable self-reported measures, but a lack of correspondence for others. For avoidance of various driving situations, comparisons were statistically significant for driving at night, driving in unfamiliar areas, and on high speed roads. For each driving situation, participants’ actual driving predicted the likelihood of reporting trying to avoid that situation, although perfect one-to-one correspondence between the self-reported and objective data on self-regulatory driving patterns was lacking. For measures of driving exposure, self-reported and objective driving exposure measures were correlated, but participants tended to underreport their average number of days per week and kilometers per week driven. This discrepancy between self-reported and objective measures is of concern as the ability to measure driving exposure not only contributes to a better understanding of the complex process of self-regulation, but is also a critical element in understanding crash risk.