• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Psychological Health and Safety / Understanding Psychological Terminology

Understanding Psychological Terminology

August 7, 2022 by Dr Rob Long 1 Comment

Understanding Psychological Terminology and Applying it to Safety and Risk.

Young engineer with pensive face and security helmet

More Detail Here: Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety

All professions (intentionally and unintentionally) create language, acronyms and discourse that create territory and challenges for understanding. This is why we sometimes have trouble understanding a doctor who is trying to explain what is wrong with our own body. We didn’t do the 12 years education (full time) in medicine and so we end up in a position of trust. We have similar challenges when we go to a parent-teacher evening to talk about our children and have similar chasms in understanding about education. We didn’t do the 4 years minimum study on child development, curriculum and pedagogy. We live in a complex and specialized world, with all its benefits, but at the same time the by-products of specialization creates distance between the specialist and generalist. This is the case with risk and safety people too who share their own language, acronyms and discourse that isolates others and creates professionalized power. Understanding this dynamic is the beginning of leadership and engagement with others. I have written on the issue of professionalization before.

https://safetyrisk.net/safety-and-risk-professionalisation/

https://safetyrisk.net/no-secrets-and-the-professionalisation-of-safety-knowledge/

https://safetyrisk.net/understanding-the-social-psychology-of-risk-and-safety/

What often happens with any new education and learning is that one receives new language to understand new things. I struggle to read the complex work of Kahneman and Tversky (Prospect Theory), Gigerenzer (Mathematics of Statistically Reliability, Prediction and Probability) Taleb (Risk and Economics), and Slovic (Psychology of Risk). I dropped Mathematics and Science in Year 9 High School and I struggle to understand complex Mathematics. Fortunately I have a close friend who is a Mathematics genius and I go to him regularly for translations.

Whilst I don’t deliberately seek to bamboozle others I know this is a by-product of 26 years study and I do my best to manage this. So, in the interests of translation and understanding I offer the following clarification on terminology relevant for understanding the Social Psychology of Risk and Safety. (Any of these terms are easily obtained through Google or Wikipedia).

Arational: not based or governed by reason. Neither rational nor irrational but non-rational. https://safetyrisk.net/the-rational-arational-and-irrational-in-safety/

Attribution: The giving of meaning to something that may not in fact have such meaning. Fundamental Attribution Error is common in humans such as giving credence to injury data or superstitious meaning to events. https://safetyrisk.net/risk-safety-and-fundamental-attribution-error/

Availability: The availability of evidence conditions what the human attributes to that evidence. Leads to overestimation or underestimation of probability and risk.

Bounded Rationality: Put forward by Herbert Simon that human rationality is highly limited. Humans are fallible and not omnipotent (all powerful) or omniscient (all knowing). The association of absolutes and perfectionism (zero) with humans is therefore ridiculous. Zero and Infinity are the same. Humans make decisions by ‘satisficing’ that is; coming to a point where they stop collecting data and make a satisfactory decision, sometimes imperfectly. https://safetyrisk.net/bounded-rationalityhow-can-too-much-safety-be-bad-for-you/

Cognitive Bias: There are more than 250 biases that humans use as a part of the way they make judgements and decisions. Most of these biases are unconscious but greatly affect decision making. The idea that human thinking, judgment and assessment can be neutral and objective is nonsense despite what one has been told in incident investigation training. https://safetyrisk.net/20-cognitive-biases-that-affect-risk-decision-making/

Cognitive Dissonance: developed by Leon Festinger. Refers to the mental gymnastics required to maintain consistency in the light of contradicting evidence. https://safetyrisk.net/impacts-of-cognitive-dissonance-in-the-workplace/

Collective Mindfulness: developed by Karl E. Weick and indicates the preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify interpretations, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise. This is not to be confused with the term ‘mindfulness’ as used in Buddhism. https://safetyrisk.net/achieving-due-diligence-through-collective-mindfulness/

Discourse: developed by Michael Foucault. The transmission of power in systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak. In Discourse Analysis the social psychologist seeks to understand the transmission of power in systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak. Language reveals ways of structuring ideas, knowledge, symbols and social practice. https://safetyrisk.net/discourse-analysis-safety-alerts-and-safety-boards/

Discernment: used to explain arational sensemaking with a particular focus on attributed value given to an activity or choice in sensemaking. Used in this book to mean perception that goes beyond the physical and material in sensemaking. https://safetyrisk.net/wisdom-discernment-and-an-ethic-of-safety/

Heuristics: refer to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Heuristics are like mental short cuts (rules of thumb) used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution, where an exhaustive rational search is impractical. Heuristics tend to become internal micro-rules. https://safetyrisk.net/investigations-and-heuristics/

Hubris: indicates a loss of contact with reality which results in extreme overconfidence and complacency.

Mentalities: comes from the French Annales School of History and refers to the history of attitudes, mindsets and dispositions. It denotes the social-psychological and cultural nature of history.

Myth: a fictional half-truth that forms part of an ideology that is embedded in culturally accepted practices. https://safetyrisk.net/understanding-safety-myths/

Priming: is an implicit memory effect which influences response. Priming is received in the unconscious and transfers to enactment in the conscious. The way language and discourse is ‘framed’, ‘anchored’ and ‘pitched’ – primes thinking and judgments. For example, the repeated use of absolutes and ‘zero’ primes cynicism and scepticism in humans. https://safetyrisk.net/anchoring-framing-and-priming-risk/

Psychology of Goals: All goals have psychological effect, goals are not neutral or objective and have by-products and trade-offs associated with their trajectory. Higher order goals (eg. diligence, leadership, love), are unmeasurable, whilst lower order goals (injury) are measurable. https://safetyrisk.net/goals-and-vision-in-safety/

Regression to the Mean: The mis-attribution of meaning to statistics often results in giving meaning to an aberration in data (eg. fluctuations in injury data). For example, attributing value to the coach yelling at the team at half time and winning the game. Or, attributing meaning to a presence or absence of a safety initiative for a lower injury score. The mean score is only known over time. Further read: https://conjointly.com/kb/regression-to-the-mean/

Representativeness: A heuristic judgment based on perception of representational value of some evidence. Often leads to overestimation or underestimation of risk, attributing value to a random event. Also leads to ‘the conjunction fallacy’ that is, making connections between events when there is none. Eg. lower injury score is equated with ‘safety’

Risk Homeostasis: Discovered by Gerald Wilde and infers how humans compensate or over compensate for social psychological arrangements. For example, driving slower in changed circumstances, taking greater risks through desensitization (being less sensitive to risk through habit and repetition). https://safetyrisk.net/risk-homeostasis-theorywhy-safety-initiatives-go-wrong/

Sensemaking: is about paying attention to ambiguity and uncertainty. Developed by Karl E. Weick to represent the seven ways we ‘make sense’ of uncertainty and contradiction. https://safetyrisk.net/social-sensemaking-free-ebook-but-you-need-to-be-quick/

Social Psychology: A branch of psychology focused on the way social arrangements affect decision making and judgments. Not to be confused with organisational (psychology of organisations) or clinical psychology (psychology of individuals). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_psychology

Unconscious: processes of the mind which are not immediately known or made aware to the conscious mind. The term subconscious is also used interchangeably and denotes a state ‘below’ the conscious state. The subconscious is more associated with psychoanalytics and Freud and is used pejoratively (negatively), the notion of the Unconscious is used positively and more associated with Jung. https://safetyrisk.net/the-new-safety-enemy-the-unconscious/

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do - February 1, 2023
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video - January 31, 2023
  • Risk and Safety Maturity - January 31, 2023
  • The KISS of Death in Safety - January 31, 2023
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand - January 31, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Psychological Health and Safety, Robert Long, Social Psychology of Risk Tagged With: education, homeostasis, hubris, learning, psychological, safety psychology, satisficing

Reader Interactions

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them below Cancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,498 other subscribers

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do

The KISS of Death in Safety

Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health

The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’

The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)

No Good Reason to Follow Reason

The Moral Harm of the Zero Cult

Toxic Positivity in Safety Doesn’t Help Anyone

Safety, Ethics, SPoR and How to Foster the Abuse of Power

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Recent Comments

  • Brent Charlton on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Rob Long on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian Edwin Darlington on The KISS of Death in Safety
  • Brian on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Jaise on The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Rob Long on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Linda McKendry on Posture Myths and Holistic Ergonomics
  • Rob long on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Matt Thorne on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Anonymous on Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • Jason on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Admin on How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Rob Long on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Gustavo Saralegui on 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Rob long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Wynand on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • simon cassin on To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Rob Long on Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Footer

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • 500 OF THE BEST AND WORST WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • NATIONAL SAFETY DAY/WEEK IN INDIA 2023
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health

Recent Posts

  • ISO 45003 and What it Cannot Do
  • An Advanced Understanding of Culture – A Video
  • Risk and Safety Maturity
  • The KISS of Death in Safety
  • SPoR, Metanoia and a Podcast on Change with Nippin Anand
  • Behavioural Safety is NOT a Foundation for Tackling Psychosocial and Mental Health
  • The Worst Approach to Psychosocial Problems is an Attitude of ‘Fixing’
  • SPoR Comes to Vienna June 2023
  • The Language of ‘Hazards’ and Psychosocial, Mental Health
  • Welcome to the Nightmare, Safety Creates its Own Minefield (as usual)
  • The Visionary Imagination – Louisa Lawson
  • Heaven ‘n Hell and the Safety Religion
  • Confirmity in Conformity
  • Numerology and Psychic Numbing
  • Thinking of Mortality
  • Safety is the Wrong Anchor
  • Foresight Blindness, Hindsight Bias and Risk
  • Getting the Balance Right in Tackling Risk
  • What is SPoR?
  • How Bias Inhibits Learning in Safety
  • Afraid to Let Go of What Doesn’t Work in Safety
  • When You Don’t Know What to do in Safety, Have Another Blitz!!!
  • Gloves and Glasses Compliance
  • A Case of Desensitisation – What Would You Do?
  • How to Leave the Safety Industry
  • The Mythic Symbology of Safety
  • Dark Waters, The True Story of DuPont and Zero
  • 400,000 Free Downloads
  • Am I stupid? I didn’t think of that…
  • Don’t Look Now Safety, Your Metaphor is Showing
  • Ratio Delusions and Heinrich’s Hoax
  • To Err is Human, You Better Believe It
  • Culture as a Wicked Problem, for Safety
  • Safety Leadership Training
  • Cultural Orientation in Risk
  • The Stanford Experiment and The Social Psychology of Risk
  • Objectivity, Audits and Attribution When Calculating Risk
  • Records of safety activities: evidence of safety or non-compliance?
  • Zero, The Seeking of Infinity
  • Safety Leadership Essentials
  • What Can Indiana Jones Tell Us About Culture
  • Safety as a Worldview
  • The Loathing of Limits
  • Culture Cannot be Framed Through Safety
  • Free Online Workshops
  • Safety Culture–Hudson’s Model
  • Book Launch – For the Love of Zero – in Portuguese
  • Advancing Backwards in Safety
  • The ‘Noise’ of Safety, Silence and Practicing of Mindfulness
  • All Things Must Pass in Risk

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Does Safety Have A Soul?

The Challenging Psychology of Ergonomics

Safety for True Believers

Safety Holistically a Case for Change

Consciously Safe, Unconsciously Unsafe or Head in the Sand Safety

I’m just not that into safety anymore

Towards Dumb

Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?

Safety Surveying What You Already Know

Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink – Improving Safety the SMART Way

The Curse of Cognitivism

Social Psychology of Risk – Body of Knowledge

Risk and Safety Starts with Being?

The Curse of Behaviourism

The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious

So, You Want Culture Change

Understanding Just Culture

New Year Safety Trade-Offs and By-Products

iCue Education Pack to Enable Learning in the SPoR Approach to Risk

The Will To Be and Do

I’m biased, but that’s ok!

Symbols Have Power

Safety Aphorisms and Platitudes

Bad Moon Rising

Affirming Chance

The Allure of Submission

Its all About Behaviours

Suffering – Sometimes There Is No Reason

The Social Psychology of Risk Handbook, i-thou

I’m Concerned That We Can’t See The Safety Forest For The Safety Trees

Perfectionism in Safety and the Denial of Humanity

Zero ‘Arm

Talking Risk Video–The Unconscious In Communication

SPoR Body of Knowledge – A Video

THE INFLUENCE OF VISUAL STIMULI ON THE UNCONSCIOUS

Personhood and Risk

The Less You See, the More Likely to Die

Conforming and Questioning in Safety

I Just Want Clear Answers

Cultivating Resilience

More Posts from this Category

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,498 other subscribers

How we pay for the high cost of running of this site – try it for free on your site

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY