A Clinical Study of a Group of Accident-prone Workers

Smiley, James A.

doi:10.1136/oem.12.4.263

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(6 reference statements)

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“…The first group examined comprised those with an excessive number of accidents over a two-year period; the second group was an approximately equal-sized random sample of men from the same factory. Smiley found unequivocal evidence that his first group was more 'neurotic' (as measured by Culpin's (Culpin and Smith, 1930) groupings) than his second, and from this and other findings he described the accident prone as neurotic individuals with exaggerated emotional response due 'either to stimulation of the hypothalamus by impulses from the cortex, or to a diminution of the inhibitory impulses from that area' (Smiley, 1955). These impulses then produced minor imbalances of adrenaline or acetylcholine, which in turn resulted in muscular disharmony with reduced performance, especially skilled or fine performance.…”

Section: The Concept Of Variation In Accident Pronenessmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Most minor industrial accidents are ascertained through attendances at medical or first-aid departments, e.g. those data used by Greenwood and Woods (1919), Newbold (1926Newbold ( , 1927, Farmer and Chambers (1926), and Smiley (1955). Clearly, individuals will differ in their tendency to report such an event, and so the tendency to report and the tendency to have accidents will be confounded.…”

Section: The Statistical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this, for various reasons, they were only partly successful. About the same time one of us (Smiley, 1955) extended this concept to the general industrial field by examining two groups of men selected on the number of accidents reported to factory medical and first-aid departments. The first group examined comprised those with an excessive number of accidents over a two-year period; the second group was an approximately equal-sized random sample of men from the same factory.…”

Section: The Concept Of Variation In Accident Pronenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Concept of Accident Proneness: A Review

Froggatt

Smiley

1964

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

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The term accident proneness was coined by psychological research workers in 1926. Since then its concept-that certain individuals are always more likely than others to sustain accidents, even though exposed to equal risk-has been questioned but seldom seriously challenged.This article describes much of the work and theory on which this concept is based, details the difficulties encountered in obtaining valid information and the interpretative errors that can arise from the examination of imperfect data, and explains why accident proneness became so readily accepted as an explanation of the facts.A recent hypothesis of accident causation, namely that a person's accident liability may vary from time to time, is outlined, and the respective abilities of this and of accident proneness to accord with data from the more reliable literature are examined.The authors conclude that the hypothesis of individual variation in liability is more realistic and in better agreement with the data than is accident proneness.

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Section: The Concept Of Variation In Accident Pronenessmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: The Statistical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Concept Of Variation In Accident Pronenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Concept of Accident Proneness: A Review

Froggatt

Smiley

1964

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

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“…The recent changes in the law affecting British factory medical services and inspection make no mention of the subject either. Here also, therefore, there seems to be a declining interest in the subject from the time when Halliday was writing about the coal miner and industrial medical officers like Smiley (1955) were still pursuing the study of neurosis in relation to the work situation.…”

Section: Alternative Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The decline of industrial psychiatry

Murphy¹

1973

Psychol. Med.

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“…However, Hinkle, Plummer, and Whitney (1961) thought it wrong to assume that all those who are frequently sick are neurotic; most neurotics work with satisfaction (Semmence, 1971). Neurotics are also more likely than others to be accident repeaters (Angeleri, Granati, and Lenzi, 1964), a liability that in any one individual varies in time with fluctuation in degree of neurosis in response to changing external stress (Smiley, 1955). Neurotics have also been found more likely than non-neurotics (Reid, 1960) or than other psychiatric patients (Warren, 1965) to have a previous history of physical ill health.…”

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confidence: 99%

A study of neurosis and occupation

Ferguson

1973

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

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A study of neurosis and occupation. Claims that male telegraphists in an Australian communications undertaking were unduly subject to neurosis and certain psychosomatic disorders as a result of the stress of their work were investigated by sickness absence and environmental and prevalence studies. The absence records of all telegraphists in the mainland capital city offices of the undertaking were compared with those of random samples of clerks and mechanics and, because of excess absence among Sydney telegraphists, with those of mail sorters in that city. Subsequently, 516 telegraphists, 93 % of those available in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, and 155 Sydney mail sorters (79 % of a sample) were examined medically.Absence attributed to neurosis was much commoner in telegraphists than in the other occupations in each capital, and in Sydney telegraphists than in those of other capitals. Employees having such absence were more likely than others also to have uncertified and repeated absences, and absence attributed to bronchial and dyspeptic disorder and to injury. One-third (33%) of the 516 telegraphists examined were considered to have or to have had disabling neurosis, the prevalence being much greater in Sydney (44%) than in Melbourne (19 %) or Brisbane (26 %O). The onset, course, associations, and other characteristics of neurosis are described.There was some evidence that the neurotic employee had increased liability to some other disorders but also that he was more likely to report ill health than others. Interpretation of increased other ill health in neurosis is confounded by the effects of an excess indulgence in habits. An increase in indices of mental stress was noted but some disorders commonly attributed to stress were not unduly prevalent in neurotics. Loss of craft status, monotony, dissatisfaction with job, fear of displacement by machine, group size, and supervisory practices were all thought to predispose to the high prevalence of neurosis in Sydney telegraphists. However, personal and social maladjustment was particularly evident in telegraphists in that city, and the population from which telegraphists were drawn may have been less well adjusted in Sydney than in Melbourne or Brisbane.Though it was possible in general to characterize the employee liable to neurosis, the predictive power of the characterization would be poor. The disorder followed no one pattern. Rather it appeared to be a collection of clinical syndromes which present as a result of the complex interaction of the personality with multiple factors at work and elsewhere over most of a lifetime. In individual subjects the relationship of stress at work to symptoms was usually ill defined, even in cases in which the identified probable factors were mainly or solely occupational. Nevertheless, there seems much to be gained from the establishment of mental health programmes in industry.Claims by unions in an Australian communications 1969). Other aspects of the investigation, on undertaking that the health of their members was occ...

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A Clinical Study of a Group of Accident-prone Workers

Cited by 7 publications

References 21 publications

The Concept of Accident Proneness: A Review

The Concept of Accident Proneness: A Review

The decline of industrial psychiatry

A study of neurosis and occupation

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