Zoekresultaten

Influencing behaviour for safe working environments

Safety at work The objective of the project Safety at Work is to increase safety at the workplace by applying and combining state of the art artefacts from personal protective equipment and ambient intelligence technology. In this state of the art document we focus on the developments with respect to how (persuasive) technology can help to influence behaviour in a natural, automatic way in order to make industrial environments safer. We focus on personal safety, safe environments and safe behaviour. Direct ways to influence safety The most obvious way to influence behaviour is to use direct, physical measures. In particular, this is known from product design. The safe use of a product is related to the characteristics of the product (e.g., sharp edges), the condition of people operating the product (e.g., stressed or tired), the man-machine interface (e.g., intuitive or complex) and the environmental conditions while operating the product (e.g., noisy or crowded). Design guidelines exist to help designers to make safe products. A risk matrix can be made with two axis: product hazards versus personal characteristics. For each combination one might imagine what can go wrong, and what potential solutions are. Except for ‘design for safety’ in the sense of no sharp edges or a redundant architecture, there is a development called ‘safety by design’ as well. Safety by design is a concept that encourages construction or product designers to ‘design out’ health and safety risks during design development. On this topic, we may learn from the area of public safety. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (or Designing Out Crime) is a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behaviour through environmental design. Designing Out Crime uses measures like taking steps to increase (the perception) that people can be seen, limiting the opportunity for crime by taking steps to clearly differentiate between public space and private space, and promoting social control through improved proprietary concern. Senses Neuroscience has shown that we have very little insight into our motivations and, consequently, are poor at predicting our own behaviour. It seems emotions are an important predictor of our behaviour. Input from our senses are important for our emotional state, and therefore influence our behaviour in an ‘ambient’ (invisible) way. The first sense we focus on is sight. Sight encompasses the perception of light intensity (illuminance) and colours (spectral distribution). Several researchers have studied the effects of light and colour in working environments. Results show, e.g., that elderly people can be helped with higher light levels, that cool colours like blue and green have a relaxing effect, while long-wavelength colours such as orange and red are stimulating and give more arousal, and that concentration and motivation of pupils at school can be influenced with light and colour settings. Identically, sound (hearing) has physiological effects (unexpected sounds cause extra cortisol -the fight or flight hormone- and the opposite for soothing sounds), psychological effects (sounds effect our emotions), cognitive effects (sounds effect our concentration) and behavioural effects (the natural behaviour of people is to avoid unpleasant sounds, and embrace pleasurable sounds). Smell affects 75% of daily emotions and plays an important role in memory, itis also important as a warning for danger (gas, burning smell). Research has shown that smell can influence work performance. Haptic feedback is a relative new area of research, and most studies focus on haptic feedback on handheld and automotive devices. Finally, employers have a duty to take every reasonable precaution to protect workers from heat stress disorders. Influence mechanisms: Cialdini To influence behaviour, we may learn from marketing psychology. Robert Cialdini states that if we have to think about every decision

The participative society. Why social work professionals should focus on environment rather than behaviour

This text is structured as follows. Section 1 concerns the background to this public lecture: the fact that social participation is becoming increasingly important in our society. This is evident, for example, from the way we are evolving from a protective welfare state into an activational, participative society. This development has consequences for the social sector and therefore also for the professionals who work in it. Social work professionals are not necessarily expected to identify or solve participation problems; they are seen as ‘intermediaries’ who enable citizens to take responsibility themselves. Social work professionals are therefore expected to provide the individual applicant with less direct support and to focus more on strengthening the social networks of people and the social contexts in which they find themselves. Section 2 connects sections 1 and 3, but may also be read independently. It is about the fact that social work professionals are not yet in the habit of providing systematic insight into the results of their actions, while policy makers, for example, are increasingly looking to them precisely for this. First of all, I set out the reasons why it is so important to make the products of their interventions more visible, not only to policy makers, but also to social work professionals themselves and to the customers/citizens who depend on them. Secondly, I set out how the results of social interventions can be made more visible than they are at present; and what research can contribute. In this, I advocate a change in thinking: from thinking in terms of the evidence to thinking in terms of the evident. This argument forms the basis of the type of research that is being taken up from within the research group. In section 3, I describe a number of research projects that will be conducted during my tenure. I also set out the main proposition of this address, which states that social work professionals should do more with the knowledge that people’s behaviour is determined to a significant degree by contexts. In particular, social contexts could play a bigger role in promoting citizen participation. At present, social work professionals normally intervene directly in people’s behaviour, such as with therapies for combating problem behaviour. Interventions in a broader, social, context are rare. Why is this? And couldn’t citizen participation be more effectively promoted by these means than through direct behavioural interventions? I put forward four propositions in this regard, and explain each of them in reference to one of the current research projects within the research group. With this, in combination with the general outlines of the research presented in section 2, I hope to provide a clear and inspiring overview of the research that will be carried out within the research group in the coming years. Finally, in section 4, I will discuss the significance of the research group to the faculty of Society and Law at Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, and to parties outside of Hogeschool Utrecht University of Applied Sciences.

Colourimetric analysis of thermally altered human bone samples

At this moment, no method is available to objectively estimate the temperature to which skeletal remains have been exposed during a fire. Estimating this temperature can provide crucial information in a legal investigation. Exposure of bone to heat results in observable and measurable changes, including a change in colour. To determine the exposure temperature of experimental bone samples, heat related changes in colour were systemically studied by means of image analysis. In total 1138 samples of fresh human long bone diaphysis and epiphysis, varying in size, were subjected to heat ranging from room temperature to 900 °C for various durations and in different media. The samples were scanned with a calibrated flatbed scanner and photographed with a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera. Red, Green, Blue values and Lightness, A-, and B-coordinates were collected for statistical analysis. Cluster analysis showed that discriminating thresholds for Lightness and B-coordinate could be defined and used to construct a model of decision rules. This model enables the user to differentiate between seven different temperature clusters with relatively high precision and accuracy. The proposed decision model provides an objective, robust and non-destructive method for estimating the exposure temperature of heated bone samples.

How do patients come to be seen as ‘difficult’?: A mixed-methods study in community mental health care

Across all health care settings, certain patients are perceived as ‘difficult’ by clinicians. This paper’s aim is to understand how certain patients come to be perceived and labelled as ‘difficult’ patients in community mental health care, through mixed-methods research in The Netherlands between June 2006 and October 2009. A literature review, a Delphi-study among experts, a survey study among professionals, a Grounded Theory interview study among ‘difficult’ patients, and three case studies of ‘difficult’ patients were undertaken. Analysis of the results of these qualitative and quantitative studies took place within the concept of the sick role, and resulted in the construction of a tentative explanatory model. The ‘difficult’ patient-label is associated with professional pessimism, passive treatment and possible discharge or referral out of care. The label is given by professionals when certain patient characteristics are present and a specific causal attribution (psychological, social or moral versus neurobiological) about the patient’s behaviours is made. The status of ‘difficult’ patient is easily reinforced by subsequent patient and professional behaviour, turning initial unusual help-seeking behaviour into ‘difficult’ or ineffective chronic illness behaviour, and ineffective professional behaviour. These findings illustrate that the course of mental illness, or at least the course of patients’ contact with mental health professionals and services, is determined by patient and professional and reinforced by the social and mental health care system. This model adds to the broader sick role concept a micro-perspective in which attribution and learning principles are incorporated. On a practical level, it implies that professionals need to look into their own role in the perpetuation of difficult behaviours as described here.

Investigations on the restoration and seismic enhancement options for the jaisedewal temple after the Gorkha eartquake in Nepal

Towards Regenerative Cultures and Metanarratives in Girona

At the age of a failing economic system and undeniable evidence of the effects humankind has had over the planet, it is necessary to look for alternatives to the way we live locally. This article explores the use of designing narratives and metanarratives to co-create imaginaries serving as the needed alternatives. This research starts by considering the historical factors to understand how industrialisation and the loss of traditional practices created a culture of disconnection from Nature in the Girona area, but also looks at why people start now reconnecting with it. The analysis is the foundation for speculative design practices to co-create a new local narrative of connection and regeneration. The project adopted the Integrative Worldviews Framework and used paradoxes to create possible future worldviews based on historical factors and literature. Citizens participated in conversational future-visioning workshops to develop and evaluate their local imagery of the previously created worldviews. This conversation-based exercise evidenced the potential of paradoxes in destructive futures to create imaginaries of regeneration. These imaginaries merge and form future stories. From the future narratives, the practice created cultural artefacts embodying a new culture of connection based on storytelling, traditional jobs, and a mythological understanding of Nature. Finally, as observed at the end of the project, these artefacts allow citizens to adopt them as their culture and expand their current worldview.