Ian Glendon

APPLICATION OF LEISURE MOTIVATION SCALE TO TOURISM

Abstract This study reports a cluster analysis derived from the Leisure Motivation Scale of Beard and Ragheb as applied to a sample of 1,127 UK holidaymakers. In a pilot study of the full Scale the factors of the original research were replicated and an abbreviated version was then used to enable a gap analysis to be undertaken between items thought important and perceptions of the last holiday, while based on this a cluster analysis was undertaken. Clusters had different appreciations of holiday destination attributes.

Blood type and personality

Abstract This study investigated possible relationships between blood types and personality within a normal population. Evidence from published studies claiming associations between blood type and personality is scanty, conflicting, and characterised by unequal cell sizes. This study predicted that compared to those with other blood types, blood Type B individuals would be higher on neuroticism, blood Type O individuals would be higher on extraversion and optimism, blood Type A individuals would be higher on agreeableness and blood Type AB individuals would be higher on conscientiousness. A main effect for gender on neuroticism and an interaction effect for gender and blood Type B on neuroticism were also predicted. Participants comprised a quota sample of blood donors—180 males and 180 females. Thirty males and 30 females from each of the four blood types were included in the final analysis. A version of the big-five factor personality inventory developed by Goldberg, and the Life Orientation Test Revised were administered. MANOVA results showed that the combined dependent variables were not significantly affected by blood type, nor by gender, nor were there any interaction effects. No relationship between blood type and personality is supported by this study. Methodology of previous studies is reviewed and implications of the findings considered.

Evaluating a novice driver and pre-driver road safety intervention

Intervention or evaluation studies represent a small proportion of traffic psychology research. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a road safety intervention by measuring attitudes toward unsafe driving behaviors and risk perception. A sample of high school students (n=133) participated in a road safety intervention program focusing on attitudes and risk perceptions of young people as novice drivers, pre-drivers, and passengers. This sample was compared with a matched sample of students who did not take the program (n=172) on their attitudes and perceived risk toward unsafe driving, both prior to the program (T1), immediately after the program (T2), and at 6-week follow-up (T3). While no changes in attitudes toward unsafe driving were found for the control group, the intervention group reported riskier attitudes toward unsafe driving behaviors from T1 to T2 and T3. No differences were found from T1 to T3 in perceived risk toward unsafe driving for either the intervention or control groups. Implications of the study include encouraging a higher rate of road safety program evaluations, leading to better understanding of the effectiveness of road safety intervention programs and how they may be designed and delivered to ensure lower engagement in unsafe driving behaviors by young drivers.

Cognitive continuum theory in interprofessional healthcare: A critical analysis

ABSTRACT Effective clinical decision making is among the most important skills required by healthcare practitioners. Making sound decisions while working collaboratively in interprofessional healthcare teams is essential for modern healthcare planning, successful interventions, and patient care. The cognitive continuum theory (CCT) is a model of human judgement and decision making aimed at orienting decision-making processes. CCT has the potential to improve both individual health practitioner, and interprofessional team understanding about, and communication of, clinical decision-making processes. Examination of the current application of CCT indicates that this theory could strengthen interprofessional team clinical decision making (CDM). However, further research is needed before extending the use of this theoretical framework to a wider range of interprofessional healthcare team processes. Implications for research, education, practice, and policy are addressed.

Multimodal safety management and human factors: Crossing the borders of medical, aviation, road and rail industries

The rather grandiose title of this collection belies a bias towards civil aviation – the primary substantive topic of half its 28 chapters. Of the rest, six are devoted to healthcare, four to rail, three to road and one is allied to none of these sectors. The rationale claimed for this coverage is that as a safety-critical industry, aviation has led the development of safety systems and human factors, with the other sectors currently progressing well in these endeavours. While the book aims to emphasise the ‘practical rather than the theoretical’, a number of models and theoretical approaches are described. In fact, some models are described more than once, resulting in a degree of redundancy, which while it might be admirable in a safety critical system is much less so in a supposedly practical text. The four sections into which the chapters are divided do not appear to have any particular logic and the whole patchwork comprises eight (quantitative and qualitative) empirical studies, seven case study contributions, five descriptions of some operational aspect of human factors, three chapters review secondary data analysis, three more could be described as ‘lectures’, there is one review paper and one that seeks to market a commercial training product. This unevenness of substantive content is reflected in the number of references accompanying each chapter, which ranges from zero to 38. I found reading the book from start to finish rather tiring, akin to driving over an uneven surface along a winding road, which may mean that the text is most appropriate as a reference collection. However, it is an editing failure not to provide adequate signposting; for example, by establishing a series of interpretations along the way. Neither the somewhat flowery Preface (e.g. ‘The book has to be wrung and squeezed to discern the meaning from all its authors – perhaps suggesting that the reader must work hard to overcome its inherent opaqueness!) nor the brief paragraphs at the start of each section achieve this. Other editing shortcomings include a lack of consistency among the contributions, which have seemingly been lifted from conference deliveries with very little attempt to smooth their transition into print. However, my major complaint would be the large number of basic errors that are perpetrated in 19 of the chapters. Altogether, I counted 70 mistakes, which is unacceptable, particularly for a book on human factors! Other irritations included the very poor quality reproductions of some of the copied material, rendering some of the figures unreadable – more human factors disasters, missing references and the fact that many of the acronyms distributed throughout the book were neither included in the glossary provided nor explained in the text. Lest it be thought that my view of this book is entirely negative, I did appreciate reading the higher quality contributions, particularly Davis et al.’s Calgary Health Region case study (chapter 4), although this could have been combined with the material on the same case in chapter 7, Dell’s analysis of aerial agriculture accidents (chapter 11), De Landre et al.’s RailCorp case study (chapter 12), McDonald et al.’s description of rail safety observations (chapter 16) and the sound contributions on various aspects of road safety by researchers from the Monash University Accident Research Centre (chapters 13, 21 and 25). However, while there is material of merit in this collection, Robert Helmreich’s claim in the Foreword that this collection ‘. . . provides the most comprehensive compilation of information on safety management systems’ is grossly overstated. While the idea of a ‘multimodal’ approach to safety and human factors is sound in principle, it has not been brought off on this occasion. Too many of the contributions are shallow and purely descriptive. A more satisfactory text could have been generated by taking perhaps the dozen or so best contributions and encouraging the authors to expand on the essentials so as to deliver a more effective collection, rounded off by well-focused introductory and concluding chapters.