Locus of Control, Attribution Theory, and the 'Five Deadly Sins' of Aviation

摘要

The construct of Locus of Control (LOC) has been shown to predict a broad range of attitudes and behaviors, including risk taking and risk management, the performance of multiple tasks, distractibility, and the subjective perception of time. The above topics and many others have applicability to aviation settings. Over the past two decades, a few researchers have examined the relationship between LOC and hazardous attitudes, pilot errors, and other variables relating to safety and risk management. Most of this work has been correlational and, in many instances, sample size has been quite small. The present paper reviews this work and other areas of research that are not specifically tied to aviation, but have potential relevance to it. These include concepts from attribution theory, such as optimism bias, in which people tend to attribute greater competency and lesser vulnerability to themselves than to similar others. Suggested applications of established and existing research in applied areas of social psychology are examined, with a focus on their relevance to aviation.