Research on the Practical Use of Psychological Assessment Data for Safety Education in Railways

Abstract

Safety-related personnel in Japanese railways are required to take psychological tests regularly, the purpose of which is to certify their ability to do their job safely. But results of the tests can also be used to train employees based on their psychological characteristics. In this research, therefore, a system to provide each successful testee （train driver） and his/her manager with a directive comment is proposed by the following method : （1） An error a driver with a low test score is inclined to commit is identified by calculating correlations between test scores and the number of errors he/she has experienced. （2） Comments are made composed of the following three parts : testee’s psychological characteristics based on the test score, an easily made error based on the above correlation, and advice for accident prevention based on psychological characteristics and error. （3） Algorithm for choosing a suitable comment based on testee’s score is identified. The comments of 363 drivers based on the above algorithm are evaluated by their managers, and validity of the three parts of the comments is demonstrated.