Human Factors: The Past by Sidney Dekker

Sidney W. A. Dekker, a Professor of Human Factors and System Safety at Lund University, made the following comment regarding the history of human factors in his book “Ten Questions About Human Error: A New View of Human Factors and System Safety:”

Human factors was preceded by a mental Ice Age of behaviorism, in which any study of mind was seen as illegitimate and unscientific. Behaviorism itself had been a psychology of protest, coined in sharp contrast against Wundian experimental introspection that in turn preceded it. If behaviorism was a psychology of protest, then human factors was a psychology of pragmatics. The Second World War brought such a furious pace of technological development that behaviorism was caught short-handed. Practical problems in operator vigilance and decision making emerged that were altogether immune against Watson’s behaviorist repertoire of motivational exhortations. Up to that point, psychology had largely assumed that the world was fixed, and that humans had to adapt to its demands through selection and training. Human factors showed that the world was not fixed: Changes in the environment could easily lead to performance increments not achievable through behaviorist interventions. In behaviorism, performance had to be shaped after features of the world. In human factors, features of the world were shaped after the limits and capabilities of performance. (p. x)

Tomorrow I’ll post his thoughts regarding the possible future of the discipline if its’ practitioners do not face some hard ”truths” and make necessary changes to maintain relevance to the business community – and society at large.