Development of an Aviation Safety Locus of Control Scale

David R. Hunter

Abstract: Introduction: Individual differences in locus of control have been shown to be associated with differential risk for accident involvement among industrial and hospital workers. Previous research has also demonstrated that pilots are higher on internality than externality. Hypothesis: This study was performed to assess individual differences on a new scale developed to assess locus of control with respect to aviation safety. It was hypothesized that pilots would exhibit higher levels of internality than externality on this new scale. Methods: An existing safety locus of control scale was modified to place the items in an aviation context, and the items were administered to a sample of approximately 480 pilots. Internality and externality subscales were created, and construct validity was assessed by correlating these subscales with measures of resignation and involvement in hazardous aviation events. Results: The subscales exhibited acceptable internal consistency, and were negatively correlated. Consistent with previous research, pilots exhibited substantially higher internality than externality. Correlation of the subscales with the measures of resignation and involvement in hazardous events supported the construct validity of the scale. Discussion: Differences exist among pilots on the Aviation Safety Locus of Control scale that may be associated with increased accident risk. In its present form, the new scale might be employed as a self-awareness exercise for pilots or as a covariate in research investigating the effect of other factors on accident involvement. 

Keywords: LOC, locus of control, pilots, safety, aviation safety, accidents.

航空安全控制感量表的开发

David R. Hunter

摘要：引言：控制感的个体差异已被证明与工业工人和医院工作人员发生事故的不同风险有关。以前的研究也表明，飞行员的内部性高于外部性。假设：本研究采用新开发的量表来评估与航空安全有关的控制感的个体差异。假设飞行员在这一新量表中表现出的内部性水平高于外部性水平。方法：对现有的安全控制感量表进行了修改，将各项目置于航空背景下，并对约 480 名飞行员进行了抽样调查。创建了内部性和外部性子量表，并通过将这些子量表与辞职和参与危险航空事件的测量相关联来评估其结构效度。结果显示：这些分量表显示出可接受的内部一致性，并呈负相关。与之前的研究一致，飞行员表现出的内部性远远高于外部性。子量表与辞职和参与危险事件的测量结果之间的相关性证明了量表的建构效度。讨论 飞行员在航空安全控制感量表上存在的差异可能与事故风险的增加有关。新量表目前的形式可以作为飞行员的自我认识练习，或作为调查其他因素对事故参与影响的协变量。

关键词：LOC、控制感、飞行员、安全、航空安全、事故。

来源： Aviation Space and Environmental Medicine · December 2002