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Henry P. Cole

University of Kentucky

Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and

Injury Prevention

Paper presented at the “An Agricultural Safety and Health Conference:

Using Past and Present to Map the Future”

Baltimore, Maryland, February 2 - 4, 2001

Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches to Farm Community Safety Education

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An educational problem “…educational programs for delivering this [farm health and safety] knowledge are low in number and often of questionable effect.” (Agriculture at Risk ,1989. p. 5)

“It often seems as though relatively little has been accomplished through the years with safety and health education in production agriculture. … the nature of production agriculture, and current social, political, and economic realities, suggest that safety and health education will remain a favored methodology for the foreseeable future.” Murphy, 1992, p. 144.)

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Enforcement has its problems too

“…many production agriculture safety and health regulations directed toward individual behavior are nothing more than educational behavioral guidelines.” (p. 167)

“These instructions ignore individual working contingencies that influence actual behavior by individuals in specific situations.” (p. 167)

“Attention, then, must be focused on the question of how safety and health education might do a better job for production agriculture.” (pp. 144-145)

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Three theories of learningBehaviorism & habits - 1900 to 1960• Learning as response strengthening

Constructivism - 1960 to 1990• Learning as acquiring and organizing

information

Socioculturalism - 1970 - present• Learning is situated in the practice and tools

of social groups working together on everyday task, sometimes called JPF learning

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The A, B, C modelAntecedents - things people can see, hear, feel

remember that cue a particular behavior

Behavior - actions exhibited in the presence of antecedent stimuli

Consequences - outcomes or effects of behavior (behaviors that result in desirable outcomes are said to be reinforced and become habits)

A B C

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Two tales about the A-B-C model

The man who ate too many donuts

• Short term and long term reinforcers• Competition among reinforcers• Why fear of punishment usually fails

The farmer who ran his equipment without shields (machine guards)

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What maintains safety behavior?Driving a tractor with a ROPS and

wearing the seat belt is very rarely reinforced by being protected during an overturn.

What, then, reinforces a farmer for always driving a ROPS-equipped tractor and always wearing the seat belt?

Is it fear of injury? (No it is not!)

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Information processing theoryThe computer metaphor - human brains

are like computers, they receive, process, store, organize and act on information.

Constructivism - Humans unlike computers receive, manipulate, and use information to construct meaning and to create knowledge and purpose.

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Theory of reasoned action

Social psychological theories like these are information processing theories. They describe how beliefs, knowledge, attitudes, motivations, and perceptions of other’s values result in intentions and behaviors. The focus on what goes on inside a person’s head.

The person's beliefs that the behavior leads to certain outcomes and his evaluation of these outcomes

The person's beliefs that specific individuals or groups think he should perform the behavior and his motivation to comply with the specific referents

Attitude toward the behavior

Relative importance of attitudinal and

normative considerations

Subjective norms

Intentions Behavior

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The EPPM modelAn information processing model that describe how

people process “fear messages” and either act to avoid the threat or deny the threat. The choice is determined by the person’s

Perception of his or her• Susceptibility to the injury • The severity of the injury

The person’s belief in • His or her self efficacy (ability to control outcomes)• Response efficacy (effectiveness of the recommended

method for reducing risk and severity of injury)

Example: How farmers deal with news about tractor overturn fatalities and injuries

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SocioculturalismLearning occurs in the practice of just plain folks engaged in the ordinary task of life and work where each person has a legitimate role and contribution in shared common goals

Originated in studies of the real-world social cooperative practices of trades and professionals and how they create and use knowledge effectively

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Instructional approach“Educators can best support worker actions by working within their organizations to develop institutional structures which can respond to issues identified...”

“… efforts to increase commitment to organizational safety should be oriented from within communities of practice by actions that personally involve their members and make safety a part of their professionalism, not an obligation imposed from outside.”

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An important questionWhere do safety beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, behavior and strategies reside?”

Three Answers

Behaviorists - in individual’s habitual behaviors (forget about attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge)

Constructivists - in individual’s heads as organized beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, skills, and strategies

Socioculuralists - in the communal everyday practices of just plain folks and their tools as they engage in purposeful social efforts in which each member has a legitimate role and contribution

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Stories to live by: An integration

culture tales

storiesheard

attitudes

beliefs

knowledge

goals

plans

judgments

decisions

conduct

actions

behavior

effects

outcomes

consequences

How narrative influences and guides behavior

storieslived

culture tales

storiestold

Culture Cognition Conduct Consequences

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A case exampleThis farmer drove an average of three times a day, 20 days per month for 25 years and never had an overturn during 18,000 tractor driving events. He knows people who died in overturns. He believes that in an overturn a ROPS and a seat belt provide great protection. But he says, “ROPS are not worth the cost and effort.”

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The overturn event

During his 26th year of farming the farmer overturns his tractor and becomes a paraplegic. Thereafter he insists that his tractors be fitted with ROPS and seat belts to protect his wife and other family members.

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Interpretations of his behaviorBehavioristic - he was reinforced for driving tractors without ROPS and seat belts

Constructivist - he constructed meaningful representations of the relative risk of overturns and his ability to prevent these events

Socioculturalist - the culture tales in his community presented stories that he lived by (and nearly died by too).

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Another caseMany habits, conceptions and culture tales in farm communities promote the virtues of child second riders.

Few address the risks and consequences

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Another death

When child second riders fall from tractors and die, how are these events usually treated in local rural newspapers and why?

What is required to change these culture tales and who must do so?