Citation

Gyekye SA. J. Saf. Res. 2003; 34(5): 533-538.

Affiliation

Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki, Neitsytsaarentie 8 D 22, 00960 96 Helsinki, Finland. gyekye@sato.helsinki.fi

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

14733987

Abstract

PROBLEM: Reports from the accident literature indicate that accident rates tend to vary with type of occupation. The mining industry has been recorded as the most dangerous with a high disabling injury rate. This observation has been attributed to the extremely stressful conditions under which miners work. Besides, the intimidating work environment in the mines has been insinuated to invoke a sense of helplessness, fatalism and hence defensive causal attributions for accident occurrences. METHOD: This study compared causal attributions between accident victims in Ghana's mining industry with their counterparts in textile factories. T values and Chi-square were employed to test for statistically significant differences between the two groups of accident victims. RESULTS: Findings indicate that there is no difference between the causal attributions for miners and non-miners. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Accident frequency and occupational type have no impact on causal attributions.