Citation

Crawford JA. J. Inst. Health Educ. 1965; 3(1): 19-23.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1965, Institute of Health Education)

DOI

10.1080/03073289.1965.10799650

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Our dictionaries define an accident in several ways ranging from the vague to the specific. They say, for example, an accident can be anything that happens, an unfavorable symptom, or an irregularity in the landscape. The dictionary definition closest to the current thought is that of an accident as an unforeseen or unexpected event. This is still too comprehensive for the purposes of this paper and I propose to regard an accident as an unplanned mishap involving one or more persons and resulting in damage to life, limb, or property. Of course accidents are mindless so I shall really be discussing the psychology of the human protagonists; that is to say the developmental, intellectual, temperamental, and emotional factors in people which calls are predisposes them to have accidents.

I shall discuss these variables under for arbitrary headings: age, intelligence and aptitudes, temperament, and socio-psychic factors. ...

Language: en