Zavartseva, Marina M.

Relevance. The paper outlines the main branches of research work and development projects carried out by researchers and lecturers of the Work and Engineering Psychology department, Faculty of Psychology. It studies the contribution of the four heads of the department (professors V.P.Zinchenko, E.A,Klimov, Yu.K.Strelkov, A.B.Leonova) to the development of the main research areas within psychology of work content and work environment, as well as in workers’ psychology. 

Results. The main research results obtained by the department's staff are arranged according to the main areas of scientific research supervised by the head of the department: 1) The 60s and 70s: studies of cognitive and senso-motor processes in the work of automated system operators — the birth of engineering psychology (V.P. Zinchenko) and the revival of labor psychology (Yu.V. Kotelova); 2) The 80-90s (E.A. Klimov) - problems of human psychology as subject of labor: research of professional consciousness, work motivation, mental regulators of labor based on the psychological interpretation of the subject of labor activity and its components; 3) The first decade of the XXI century (Yu. K. Strelkov) - research of transport professions, the formation of a temporal approach in engineering psychology, methods for studying the operational and semantic experience of a professional; 4) 2015-2020 (A.B. Leonova) - a series of studies of occupational stress and other functional states on the basis of structural-integrative approach; problems of organizational psychology and cognitive ergonomics. 

Conclusion. The study singles out and discusses prospective areas of future research, such as psychology of professional health, psychology of rest, psychology of security (of an individual, collective, organization, society as a whole); psychological study of the transformation of professionals’ psyche in the digital age, psychology of trust. 

Relevance. Problems of injuries and dynamics of working capacity in the production are important characteristics in the analysis of work efficiency, as their assessment allows to identify the advantages and disadvantages of work organization and to identify ways to improve them. However, the existing theoretical concepts do not adequately reflect the real working conditions and work tasks of modern types and forms of work. Further research and expansion of existing concepts are required to incorporate the present findings into the practice of improving the work organization and occupational safety.

Objective. The research aim of the discussed stage was to identify key factors among working conditions and work tasks affecting occupational safety of plant employees.

Methods. The design of the study included two directions – 1) analysis of occupational injuries/errors as integral indicators of occupational safety, and 2) comparison of data gathered from previously performed legal audit of working conditions with data of real-time observations of work process. In total, 209 incidents were analyzed on the sample of 2 professional groups of employees - operators of stamping lines and drivers of forklifts.

Results.

1. The maximum frequency of injury incidents in both group happens in the period between 3d and 4th working hours in all three shifts.

2. The maximum frequency of both injury and errors surprisingly takes place during the first shift (6:00 a.m. - 14:30 p.m.): the ratio of % injuries (from the total) during the first shift to second to third is 56%:22%:3% for operators, 50%:33%:6% for drivers.

3. The key specificity of the operators’ work activity was allocated: they are constantly carrying out tactile quality control on a production line. This work task is not regarded in normative documents and in normative assessment, but is the key psychological factor of work intensity for this professional group.

Conclusion. The specificity of work tasks and conditions at modern production includes implicit factors that are not fully reflected in the regulative documents, and which require theoretical and methodological understanding by work psychology and ergonomics.