Personality factors

Some personality factors have greater impact on injury prevention than injury proneness. The four success/failure categories – failure accepter, failure avoider, success seeker and overstriver, influence people’s motivational state and their desire to participate in a prevention effort.

Optimists and people who perceive a high level of personal control are more likely to be injury preventive than pessimists. However, because of their greater expectations of personal control and positive outcomes, optimists might take more risks and be injury prone. These personality factors can influence one’s propensity for both preventing and experiencing personal injury.

Numerous other personality elements are also relevant, including belongingness, self-efficacy, introversion/extroversion, perceptions of invulnerability, conscientiousness, need for approval, impulsivity and emotional intelligence.

Understanding personality traits helps you best select targets for your safety interventions and develop interventions to improve safety-related thinking and acting.