The Effect Of Defensive Pessimism On Pilot Safety Performance

In the area of aviation,the flight security is always of top priority in all the flight activities.Even though air freight have become the safest transport method since 1970s,but unlike the increasing perfection of technology and device,human error is still a common theme in the statistical literature of aviation accidents.Therefore,the safety performance of pilots is still crucial to airlines and the civil aviation industry.However,studies of pilot safety performance,whether technical skills or non-technical skills,are mostly evaluated as behavioral indicators that are closely related to operational characteristics,which some in other industries consider insufficient and difficult to measure the integrity of safety performance(Clarke,2006).Therefore,based on the theoretical basis of Borman and Motowidlo(1993)and the empirical research of Griffin and Neal(2006),this article measuring pilot safety performance from two aspects:safety compliance and safety participation.Currently,various research were carried out on the specific factors that influence pilot's performance.On the one hand is personality traits,on the other hand is certain social cognition variables,such as attitudes.As two factors that affect safety performance,there are two possible connections between them and their behavior.One is that personality and attitude are relatively independent,each one of which would affects pilot behavior.The other is that personality may influence attitudes,which in turn guide behavior.Therefore,this article first from the individual point of view of personality factors and social cognitive factors combined to explore the defensive pessimism and flight management attitude on the pilot's safety performance.Meanwhile,quite a few scholars have also examined the impact of organizational variables on safety performance from the organizational level,such as the importance of safety culture to safety performance.And in theory,as a culture,it will have a profound impact on the attitude,behavior and even personality of the individual.At the same time,personality's influence on attitude and behavior may vary with different environments.Therefore,this article also from the organizational point of view,to examine whether the safety culture on the relationship between defensive pessimism and security performance has a certain impact and what kind of impact.This paper conducted three studies through literature review and review.The questionnaire was carried out with 402 commercial airline pilots,and the data were analyzed by the statistical method of structural equation model and hierarchical regression analysis.The results show that in the first study,the differences in the research variables of the pilot's position,age,and flight duration were explored.After statistical analysis,the age and flight duration of the pilot were significantly different in the safety participation variables.Age,flight duration,and position were significantly different in the safety culture variables.Based on Study 1,study 2 from an individual perspective,we explore the impact of defensive pessimism on the safety performance of pilots,and incorporate flight management attitude into the study to explore its role in the relationship between defensive pessimism and safety performance.The results show that defensive pessimism has a positive impact on flight management attitude,flight management attitude has a positive predictive effect on safety performance,and flight management attitude plays a mediation role between defensive pessimism and safety performance.In study 3,from an organizational perspective,we explore the effect of safety culture on the relationship between defensive pessimism and safety performance.It is found that the safety culture moderates the relationship between defensive pessimism and the safety performance.This article has conducted in-depth research on pilots through three studies,exploring the safety performance of pilots from two aspects of safety compliance and safety participation,and found that these two performance indicators differ in pilots'different ages and flight durations,enriching existing research.At the same time,this study reveals the effects and internal mechanisms of defensive pessimism,flight management attitude,and safety culture on pilot safety performance,and provides new ideas for future research.Finally,this study has certain practical significance as it provides scientific basis and technical support for aviation safety management in the selection and training of pilots and pilots' mental health,thus improving its safety performance level.