TRAFFIC SAFETY AND THE NEW RESEARCH PARADIGM IN HUMAN SCIENCES

New developments in the philosophy of science have led to the emergence of a new humanistic paradigm in some areas of psychological research, which could also contribute to traffic psychology and traffic safety. The new paradigm is based on the concept that human beings exist within an experience of meaning, and can act with self-determining purposes. This paper presents three of its research methods, which have special relevance to traffic psychology. Phenomenological research involves a return to experience, and aims to reveal and clarify the phenomena of behaviour as they manifest themselves in their perceived immediacy. Grounded research focuses on unravelling the elements of experience. Cooperative inquiry focuses on that aspect of research which is not independent of action; it is research with and for people rather than on them. Research procedures and methods depend on the content of what is being studied and on the approach taken towards that content. Traffic psychology concerns human behaviour in a dangerous environment. Technically trained traffic experts often like human beings to behave like machines in the traffic environment, to be more controllable, but road users in traffic do not usually behave like machines. The human science approach can lead to a deeper understanding of human traffic behaviour. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 896859.