Republic of the Philippines

CAVITE STATE UNIVERSITY

Don Severino delas Alas Campus
Indang, Cavite

ITEC 80 - Human-Computer
Interaction 1

SUBMITTED TO:

MS. AIZA E. BIHIS

SUBMITTED BY:

LUMONGSOD, MARK B.

BSIT3-2

“Why are human conditions, such as fatigue, complacency, and

stress affects human factors?”
 Human Factors definition is a discipline that discovers and applies
information about human behavior, abilities, limitations, and other
characteristics to the design of tools, machines, systems, tasks, jobs, and
environments for productive, safe, comfortable, and effective human use.
(Chapanis, 1985)

Human conditions, such as fatigue, complacency, and stress may affect

human factors. If these conditions are not recognized, an accident may occur.
Fatigue is a physiological state of reduced mental or physical capability that
can arise from a lack of sleep or prolonged awake, a disrupted circadian
rhythm, or an increase in workload. In addition, fatigue is a persistent sense of
exhaustion or weakness that might be physical, mental or a combination of
both. It may cause human errors that elevate workplace safety hazards. The
worker becomes fatigued because of lack of sleep, a long period of work, and
insufficient break time. It can affect a person’s memory, concentration,
judgment, and decision-making. Fatigue affects a worker’s mood; they are
easily distracted and lose awareness. In the workplace, it can lead to human
errors and accidents. Fatigue affects a workers of being slower reactions,
reduced ability to process information, memory lapses, absent-mindedness,
decreased awareness, lack of focus, risk underestimating, reduced coordination,
and reduce communication.

According to some research studies, workers who have slept for less than 5
hours before work or who have been awake for more than 16 hours have a high
chance of making mistakes at work due to fatigue, and it may lead to accidents.
Fatigue has also been linked to 20% of major road accidents, and it is estimated
that work-related accidents cost the UK £115-£240 million per year.
Furthermore, 40% of workers regularly operate at three times the risk due to
fatigue.
Complacency is one of the biggest problems in the workplace. It is the most
dangerous mindset that leads to an injury or accident. It is a feeling of self-
satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers. Fatigue and stress
are primary factors that encourage the physical side of complacency. The
chance of an error becomes very real. For example, if a worker experiences that
too many things are happening at the same time, he or she has to divert his or
her attention from one task to another. A worker felt satisfaction in a task even
though he/she did not do the correct procedure. That could cause a potential
injury or accident. It is a sense of being content, unaware of potential danger.
In aviation maintenance, complacency is a human characteristic that develops
over time. Self-satisfaction and false confidence may develop as a technician
gains knowledge and expertise. Because the technician has performed the
operation multiple times without detecting a flaw, a repetitious task,
particularly an inspection item, may be neglected or skipped, which might lead
to mistakes.

Stress is our body's reaction to pressure, demands, or changes. Stress can be

caused by a variety of situations or events in one's life and when we experience
something new, unexpected, or disturbing to our sense of self. Work-related
stress affects a worker's performance, including changes in personality,
judgment errors, lack of concentration, and poor memory. For example, in
aviation, maintenance is a stressful task due to many factors. In order for
airlines to make money, aircraft must be operational and flying, which means
that maintenance must be completed quickly to avoid flight delays and
cancellations. Being an aircraft maintenance technician is very technical work.
Some of them know that work isn't done correctly due to stress conditions, they
are not aware of possible events, mishaps, and accidents that can occur.

CONCLUSION
 Human conditions, such as fatigue, complacency, and stress, may affect
human factors. These conditions can cause critical errors which increase the
probability of injury and accidents as well as work-related incidents. Most
incidents are caused by unsafe acts of operators. Furthermore, these conditions
also affect human performance and productivity in work. Every
organization should consider the human factor because it is important to have
an effective and safe work. It helps workers by having proper condition
management, which helps lower the rate of incidents that occur by positively
impacting and reducing the incidence of human error. Also, it helps in
improving the health and safety of the workers. Organizations that spread
awareness of human factors can reduce human errors and make workers more
conscious of their surroundings.

Reference:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/fatigue.htm

Van Dongen HP, Maislin G, Mullington JM, Dinges DF. The cumulative cost of
additional wakefulness: doseresponse effects on neurobehavioral functions
and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep
deprivation. Sleep 2003;26:117–129.

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/courses/content/258/1097/AMT_Handbo
ok_Addendum_Human_Factors.pdf