Antoni Wontorczyk

Road safety is one of the most important challenges facing modern civilization. In recent decades, loss of life as a result of road traffic has been one of the leading causes of death worldwide. This makes the social mission of integrating the main elements of the road traffic system in such a way as to make it safe a modern necessity. Interdisciplinary research on improving road safety should therefore cover not only humans (drivers) but also other road users, the road and its surroundings, and increasingly sophisticated intelligent vehicles. In this article, we present the results of research on drivers’ understanding of non-standard road and environmental signs. Non-standard signs are now widely used around the world to improve traffic organization and increase safety. However, there is still little research on the extent to which these signs actually improve traffic flow, thereby increasing safety, and whether they are comprehensible to drivers. Research has shown that unusual signage is more comprehensible when it contains only symbolic elements rather than a combination of symbolic and textual elements. Unlike symbolic and textual signs, symbolic signs are also better understood by drivers with personality traits associated with dysfunctional impulsivity and a tendency to break social norms.

Objectives: The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between work engagement, burnout and coworker support, social climate at work, work-language proficiency and post-migration job skill change, among international migrant workers. Material and Methods: Polish versions of Utrecht...

Objectives: The aim of this research is to present the search for psychosocial predictors explaining the strength of perceived stress in psychiatrists and the search for associations between stress and occupational burnout in psychiatrists. The authors also searched for associations between...

The aim of the study was to find predictors of athlete sensitivity to the positive or negative behaviors of supporters and determine a relationship between athletes’ sensitivity to the positive and negative behaviors of supporters and traits such as anxiety and stress or the strategies used to cope with stress. The sample consisted of 171 professional athletes. The study determined three variables that are predictors of athlete sensitivity to the positive behavior of supporters (SPS), i.e., strategies of coping with stress, such as high levels of coachability, confidence and achievement motivation and low levels of freedom from worry (change R² = 0.15, F of change = 9.78, p of change < 0.001). The predictors of sensitivity to the negative behavior of supporters (SNS) are as follows: a low level of freedom from worry and a high level of fear of negative evaluation (change R² = 0.31, F of change = 38.56, p of change < 0.001). In the context of the athlete’s position, the predictors of SPS for midfielders are as follows: high level of susceptibility to stress and two strategies of coping with stress, i.e., peaking under pressure and concentration. For forwarders they are as follows: high level of worry and coping with stress via goal-setting, while for defenders, the ways of coping with stress are confidence and achievement motivation. In terms of SNS, for defenders, the predictors are low levels of freedom from worry, coachability, and a high level of fear of negative evaluation. Forwarders, who are sensitive to the negative behavior of supporters, are characterized by a fear of negative evaluation.

Safety in road traffic as a system in which there are dynamic interactions between its different users depends on how integrated it is. In this system, drivers are a favoured group of users. Unfortunately they are also the most dangerous group, as research shows. Studying the causes of dangerous driving behaviour is still important. The paper aims to present the psychometric methodology to define the diagnostic and prognostic validity of some psychometric tests used by transport psychologists. Our statistical analysis included the four experimental groups of professional drivers with motor vehicle accident and one control group of drivers whose road performance had no motor vehicle accident recordings. The novelty of the study presented here is in linking the psychometric tests outcomes of professional road drivers (city bus drivers, school bus drivers, taxi drivers, ambulance drivers, fire trucks drivers, police drivers, military vehicle drivers, special vehicle drivers etc.) and their behavioral safety performance on public roads (i.e. causing road accidents, road collisions, participating in accidents but not causing it, and participating in road collision but not causing it) – which aims to indicate the diagnostic and prognostic validity of these tests for drivers. Discriminatory analysis based on Fisher ĝ-function was used to find discrepancies between the specific test outcomes of the road drivers in the control group and the four risky behaviour groups. The identified discrepancies are interpreted in terms of equivalence between the diagnostic and prognostic validity of the taken into consideration psychometric tools used by psychologists for diagnosing road drivers.

The aim of this study was to determine the temperament and impulsiveness profile of short track athletes. Professional athletes (juniors and seniors), under training in the Polish National Team (N_female = 21, N_male = 19, M_age = 20), completed The Temperament and Character Inventory- Revised (TCI-R (56)) and a shortened version of the Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance, Sensation-Seeking, Positive Urgency, Impulsive Behavior Scale (S-UPPS-P). The results proved that skaters obtain higher scores than the general population on the temperamental scales i.e., persistence, harm avoidance and novelty seeking and impulsivity scales i.e., sensation seeking and positive urgency. After the cluster analysis, two homogeneous profiles of short track athletes were determined. The first profile includes athletes with high scores on the reward dependence, persistence, self-directedness, cooperativeness, temperamental and sensation-seeking impulsiveness scales coupled with low scores on the temperamental scale, harm avoidance and impulsiveness scales: positive urgency, negative urgency and the lack of perseverance. The second profile is the reverse of the first profile for the short track athletes.

With the COVID-19 pandemic having disrupted economies, businesses, and individual activities, it is important to examine how different forms of work affect employee behaviour. This study applies work engagement (the key construct in organisational psychology) as the dependent variable and considers its determinants in the form of stress factors and attitudes toward remote work. A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 544 (Female = 58.5%) workers were surveyed: remote (n = 144), hybrid (n = 142), and on-site (n = 258). The selection for the study was purposive. Standardised survey questionnaires were used in the study: UWES-9, Stress Management Standards, and Attitudes toward Remote Work. The obtained results indicate that there were no significant differences between groups in terms of the intensity of work engagement, but work engagement was explained by other variables that are different in each of the studied groups. Relationships and use of social media were the most important factors among remote workers. For on-site workers, the most important factors were control and role definition. For practitioners, the results indicate which aspects of work should be considered in order to maintain high levels of work engagement when employees are transferring to other forms of work.

Drivers’ incorrect perception and interpretation of the road space are among reasons for human errors. Proper road markings are elements improving perception of road space. Their effectiveness relies on traffic participants receiving the provided information correctly. The range of signs used is constantly expanding and unusual situations in traffic require use of non-standard signs or an unusual combination of existing standard signs. The aim of this study was to explore the level of comprehensibility of four different types of non-standard signs. The relationship between the level of comprehensibility of these signs and personality traits of the drivers was also studied. A total of 369 drivers were tested using a questionnaire to analyze the traffic signs comprehensibility and Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). The obtained results indicate that symbolic signs, unlike symbolic and text ones, are much better comprehended by drivers. Men comprehend the significance of non-standard symbolic regulatory signs better than women. Higher level of comprehensibility of symbolic and text regulatory signs is shown by older, better educated drivers and professional drivers. The study found there is a link between personality traits of the driver and the comprehensibility of symbolic regulatory signs.

Introduction and objective. Numerous studies have found that doctors are exposed to stress and burnout at work. In consequence, these processes lead to a decrease in the quality of life. The study aimed to determine whether professional burnout, understood as a cognitive existential process, is related to stress at work and if any of the four dimensions of burnout are its predictor. The study also analyzed relations between organizational-professional and non-professional-social factors and burnout and stress at work. Materials and method. 318 doctors (210 women, 108 men), aged 27 - 8, participated in the study. Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ) was used to measure burnout, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) to measure the variable describing the current level of stress. Results. Occupational burnout is related to stress. Two of its symptoms: exhaustion and lack of a sense of professional effectiveness, are important predictors for the sense of stress experienced by the examined group of doctors. The individuals who are in a partner relationship (but not marriage) experienced a stronger sense of non-professional effectiveness than those who were single. Being in an informal relationship is related to the level of stress and lack of a sense of professional effectiveness. The level of stress, as well as all burnout indicators, are connected with the function of a team leader and having passion. The frequency of taking leave and using social networks is related to the level of stress and burnout. Conclusions. Problems related to burnout in doctors, and therefore people professionally involved in helping and treating, must not be underestimated, as evidenced by the results of the presented study Professional burnout of doctors leads to somatic and psychological problems. Doctors suffering from occupational burnout need support and psychological assistance the same as any other professional group.