Technology drives Human Factors

How far will the advancements in technology take us? I remember when I first attended college I became passionate about understanding people. I wanted to identify how and why people respond differently to given situations. Technology has played a significant role in helping me to evaluate the data and with the ever increasing amount of new technology, which allows us to capture more and more information, the opportunity to evaluate data, make correlations, and identify cause and effect is becoming more readily available.

Analyzing data has always been fascinating. I remember during one of my psychology classes we were discussing the behavioral approach to psychology; the belief that environmental or external factors influence and shape our behavior. In this approach observation is a key element to understanding why an individual will respond a certain way to a given situation. For example, if there’s a fire in a bedroom one person will run out of the house for safety while another will find a fire extinguisher, return to the fire and attempt to put it out. Identifying and understanding why these two individuals respond differently to a situation could assist in determining what jobs would be the best fit. However, this is just one factor and it doesn’t exclude someone from a career. If, for example, the person who ran out of the house for safety wanted to become a fire fighter, then having the knowledge that they run away from fire could provide insight into the type of training they will require in order to help them overcome their behavioral response to fire.

With the advancement of technology, it’s possible that we could improve our understanding of how and why certain behaviors are triggered. Technology will enable us to analyze more variables and correlate other factors which influence human behavior. Technology will help us to more accurately determine cause and effect. This information will enable us to improve a behavior response so that a person could improve their skill sets and perform tasks that might not otherwise be possible in given situations.

Advancements in technology will continue to improve our ability to apply new methods for assessing human factor variables. These analytic processes will advance our understanding of human behavior and assessment tools like the Data Driven Approach to Hiring Talent, screening process for selecting Private Astronauts, and team development designed to improve organizational performance.

Author: Dr. Eduardo Diaz, helping you exceed expectations.
www.linkedin.com/in/EduardoDiazPhD