Write a summary of chapter 7 and 8 - Book Report/Review Example

YOUR September 27, Chapter 7 and 8 summary Chapter seven begins with a few general ments about what type of risks are usually involved in aviation. The author restates his earlier comment that most of the accidents involved in aviation are caused by humans mis-using equipment, and not the equipment itself. He suggests that this is the same for risks, and then lists a few reasons that people usually take risks. These reasons include things like the pilot being undisciplined, too motivated, ignorant or untrained, using outdated equipment, time pressure, and the benefit outweighing the type of risk (Wood 68).

He mentions that these are not by any means the only reasons people may take risks, but they are a good start. In the rest of the chapter the author discusses ways to stop people from taking risky behavior, and lists the types of attitudes pilots who take risks are likely to have. He also mentions that although he is not an expert, training pilots to be aware of their own negative behavior is a good idea (Wood 75). Chapter eight seems to continue the discussion of chapter seven, except it moves onto punishment and whether or not it is effective in preventing accidents.

The author can not come up with any good reasons for punishment, except as he mentions jokingly "making me feel better" (Wood 79). Instead, he argues strongly against punishment as a way of changing behavior, and says that instead of taking part in a "blame cycle" (Wood 81) we should instead find the errors and figure out ways to actually fix them instead of just punishing people. Works Cited Wood, Richard. Aviation Safety Programs: A Management Handbook. 3rd ed. Englewood, Colorado: Jepperson Sanderson, 2003. Print. YOURNAME PROFESSORNAME COURSENAME September 27, 2010 Article Summary After reading chapter 8, I became interested in what methods would work to correct errors.

I found an article called "A Positive Reinforcement Program in a 19th Century Penal Colony" in a free scholarly journal called Behavior and Social Issues. This article talks about a system used in Australia, which in the 1800s was basically a giant prison for England. This system, called the "mark" system, involved giving prisoners incentives to behave instead of punishing them for bad behavior (Lamal & Lamal 186). Although this may not have anything to do with aviation, it is connected to Woods discussion on punishment as ineffective.

Lamal and Lamal mention that the old system was punishment only, and that it did not really encourage good behavior at all. Instead, it only made people feel less human, which in turn made them more likely to misbehave. A man called Alexander Maconochie, who had served as a prisoner of war during World War I, created an alternative prison scheme which was a "positive reinforcement program" (Lamal & Lamal 186). His system involved marks which prisoners received for good behavior, and which they could use to reduce their sentence and eventually free themselves (Lamal & Lamal 186).

Many important people did not like Maconochies system, partly because of "their legal use of convicts as slave labor" which they wanted to keep (Lamal & Lamal 187). Although the system was stopped, it did "produce desirable results" for the time it was in operation, as "There was less murder and violence among the prisoners and their attitudes had improved" (Lamal & Lamal 187). The article really helped make it clear to me what Woods is talking about with the blame game, and why punishment is not an effective way to stop risk-taking behavior.

Works Cited Lamal, Peter & Lamal, Pauline. "A Positive Reinforcement Program in a 19th Century Penal Colony." Behavior and Social Issues 17(2008): 186-187. Web. 27 Sept. 2010.