Abstract

Korea has a serious social problem in that about 5.2 workers die every day because of occupational accidents despite continuous efforts to reduce occupational accidents. And the occupational accidents are stagnant currently. In particular, the fact that not only machinery or physicochemical factors, which occupational safety and health (OHS) experts have been focusing on, but also human behaviors are also being considered as important causes of occupational accidents in recent years leads to concerns about the necessity of psychology and its role. Therefore, this study tried to identify the current status of OHS field and psychology field through literature. After then, the applicability of psychology to the domestic occupational safety and health act, the introduction for cases of occupational health psychology (OHP) in advanced foreign countries such as how to connect between OHS and psychology, and the interest of psychosocial risks in workplace through the analysis of Korea Occupational Safety and Health survey (KOSH) were conducted. As a result of KOSH survey analysis, the larger the size, the higher the demand for psychological approaches at workplace and it was found that the solution of psychosocial risks was more difficult than other safety and health problems. It was also found that the utilization of professional manpower by psychologists compared to occupational medicine doctor, preventive medicine doctor, nurse, or occupational safety and health experts was low. In this regard, preparing the relevant legal basis to involve psychologists in the workplace, the collaboration between existing OHS experts and psychologists, and the necessity of efforts at the level of the Korean Psychological Association and the department related to psychology in the universities were suggested. It is expected that psychology will find a way to become a subject in occupational safety and health field through OHP.