Abstract
Aim: Formulating a definition of safety in terms of humanistic psychology and sociology.
Introduction: Humanistic sociology and psychology are the trends standing in opposition to the positivism in science, arguing that human sciences are fundamentally different from natural sciences and require different research methods. They place a particular human being at the centre of research, not as an object but as an entity aware of its actions and social interactions. The main postulates of humanistic sociology are: antinaturalism, interactionism, subjectivity of social interaction, as well as search for and understanding of reasons for action of the research object. Similarly, humanistic psychology treats a human being as an entity investigating the reality, observing, providing and planning, requesting and using his knowledge to create reality and adapt to it. The lexical safety analysis, description and justification adopting the medical approach was made in the article. On this basis the definition of safety was formulated. On this basis, the article highlights the problems of subjectivity shaped by a sense of safety analysis of reaching the knowing subject information based on their own experience, belief and researching skills. Thus formed sense of safety is very susceptible to media manipulation. Followed by the deductive considerations, conclusions have been formulated as to the conditions which shape the safety of a broadly defined organisation (a community, a state, an enterprise). The method to assess the level of safety in the personal and organisational dimensions has been formulated in the last part of the article.
Methodology: The definition of safety and its implications, in the context of shaping personal and organisational safety, was derived from deductive considerations. In the research, the theoretical-methodological attitude was adopted, originating from the humanistic mainstream of sociology and psychology.
Conclusions: A personal sense of safety depends on life experience, beliefs and the research ability of a human being – the ability of critical thinking, as postulated by Immanuel Kant. Organisational safety can be defined in three contexts, so when using this concept, the context of its definition should be specified.
Keywords: definition of safety, personal safety, organisational safety
Type of article: review article