Interdisciplinary Association Between Biomechanical Analysis and Occupational Psychology: Challenges and Procedures

Abstract

For preventing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), various types of intervention may be conducted, and in particular participatory ergonomics interventions. One of the key success factors in such interventions is the active involvement of the workers. The aim of this summary is to show how biomechanical analysis became part of occupational psychology methodology in order to help the workers (gravediggers in this case) to analyse their movements or “gestures” finely with a view to developing them. The construction of this interdisciplinary methodology in which the results of the biomechanical analysis were used by the workers as means for observing themselves, for comparing themselves with one another, and sometimes even for trying out different strategies for carrying out the gestures enabled gravediggers to be active in developing the gesture and thus in making progress towards preventing MSDs.