Some suggestions for increasing the usefulness of psychological and sociological studies of shiftwork

Instead of attempting to reach one correct conclusion on the attitudes of shift workers to shift work, social psychologists should work towards amplification of the meaning of 'adjustment to' and 'satisfaction with' shift work. Single global questions, which are open to criticism on several grounds, may be combined with Job Descriptive Index (J. D. I. )-type scales. These are easy to complete, show good agreement with global questions, and may be used to point out problems in a shift work situation. These problems tend to be multiple for most shift workers: physical, social and personal, but further work is needed to map out their interrelationships in different shift work systems and situations. Sociologists could usefully explore the characteristic features of social settings where shift work is more or less acceptable.