Los trabajadores del sector de la construcción suelen estar expuestos a accidentes laborales y durante la pandemia los riesgos psicosociales asociados a su oficio se incrementaron, por el cambio de la dinámica organizacional. Este estudio tuvo por objeto diseñar una intervención cognitivo-conductual sobre el capital psicológico para operarios de la construcción. Por ello, el tipo de estudio se clasifica como instrumental, ya que su finalidad es la creación y diseño de una intervención que sirva a la comunidad y aporte al campo de la psicología. La intervención tiene cuatro módulos y cada uno contiene estrategias de psicoeducación y el desarrollo de técnicas cognitivo-conductuales adecuadas para cada variable del constructo, de acuerdo con su naturaleza psicológica. Esto se hizo conforme a la teoría de Snyder sobre la esperanza, la teoría cognitiva social de Bandura para la autoeficacia, la teoría atribucional Seligman como fundamento del optimismo, y la conceptualización de Masten en el caso de la resiliencia. Se busca que esta intervención de capital psicológico en operarios de la construcción ayude con la disminución en los riesgos psicosociales, accidentes laborales y enfermedades asociadas al trabajo, y aumente la productividad, el desempeño, el sentido de pertenencia, el bienestar laboral y demás variables organizacionales identificadas. Para próximas investigaciones se sugiere que se obtengan evidencias de validez de contenido y se realicen estudios sobre la efectividad de la intervención propuesta. Se recomienda utilizar este tipo de intervenciones positivas en ámbitos aplicados para ayudar a potenciar los recursos y fortalezas de las personas, especialmente en la base de la pirámide organizacional.
Construction workers are one of the populations with the greatest irregularities in compliance with the occupational health and safety management system, which generates problems of occupational diseases and accidents. Specifically, these workers are affected by the psychosocial risks associated with the content and organization of work, which exposes them to cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases, exhaustion, burnout, and mood swings.
The literature has reported that psychological capital, as a mediating or moderating variable, acts as a positive resource that helps reduce the harmful effects of variables that negatively affect various aspects in the organizational context. In the same way, psychological capital can potentiate the action of those who positively influence the workplace. Consequently, an intervention in psychological capital aimed at developing the potential of human talent, focused on the promotion of positive states, could contribute to a decrease in the effects of psychosocial risks and a general increase in occupational well-being.
The main objective of this research was the design of a cognitive-behavioral intervention on psychological capital for construction workers, likewise the specific objectives were a) to establish the theoretical and empirical elements of psychological capital for the development of the intervention, b) design the strategies of the intervention on psychological capital in construction workers and c) design the methodology of application of the intervention on psychological capital The intervention consists of four modules and each one contains psychoeducational strategies and the development of appropriate cognitive-behavioral techniques for each variable of the construct, according to its psychological nature. The design of this intervention was based on: Snyder's (2002) hope theory, Bandura's (1997) social cognitive theory for self-efficacy, the attributional theory of Seligman et al. (1999) as a foundation of optimist, and the conceptualization of Masten (2001) in the case of resilience.
In this intervention, each dimension of the components of psychological capital (hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience) is trained with specific strategies, considering the individual and their context. In addition to having problem-solving tools and modified clinical techniques to increase the effect of psychological capital as a whole and thus be able to show behavior changes.
From Hobfoll's Theory of Conservation of Resources (2002), it is expected that by applying this intervention and by facilitating the development of each of the construct variables, through its dimensions, a chain or synergy will be produced that generates a strengthening of people's psychological capital. In other words, that the positive resources that are developed act in a complementary manner, both for individuals and for organizations, generating positive spirals to contribute to the achievement of the desired results.
To assess the impact of this intervention program, it is suggested to use psychological capital assessment instruments designed or psychometrically and culturally adapted for the population of Latin American operators, for example the IPSICAP-O (Delgado-Abella et al., 2013), tool designed in the Colombian context to measure psychological capital in operational level workers. This in order to carry out pre-test and post-test measures that allow verifying the effectiveness of the intervention.
It should be noted that this research represents an advance for interventionist psychology in Latino contexts, in terms of positive psychology and on the same construct of psychological capital, since in Spanish there are not so many studies that are oriented to positive behaviors and attitudes in this specific population of construction workers.
A limitation of this study is related to its scope, that is, only the design of the intervention has been presented and the processes to obtain evidence of content validity and evaluate the effectiveness of the program have not yet been carried out.
Consequently, covering this need of the program is a clear recommendation as a future line of research.