With the continuous progress of higher education institutions in the field of experimental teaching and scientific research in recent years, the scale and complexity of university laboratories have grown significantly, a trend that has led directly to the diversification of the types of hazardous sources and a sharp increase in the difficulty of safety management. The regulation of individual safety psychology in the laboratory is one of the important parts of the safety management module. However, in previous research on laboratory safety management, research that addresses the psychology of individual safety is lacking. To fill this gap and improve the safety management of laboratories in universities, a psychological structural model for analyzing the psychology of safety is constructed with the help of psychological latent variables and laboratory environmental factors.

First, through an extensive literature review, a range of factors that may influence the psychology of individual safety in laboratories, including but not limited to the powertrain, braking system, environment, mental toughness, and fatigue, were identified. Then, the logical relationships between constituent factors and individual safety psychology were investigated. The interpretive structural modeling (ISM) method was employed to develop a five-tier progressive psychological structure model tailored to analyze safety psychology in university laboratories, based on which the Matrice d’Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) method was further utilized to quantitatively assess the driving force and dependence of each factor, which reveals the relative importance of different factors in the system. Based on the results of the aforementioned analyses, psychological methods, such as rational emotive therapy, were used to guide laboratory personnel to challenge and overcome irrational beliefs, establish a psychological intervention mechanism for laboratory personnel that includes the establishment of a trinity of safety education and training that integrates psychological safety education, an emotional support network, and a mental health test, and provide decision-making support for psychological intervention for laboratory personnel in colleges and universities for them to establish a more rational and positive safety cognitive and behavioral patterns. Intervention mechanisms include psychological and behavioral interventions.

After the analysis of the ISM–MICMAC model, the construction of regulations and responsibility system, safety education training, and psychological intervention are not only in the core role layer in the system of factors influencing the individual safety psychology in the laboratory but also have a high level of driving force, which has a greater impact on the level of laboratory safety management and individual safety psychology. Other factors also affect the psychology of individual safety in the laboratory at different levels.

By introducing psychological latent variables and other key factors in psychology, this study systematically analyzes the logical structure of the influence of individual safety psychology in college laboratories. Accordingly, it establishes a targeted psychological intervention mechanism that aims to optimize the relevant behaviors by regulating safety psychology to provide new perspectives and practical paths for the enhancement of the safety management level of college laboratories in China.