Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) Vocabulary Flashcards

Comprehensive practice flashcards defining foundational terms, assessment tools, systems concepts, and therapeutic strategies within the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO).

Model of Human Occupation (MOHO)

An evidence-based, occupation-focused conceptual practice model that explains how people adapt to disabilities and other conditions that create occupational problems, and rediscover satisfying, meaningful ways to live.

Volition

A pattern of thoughts and feelings about oneself as an actor in one's world, which occurs as one anticipates, chooses, experiences, and interprets what one does; refers to the motivation for occupation.

Personal Causation

A component of volition referring to a person's awareness of their potential abilities and thoughts and feelings about how capable and effective they feel in their capacities and efforts.

Sense of Capacity

A sub-component of personal causation referring to a person's assessment of what they are capable of doing.

Self-Efficacy

A sub-component of personal causation referring to a person's belief in what kinds of effects their doing can produce, including self-control to bring about what they want.

Values

A component of volition encompassing what a person believes is important and meaningful, which shapes personal convictions and a sense of obligation to act consistently with those beliefs.

Interests

A component of volition referring to activities a person finds enjoyable and satisfying, reflecting individualised tastes, preferences, and intrinsic motivation.

Volitional Process

A continuous, self-reinforcing cycle consisting of anticipation, making choices, experience, and interpretation that guides how a person approaches and reflects upon occupation.

Anticipation

The stage of the volitional process where an individual notices, plans, and reacts to future possibilities and expectations, shaped by their interests, values, and personal causation.

Activity Choices

Short-term, deliberate decisions to initiate or stop a specific activity in the immediate present (e.g., choosing to go for a walk today).

Occupational Choices

Deliberate commitments to take on a role, acquire a habit, or undertake a sustained project or lifestyle change (e.g., enrolling in a course or starting a job).

Interpretation

The stage of the volitional process involving reflection on the meaning and significance of one's performance and emotional responses, which in turn influences future anticipation.

Habituation

An internalised readiness to exhibit consistent patterns of behaviour guided by habits and roles, fitted to routine temporal, physical, and social environments.

Habits

Acquired tendencies to automatically respond and perform in certain, consistent ways in familiar environments or situations.

Habits of Occupational Performance

The automatic, routine manners in which individuals perform everyday activities or tasks to sustain an aim.

Habits of Routine

Habits linked to daily, cyclical rhythms that provide temporal structure and predictability by establishing how time is allocated across the day.

Habits of Style

Habits reflecting a person's unique, stable character and interpersonal demeanor when carrying out occupations.

Internalised Roles

The incorporation of a socially and/or personally defined status and a related cluster of attitudes, obligations, and actions.

Role Strain

Difficulty in meeting the expectations of a role, often occurring when illness, impairment, or life transitions reduce a person's capacity to fulfil obligations.

Sick Role

A medical-sociology concept formulated by Parsons (1951) describing the socially patterned privileges and obligations of being ill, wherein illness is policed as a form of social deviance from normal productivity.

Performance Capacity

The ability to do things provided by the status of underlying objective physical and mental components and corresponding subjective experience.

Objective Components (Performance Capacity)

The measurable physiological, musculoskeletal, neurological, cardiopulmonary, and cognitive bodily structures and functions that enable performance.

Lived Body

A phenomenological concept (derived from Merleau-Ponty and Leder) stating that the mind and body are a single unitary entity, meaning actions are guided by the subjective, felt experience of performing in the world.

Occupational Skills

Observable, goal-directed discrete actions used during performance, categorized within MOHO as motor skills, process skills, and communication and interaction skills.

Environment (MOHO)

The particular physical, social, occupational, economic, political, and cultural components of one's contexts that impact upon the motivation, organisation, and performance of occupations.

Environmental Impact

The opportunity, support, demand, and constraint that an environment presents to an individual, influencing whether it enables or restricts occupational participation.

Occupational Forms

Culturally and socially defined, recognized sequences of action that structure how a specific occupation or task is performed.

Social Groups

Collections of people (formal or informal), such as families, colleagues, or clubs, that possess expectations, rules, and norms shaping occupational participation.

Dynamic Systems Theory

A theoretical framework proposing that action emerges from the continuous interaction among multiple personal and environmental systems rather than from a single isolated cause.

Heterarchy

A principle where all components of a person and their environment interconnect as a dynamic whole without a top-down chain of command; any component can initiate systemic change.

Emergence

The principle that complex thoughts, feelings, and actions arise spontaneously out of the dynamic interaction of several components, such that no single factor fully explains behaviour.

Perturbation

An internal or external disturbance or shift (e.g., job loss, injury, or pain) that destabilizes an existing pattern of behaviour and prompts system change.

Control Parameter

A change in a single system variable that is powerful enough to shift the entire dynamic and reorganize thoughts, emotions, or actions.

Occupational Shift

A reorganization in a person's occupations resulting from shifts in the dynamic interaction among volition, habituation, performance capacity, and the environment.

Resilience

The ability to withstand, adapt to, or recover from adverse conditions and challenges across the lifespan by problem-solving, altering behaviours, and reconstructing meaning.

Biographical Disruption

A disruption (described by Corbin & Strauss, 1987) caused by severe illness or injury to a person's body, conception of self, and temporal trajectory, challenging self-worth and identity.

Occupational Identity

A composite sense of who one is and wishes to become as an occupational being, generated from one's history of occupational participation.

Occupational Competence

The degree to which one sustains a successful pattern of occupational participation that aligns with and reflects one's occupational identity.

Occupational Adaptation

The construction of a positive occupational identity combined with the achievement of occupational competence over time within one's environment.

Occupational Narrative

A story, both told and enacted, that integrates an individual's unfolding volition, habituation, performance capacity, and environment over time through plot and metaphor.

Narrative Plot

The intersection between the progression of time and the direction life takes, characterized as progressive, regressive, or stability narratives.

Engaging Occupation

A coherent, meaningful set of occupational forms that evokes deep commitment and regular pursuit, resonates with volition, and links the individual to a community.

Continuum of Change

The MOHO developmental progression through which individuals achieve occupational change, comprising three stages: Exploration, Competence, and Achievement.

Exploration (Continuum of Change)

The initial stage of occupational change focused on trying new activities, discovering interests and capacities, and establishing security within the environment.

Competence (Continuum of Change)

The intermediate stage of change focused on developing consistent skills, meeting external expectations, and establishing personal efficacy and control over performance.

Achievement (Continuum of Change)

The advanced stage of occupational change wherein individuals attain mastery, seek extra responsibilities and challenges, and integrate new roles into their total life.

Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool (MOHOST)

A broad, standardised screening assessment covering all MOHO areas across 24 items, completed via observation, interview, and collateral information for adolescents, adults, and older adults.

FAIR Rating Scale

The 4-point rating system used in MOHOST and OCAIRS: Facilitates (F), Allows (A), Inhibits (I), and Restricts (R) occupational participation.

Occupational Self Assessment (OSA)

A standardised, client-centred self-report assessment where individuals rate their perceived competence and the importance/value of everyday activities to identify priorities for change.

Occupational Circumstances Assessment Interview and Rating Scale (OCAIRS)

A semi-structured interview and rating scale for adolescents and adults that gathers detailed qualitative and quantitative data regarding occupational circumstances, roles, habits, and environment.

Occupational Performance History Interview II (OPHI-II)

A semi-structured narrative interview evaluating an individual's occupational life history, past roles, routines, and narrative slope (progressive, regressive, or stable).

Volitional Questionnaire (VQ)

An observational assessment evaluating a person's inner drive across 14 items reflecting values, interests, and personal causation, rated as Passive, Hesitant, Involved, or Spontaneous.

Assessment of Communication and Interaction Skills (ACIS)

A standardised observational assessment measuring a client's communication and interaction skills across physicality, information exchange, and relations during social occupations.

Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS)

An observational assessment requiring formal training and calibration that measures a client's motor and process skills during the execution of familiar, self-chosen ADL tasks.

Work Environment Impact Scale (WEIS)

A semi-structured interview and rating scale assessing how the physical and psychosocial aspects of the workplace affect an individual's work satisfaction and performance.

Worker Role Interview (WRI)

A semi-structured interview designed to evaluate the psychosocial and environmental factors that influence a person's readiness to return to work.

Standardised Assessment

An assessment instrument that adheres to a prescribed protocol with established administration guidelines, instructions, and scoring/rating criteria supported by reliability and validity research.

Non-standardised Assessment

An informal and flexible method of collecting data through natural observations, open-ended discussions, or spontaneous interactions without a rigid scoring protocol.

Triangulation

The clinical practice of validating assessment findings by cross-referencing multiple sources and methods of data, such as comparing self-report, direct observation, and informant reports.

Therapeutic Reasoning

The collaborative, six-step reasoning process through which occupational therapists apply MOHO concepts to conceptualize a client's situation, establish goals, deliver interventions, and assess outcomes.

Occupational Formulation

A clinical synthesis that organizes assessment data into evidence-based arguments concerning a client's occupational situation, strengths, challenges, maintaining dynamics, and possibilities for change.

Validating (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy where the therapist acknowledges, accepts, and respects the client's perspective or emotional experience without judgment.

Identifying (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy in which the therapist provides information about personal barriers, environmental opportunities, resources, and choices to enhance participation.

Giving Feedback (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy where the therapist shares objective observations and insight regarding a client's occupational situation or performance.

Advising (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy involving recommending feasible, desirable options or suggesting courses of action to achieve therapeutic goals.

Negotiating (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy characterized by a give-and-take dialogue between therapist and client to reach mutually agreeable compromises regarding therapy goals or actions.

Structuring (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy of establishing clear expectations, ground rules, boundaries, and organized routines for therapeutic sessions.

Coaching (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy where the therapist instructs, demonstrates, prompts, or cues the client to guide the execution of skills and abilities.

Encouraging (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy of offering emotional support, hope, and reassurance to sustain a client's effort and foster risk-taking in new tasks.

Providing Physical Support (Therapeutic Strategy)

A therapeutic strategy where the therapist uses their own body to physically assist with a task, complete a step the client cannot do, or affirm the client's volition.