Measurement Scale: A Measure of Occupational Adaptation

The purpose of this research was to evaluate thepsychometric properties of a newly developedinstrument designed to measure a central con-struct of Occupational Adaptation theory. Occu-pational Adaptation proposes that there is a normal process that individuals go through as they strive for competency in occupational functioning. According to the theory, first introduced by Schkade and Schultz (1992; Schultz & Schkade, 1992), the person and the environment interact to create with-in the person a press for mastery over occupational challenges. Once the challenge has been identified, the person generates a response, evaluates the out-come, and integrates the learning that has occurred as a result of this experience. The theory also pro-poses interventions for use when this normal process has been disrupted by personal factors, environmental factors, or both. The reader is referred to Schkade and Schultz (2003) for a recent explanation of the theory. This research focuses on the evaluation compo-nent of the process described above. According to Occupational Adaptation, individuals evaluate their responses to challenges based on an internal sense of their effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction to self and others. This self-assessment, referred to as relative mastery, has been identified as a primary means of evaluating Occupational Adaptation