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Biomedical subjects

A E Dickerson

Publications and source records attributed to A E Dickerson.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Effects of familiarity of task and choice on the functional performance of younger and older adults.

An experiment was conducted to compare the functional performance of younger and older adults on familiar and unfamiliar tasks under 2 conditions of perceived control. Specifically, the relation between age and motor and process skills was examined. The familiar tasks were simple cooking tasks, whereas the unfamiliar tasks were contrived, meaningless tasks developed for this study. Younger and older adults did not differ in the ratings of the familiarity of the tasks, but results from 2 Age x Task x Choice analyses of variance demonstrated a significant age difference for motor and process skills under all conditions. This suggests that older adults demonstrate age-related decline, even with activities that take motivational, experiential, and ecological validity components into account. For the process skills scale, there was also a significant main effect for choice. These results support the concept that perceived control may improve performance, but not differentially for older adults; that is, younger and older adults both demonstrated improved process performance when given their choice of tasks.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1995

Comparing the roles of community-living persons and patient populations.

OBJECTIVES: This study compares the occupational role profile of a large sample of community-living persons without disabilities with the profile of a population of patients with psychosocial or physical disabilities and suggests areas of occupational therapy intervention. METHODS: The Role Checklist was used to compare the roles of 1,020 community-living persons without disabilities with the roles of 292 adults with physical or psychosocial disabilities. Specifically, community-living persons were matched to the entire patient group, a group of patients with psychosocial dysfunction, and a group of patients with physical dysfunction to compare the groups in terms of their past, present, and future role profiles and the value they assigned to those roles. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the types of roles identified. In general, the patients identified involvement in fewer present roles than the community-living persons. Differences between the two groups also appeared in the identification of future roles and value of those roles. CONCLUSIONS: Roles appear to be affected by disability, whether physical or psychosocial in nature. If role participation is seen as part of the occupational functioning of the person, occupational therapy needs to address this area.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

Age differences in functional performance.

We compared the functional performance of 20 young adult women and 20 older adult women on two types of tasks. One type of task was normal instrumental activities of daily living (e.g., meal preparation, home maintenance) that were meaningful, familiar, and well practiced. The other type was a contrived, relatively unfamiliar task of wrapping a package. Although young and old women did not differ significantly in their familiarity with the two tasks, results from two repeated measures MANOVAs revealed a significant age difference in both activities. This finding suggests that older adults show age-related decline with tasks even when those tasks are familiar, practiced, and ecologically valid.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Perceptions of occupational therapists regarding postprofessional education.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine how occupational therapists perceive postprofessional education, specifically the reasons for pursuing or not pursuing graduate education, as well as to examine the factors that seem most important. METHOD: Seven hundred and fifty members of the American Occupational Therapy Association who did not have advanced degrees were surveyed. Respondents were asked why they did or did not want to pursue postprofessional education and, for those respondents interested in graduate study, what factors were most important. The important factors were examined across the levels of age, years of experience, practice areas, and regions. RESULTS: Surveys were returned by 314 members (a response rate of 42%), with 22% indicating interest in postprofessional education and 78% indicating no interest. For reasons not to pursue postprofessional education, respondents indicated that they were not interested in returning to intensive coursework and that a higher degree would not help in the advancement of their career. The two major reasons for pursuing graduate education included personal development and to increase skills and knowledge. As age increased, interest in graduate school decreased; interest was highest in the 3-6 years of experience range. Practice-specific programs was the area of specialization most desired; other important factors were cost of program and clinical work emphasized. CONCLUSION: Results suggested that a relatively low number of occupational therapists consider pursuing postprofessional education. Thus, if graduate education is essential for the advancement of the profession, emphasis must be on clarifying the need for and value of postprofessional education.

Adult↗