Articulating an Occupational Perspective

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Articulating an OccupationalPerspectiveJanet Njelesani PhD (ABD), OT Reg. (Ont.) a , Anna Tang OT Reg.(Ont.) a , Hans Jonsson PhD, Reg. OT b & Helene Polatajko PhD,OT Reg. (Ont.), OT(C), FCAOT, FCAHS ca Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science, University ofToronto, Toronto, Canadab Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Divisionof Occupational Therapy, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Swedenc Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy,Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science, University ofToronto, Toronto, CanadaVersion of record first published: 31 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: Janet Njelesani PhD (ABD), OT Reg. (Ont.) , Anna Tang OT Reg.(Ont.) , Hans Jonsson PhD, Reg. OT & Helene Polatajko PhD, OT Reg. (Ont.), OT(C), FCAOT,FCAHS (2012): Articulating an Occupational Perspective, Journal of Occupational Science,DOI:10.1080/14427591.2012.717500

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j OCCUPATIONAL TERMINOLOGY

Articulating an Occupational Perspective

Janet Njelesani,Anna Tang,Hans Jonsson &Helene Polatajko

Within the field of occupational science the term occupational perspective is

widely used to guide research. However, when the term is used it is often not

defined. To address the need for a common understanding that will enhance

clarity and make theoretical understandings explicit, a scoping review of the

definitional literature was conducted. It was determined that definitional

clarity was necessary. This paper proposes a new definition: an occupational

perspective is a way of looking at or thinking about human doing. The proposed

definition is based on how the term has been defined within the literature and

addresses the gaps in previous definitions.

Keywords: Occupational perspective, Literature review, Occupational science,

Terminology

Occupational scientists use concep-

tual perspectives to frame their re-

search. The conceptual clarity of that

research comes from the scientists’

understanding of the concepts used

and the ability to explicitly describe

them. A lack of conceptual clarity

may make it difficult for readers to

interpret and apply the research find-

ings. Within occupational science, the

term occupational perspective is widely

used to guide research. However, the

term is seldom explicitly defined; and

the definitions that are provided differ

across authors. The purpose of the

work reported here was to bring

clarity to the use of this important

concept. We explored how the term

occupational perspective has been

defined within the literature, identi-

fied commonalities, differences and

gaps, and concluded a new definition

was needed. We constructed a new

definition based on common con-

structs of the term as found in the

literature. We hope this will provide a

clear conceptual base for occupa-

tional scientists to frame their work,

thereby strengthening the foundation

for knowledge development in the

science and enabling readers to un-

derstand the perspective in which the

research is situated when interpreting

the research findings.

Methods

A scoping literature review based on

the methods described by Arksey

and O’Malley (2005) was conducted

to explore how the term occupa-

tional perspective is defined within

the literature. Two search strategies

were used to enhance the breadth

of the information found. The first

strategy was to review the published

empirical and theoretical literature.

Relevant published literature was

identified by searching the electro-

nic databases of Scholars Portal,

CINAHL (Ebsco), Wilson’s Database

(Interdisciplinary), Dissertations In-

ternational and SCOPUS (all from

June Week 1 1950 until June Week 1

2011). The search was conducted

j Janet Njelesani PhD (ABD),

OT Reg. (Ont.), Graduate

student, Graduate

Department of Rehabilitation

Science, University of Toronto,

Toronto, Canada

j Anna Tang, OT Reg. (Ont.),

Graduate student, Graduate



Toronto, Canada

j Hans Jonsson, PhD, Reg.

OT, Associate Professor,

Department of Neurobiology,

Care Sciences and Society,

Division of Occupational

Therapy, Karolinska Institutet,

Huddinge, Sweden

j Helene Polatajko, PhD, OT

Reg. (Ont.), OT(C), FCAOT,

FCAHS, Professor,

Department of Occupational

Science and Occupational

Therapy, Graduate



Toronto, Canada

j Correspondence to:

[email protected]

– 2012 The Journal of

Occupational Science

Incorporated

Journal of Occupational Science

2012, iFirst, pp 1�10.

ISSN 1442-7591 print/

ISSN 2158-1576 online

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/

14427591.2012.717500

JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE, iF i r s t a r t i c l e , 2012 1

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2012.717500

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2012.717500

using the electronic search term, occupational

perspective. No methodological limitations were

applied to screen for levels of evidence; therefore,

all types of documents were accepted including

peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed articles,

books, dissertations, and book chapters. This

yielded 85 documents. Based on the assumption

that the majority of literature would be published

in the fields of occupational therapy or occupa-

tional science, the second strategy was to hand

search occupational therapy and occupational

science journals and textbooks known to the

authors. This yielded an additional 9 documents.

All of the texts were accessed via The University

of Toronto’s libraries and databases. Microsoft

Excel was used to file and manage the retrieved

documents.

All retrieved documents (94) were then screened

for inclusion for review using the following

inclusion/exclusion criteria. Inclusion criteria:

documents that contained the search term at least

once within the title and/or as a keyword and/or

within the body of the text, were published in

English, in any country, in any year, and were

accessible to the authors. Exclusion criteria were:

documents that contained the term therapy

inserted between occupational and perspective

(viz. occupational therapy perspective) and docu-

ments that were a review of a book or another

article already included in the search.

Initially the inclusion and exclusion criteria were

applied to titles, abstracts, tables of contents and

indexes. Through this process, 26 articles were

excluded including four book reviews, one docu-

ment that contained the term occupational ther-

apy perspective, four documents not written in

English and 17 that were not accessible to the

authors. The remaining 68 documents were read

in full to ensure that the inclusion and exclusion

criteria applied to the entire document. At this

stage another 10 documents were excluded due to

the search term not appearing within the docu-

ment. Finally, 58 documents were retained to be

included in the review, comprising 41 peer-

reviewed articles, 2 non-peer reviewed articles,

8 doctoral theses, 1 master’s thesis, and 6 books.

For all 58 documents, key information was

extracted and entered into an electronic excel

spreadsheet, including: title, source and year of

publication; the authors’ names, educational back-

ground and associated discipline; the country and

type of institution with which the authors were

associated; the content foci; the document type

(e.g., article, thesis or book) and, where appro-

priate, the research methodology (e.g., qualitative,

quantitative) and methods. The definitions of the

term occupational perspective found within the

documents were also entered into the spreadsheet.

Together, this information formed the basis for our

analyses, which included basic counts for descrip-

tive information, and content analysis to identify

the key constructs in the definitions/descriptions

of the term occupational perspective. The content

analysis involved reading through the definitions

or descriptions found and assigning inductive

codes to the definitions/descriptions. These codes

were then categorized into key constructs.

Documents descriptionThe 58 documents included in this review con-

sisted of 43 articles, 9 theses, and 6 books, written

primarily by individuals employed at/associated

with a university (55), the majority of whom were

occupational therapists (37) who hold a doctoral

degree (22). None of the 55 authors were

particularly prolific on the topic; having at most

2 publications of relevance. The 43 articles were

mainly published in journals from; Australia (13),

Canada (10), USA (8) or a Scandinavian country

(5). Most of the articles were peer-reviewed (41)

and were published in occupational therapy (21)

or occupational science (11) journals.

Findings

Range and scope of an occupational perspectiveThe term occupational perspective first appeared

in 1953 within the political science literature, in

an article reporting on the social tensions among

businessmen and bureaucrats. Although not ex-

plicitly defined, the term occupational perspec-

tive encompassed the nature of occupation as it

related to paid work (Lane, 1953). The idea that

an occupational perspective only encompassed

the nature of occupation as it related to paid work

JANET NJELESANI , ANNA TANG, HANS JONSSON & HELENE POLATAJKO

2 JOURNAL OF OCCUPATIONAL SCIENCE, iF i r s t a r t i c l e , 2012

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was used by researchers from a broad range of

disciplines including business, economics, sociol-

ogy, psychology, journalism, statistics, tourism,

criminology, and geography. This application of

the term occupational perspective continued from

1953 to the mid 1990s.

It was not until 1996 that the term occupational

perspective appeared in reference to occupations

other than paid work and this occurred in the

occupational science and occupational therapy

literature. That year both Hocking and Kendall

published work that had used the term to frame

their research; Hocking (1996) with individuals

entering long-term care and Kendall (1996)

working with adults preparing for retirement.

From 1996 on, the term began to be used

increasingly in the occupational science and

occupational therapy literature, with the majority

of documents (32) using the term being pub-

lished after the year 2005. By that time the use of

the term had all but disappeared from the broader

literature.

For the most part, the term occupational

perspective is neither defined nor described. In

44 of the 58 documents the term occupational

perspective appeared only in the title or the

abstract; with no further use of the term in the

document. Very few of the documents were

focused on an examination of the concept per

se. Rather, they reported on work guided by an

occupational perspective. For the most part this

was qualitative inquiry (14) using interviewing

(12) as the method of data collection. The

populations studied varied greatly. They included

children with disabilities (2), adults with mental

illness (7), adults who had experienced a variety

of medical conditions (5) including stroke, multi-

ple sclerosis and hearing loss. Six studies ex-

plored the occupational perspective of people

transitioning to or having reached retirement age.

Of the 14 documents providing a definition or

description of occupational perspective, 10 cre-

ated their own, 6 cited from another source, and 2

did both (see Table 1). Townsend (1997) was the

first to explicitly define the term: ‘‘a perspective

attending to other forms, nature, locations, pro-

cesses, and other features of occupation as people

interact in the context of their environment’’

(p. 20). This definition was, however, not taken

up in future work. Rather, all the definitions/

descriptions appearing in these documents are

unique, although commonalties are apparent.

Differing constructs of an occupational perspectiveOur analysis revealed that the definitions or

descriptions provided differ markedly from one

another. The first point of difference was whether

an occupational perspective is situated at the

micro-level (individual) or at a more macro-level

(society at large). For example, Hemmingsson

and Jonsson (2005), writing about the concept of

participation in the International Classification of

Functioning, Disability and Health, stressed that

an occupational perspective is held at the level of

the individual; ‘‘Important aspects of an occupa-

tional perspective include: 1) The subjective

experience of meaning, 2) The subjective experi-

ence of autonomy and self-determination’’

(p. 572). In contrast, Whiteford and Townsend

(2011), writing about the construct of occupa-

tional justice, viewed an occupational perspective

as related to the broader societal context; ‘‘An

occupational perspective includes examining

what individuals do every day on their own and

collectively; how people live and seek identity;

how people organize their habits, routines, and

choices to promote health; and how systems

support (or do not support) the occupations

people want or need to do to be healthy’’ (p. 67).

Another difference found was in how the term

perspective was defined. Townsend (1997) char-

acterized the term perspective using the words,

view and eye, which is in line with the definition

provided by the Oxford Dictionary (2012): ‘‘A

particular attitude towards or way of regarding

something; a point of view’’. However, other

authors used the term belief in their description

of an occupational perspective. For example,

Kirsch et al. (2009) refer to an occupational

perspective as ‘‘a belief in occupational engage-

ment as a basic need and a determinant of health

and quality of life’’ (p. 393). The word belief is



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Table 1: Occupational Perspective: Definitions and Descriptions

Document Created by document authors Cited from another source

Kendall, 1996 None indicated ‘‘The occupational perspective is

described in the definition of wellness

given by Dossey and Guzetta (1989),

Wellness is one’s philosophy of living

where there is awareness of purpose,

meaning, and unique striving toward

reaching human potentials’’ (pp. 69�84).

Dossey, B., & Guzzetta, C. (1989).

Wellness, values, clarification and

motivation. Holistic health promotion.

A guide for practice Rockville: Aspen

Publishers.

Townsend, 1997 ‘‘A perspective attending to other forms,

nature, locations, processes, and other

features of occupation as people interact

in the context of their environment.’’

(p. 20).

‘‘Each feature is discussed from an

occupational perspective, the active

process of occupying ourselves is the

way we learn about our bodies, minds,

and spirits as we proceed through life’’

(p. 20). Bateson, M. C. (1994).

Peripheral visions: Learning along the

way. New York: Harper Collins.

Wilcock, 1998 ‘‘A particular view of health from the

perspective of humans as occupational

beings.’’ (p. 97).

None indicated

Whiteford, 2000 ‘‘An occupational perspective is a

requisite to considering the occupational

needs of people as individuals and

within society, separately from

consideration of how these can be met

through the provision of therapeutic

interventions.’’ (p. 203).

‘‘To view the world through occupational

eyes, seeing phenomena that have

previously been viewed from other

perspectives (for example, medical,

psychological and social) as essentially

occupational phenomena’’ (p. 203).

Townsend, E. (1999). Enabling

occupation in the 21st century: Making

good intentions a reality. Australian

Occupational Therapy Journal, 46,

147�159.

George, Wilcock, &

Stanley, 2001

None indicated ‘‘To learn the meaning of occupation for

an individual’’ (p. 460). Wilcock, A. A.

(1998). An occupational perspective of

health. Thorofare, NJ: Slack.

Wilcock, 2001 ‘‘An occupational perspective does not

provide a prescriptive programme of

therapy. It does provide a way of

thinking in whatever area of practice

you pursue; a way to consider individual

and community needs; a way to

approach individuals, families,

communities, doctors, bureaucrats and

politicians; and a way to enable health

through occupation’’ (p. 417).

None indicated



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Table 1 (Continued )


Davis, 2004 ‘‘The occupational perspective draws no

such artificial boundaries between paid

work and unpaid work, or the

occupations of the workplace and those

of daily life. As occupation-oriented

therapists, we understand the role that

various forms of occupation, including

paid work, play in people’s lives, and the

centrality of occupation to health and

well-being. We believe that the meaning

and purpose of people’s occupations can

only be completely understood when

viewed in the context of their unfolding

lives and the other occupations they

perform’’ (p. 19).

None indicated

Hemmingsson &

Jonsson, 2005

‘‘Refers to a body of knowledge

developed in the literature of

occupational therapy . . .An

occupational perspective focuses on the

ordinary things that people do and

occupational aspects of importance for

health and development . . . Important

aspects of an occupational perspective

include: 1) The subjective experience of

meaning, 2) The subjective experience

of autonomy and self-determination 3)

The complex interrelationships between

different kinds of occupation’’ (p. 572).

None indicated

Laliberte Rudman,

Hebert, & Reid, 2005

‘‘A comprehensive understanding of

occupation and its enablement demands

that we take on the responsibility of

conducting research framed within an

occupational perspective’’ (p. 150).

None indicated

Fok, Shaw, Jennings, &

Cheesman, 2009

None indicated ‘‘Thus, an occupational perspective

entails a detailed description of the

occupation itself, the requirements and

demands, the available resources to

support individuals or groups, and

the work contexts (e.g. workplace)’’

(p. 370). Shaw, L., & Lysaght, R. (2008).

Cognitive and behavioural demands of

work. In K. Jacobs, Ergonomics for

therapists (3rd ed., pp. 103�122).

Missouri: Elsevier.

Kirsh et al., 2009 ‘‘A belief in occupational engagement as

a basic need and a determinant of health

and quality of life’’ (p. 393).

None indicated



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defined in the Oxford Dictionary (2012) as ‘‘the

acceptance that something exists or is true with-

out evidence’’.

Key common constructs of an occupationalperspectiveA number of common dimensions were asso-

ciated with the term occupational perspective: that

it can apply at the level of individual doing

through to societal doing; considers contextual

factors; assumes occupations are connected to

health and well-being; attends to the form,

function, and meaning of occupations; and can

contribute to being, becoming, and belonging.

Individual through to societal doing

While some authors, see discussion above, sug-

gest that the term should apply at a particular

level alone, in many instances the term occupa-

tional perspective was described as having rele-

vance at multiple levels from the individual

through to society at large. The following quotes

illustrate the broad range of needs considered;

‘‘A way to consider individual and community

needs; a way to approach individuals, families,

Table 1 (Continued )


Huot & Laliberte

Rudman, 2011

‘‘An occupational perspective involves

highlighting how occupations are

connected with doing, being, becoming

and belonging, whether implicitly or

explicitly. The incorporation of being

and becoming into an occupational

perspective emerged from Wilcock’s

(1998a, 1998b) scholarship, which

extends the notion of occupation beyond

the ‘doing’ of purposeful or goal-

directed activities to address individuals’

past, current and anticipated sense of

self’’ (p. 69).

None indicated

Pettican & Prior, 2011 None indicated ‘‘The centrality of work in fulfilling basic

human needs and the importance of

acknowledging the diversity of people’s

experiences of the retirement transition’’

(p. 13). Jonsson, H., Borell, L., Sadlo, G.

(2000). Retirement: An occupational

transition with consequences for

temporality, balance and meaning of

occupation. Journal of Occupational

Science, 7, 29�37.

Whiteford &

Townsend, 2011

‘‘An occupational perspective includes

examining what individuals do every

day on their own and collectively; how

people live and seek identity; how

people organize their habits, routines,

and choices to promote health; and how

systems support (or do not support) the

occupations people want or need to do

to be healthy’’ (p. 67).

None indicated



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communities, doctors, bureaucrats and politi-

cians’’ (Wilcock, 2001, p. 417) and ‘‘considering

the occupational needs of people as individuals

and within society’’ (Whiteford, 2000, p. 203).

Contextual factors

Consideration of the context in which occupa-

tions are situated appeared to be inherent to an

occupational perspective. Not only were people

seen to ‘‘interact in the context of their environ-

ment’’ (Townsend, 1997, p. 20), but the influence

that occupation has on the context and vice versa

was seen to be important when taking an

occupational perspective as illustrated in the

following; ‘‘We believe that the meaning and

purpose of people’s occupations can only be

completely understood when viewed in the con-

text of their unfolding lives and the other

occupations they perform’’ (Davis, 2004).

Occupations are connected to health and well-being

Examination of the ways the term was applied

revealed that an occupational perspective encom-

passes a common assumption that occupation

is ‘‘a way to enable health through occupation’’

(Wilcock, 2001, p. 417) and ‘‘occupational

aspects [are] of importance for health and devel-

opment’’ (Hemmingsson & Jonsson, 2005,

p. 572). That is, occupation is seen as central

to, important for, and as a determinant, promoter

and enabler of health. Wilcock (1998) further

connected health and occupation when she

argued that the two are inseparable and described

an occupational perspective to be ‘‘a particular

view of health from the perspective of humans as

occupational beings’’ (p. 97).

Includes all types of occupational form, function,

and meaning

The need for an occupational perspective to

inform an understanding of the form, function,

and meaning of occupations was inherent across

many definitions. This understanding is congru-

ent with the identified focus of occupational

science as the study of ‘‘how the form, function

and meaning of daily activities influence health

and well-being’’ (Larson & Zemke, 2003, p. 80).

Specifically, common across the uses of the term

was the idea that an occupational perspective

includes all different forms of ‘doing’ as captured

in the following; ‘‘The occupational perspective

draws no such artificial boundaries between paid

work and unpaid work, or the occupations of the

workplace and those of daily life’’ (Davis, 2004,

p. 19) and ‘‘the complex interrelationships between

different kinds of occupation’’ (Hemmingsson &

Jonsson, 2005, p. 572). Townsend’s 1997 defini-

tion highlights the importance of the perspective

to understanding both the form and functions

of occupation; ‘‘A perspective attending to other

forms, nature, locations, processes, and other

features of occupation as people interact in the

context of their environment’’ (p. 20). Further-

more, George, Wilcock, and Stanley (2001)

identified the need for an occupational perspec-

tive to develop understanding of the meaning of

occupations for an individual through their

definition; ‘‘to learn the meaning of occupation

for an individual’’ (p. 460).

Contributes to being, becoming, and belonging

In addition to including different forms, functions

and meanings of occupations, the need to exam-

ine more than just engagement in occupations

was also identified, as captured in Huot and

Rudman’s (2011) description that ‘‘an occupa-

tional perspective involves highlighting how

occupations are connected with doing, being,

becoming, and belonging’’ (p. 69). This idea of

extending occupation beyond the doing to address

individuals’ past, current and anticipated sense of

self emerged from Wilcock’s research (2007) into

how belonging is the contextual element of the

connectedness of people to each other as they

engage in occupation. Doing and becoming have

also been identified as fundamental to an occupa-

tional perspective, where doing was used synony-

mously with the term occupation, and becoming

encompassed the future-oriented aspect of occupa-

tion (Gewurtz & Kirsh, 2006).

Gaps in the use of the term occupational perspectiveUpon analyzing how the term occupational

perspective is used in the literature, a dominant

perspective emerged; only occupations that are

health promoting should be explored. For



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instance, Whiteford and Townsend (2011) incor-

porated the phrases ‘‘to promote health’’ and ‘‘to

be healthy’’ in their description of an occupational

perspective and discuss ‘‘how people organize

their habits, routines, and choices to promote

health; and how systems support (or do not

support) the occupations people want or need

to do to be healthy’’ (p. 67). This conveys the idea

that only health promoting occupations should be

examined. However, as noted in the occupational

science literature, not all occupations contribute

to well-being and health. Illustrating that point,

one study of young people involved in gangs in

Los Angeles, United States explored some occu-

pations considered to be harmful (Snyder, Clark,

Masunaka-Noriega, & Young, 1998). Polatajko

et al. (2007) emphasized that ‘‘occupations can be

‘maladaptive’, even harmful, either to the indivi-

dual or society; examples include self-abusing

behavior, vandalism, arson, or illegal drug use.

Many people are engaged in risky, unhealthy or

even illegal and illicit occupations, which can

undermine health, well-being, and justice’’ (p. 22).

Discussion

Bringing together an occupational perspectiveAs the majority of the literature that uses the term

occupational perspective, since the 1990s, is

written by and for occupational scientists and

occupational therapists, coincident with the in-

ception of occupational science as a discipline, we

believe that the concept needs to have relevance

for these disciplines. Therefore, as occupational

scientists, we propose the following definition of

an occupational perspective: a way of looking at

or thinking about human doing. This definition is

congruent with the Oxford Dictionary (2012)

definition of a perspective as ‘‘a particular attitude

towards or way of regarding something; a point of

view’’. Additionally, in incorporating the idea of

looking or thinking, it shows that an action (e.g.,

regarding something) is taking place. Our use of

the construct ‘perspective’ is also congruent with

how we discovered others have used the term in

their definitions of an occupational perspective.

The choice of the words ‘human doing’ reflects

that this perspective is focused on occupation, the

core construct in all the reviewed definitions.

However, we suggest using the term ‘human doing’

so as not to have to use the term occupation �which would make the definition somewhat

tautological. The focus on doing also highlights

what distinguishes an occupational perspective

from other perspectives. For example, examining

a person riding public transport from an occupa-

tional perspective might address how the person is

occupationally engaged, whereas using a social

perspective might focus on interpersonal actions

that are occurring, while a gender perspective

could look at how and why men and women

experience public transport differently.

In comparison to the previously used definitions,

our proposed definition of an occupational per-

spective does not go beyond the core concept of

occupation. Based on our definition, it is assumed

that individuals bring their own occupational

perspective, which holds their definition, as-

sumptions, and models/theories about occupa-

tion; therefore, the specifics of each individual’s

perspective may differ but under our definition

each would be using an occupational perspective.

Having this basic definition of an occupational

perspective would enable occupational scientists

to recognize when a person is using an occupa-

tional perspective, while also requiring an explicit

statement of their underlying assumptions, given

the large range of possible assumptions an

occupational perspective could hold.

The definitions/descriptions reviewed here in-

clude a number of assumptions, namely: occupa-

tions are connected to doing at all levels; the

connections between occupations and doing

relate to health and well-being; occupations

hold form, function, and meaning, doing can

contribute to being, becoming, and belonging;

and occupations occur within a particular context

and time, where occupation and context are

reciprocally influential. This list of assumptions

is neither unique nor exhaustive (see Polatajko

et al., (2007) for a discussion of assumptions

underlying the concept of occupation). It is our

view that assumptions are inherent in an occupa-

tional perspective but should not be part of the



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definition itself. We believe that keeping the

assumptions separate from the definition allows

for broader use of the definition, as each researcher

can then specify the assumptions underlying his/

her own occupational perspective.

The positioning of an occupational perspective in

occupational science and occupational therapy

notwithstanding, of note in this review is the

observation that the term occupational perspective

had its origins outside these disciplines. The term

is not unique to occupational science and occu-

pational therapy; it appears in the literature of

business, economics, sociology, psychology, jour-

nalism, statistics, tourism, criminology, and

geography. This fits well with the expressed intent

of occupational science to be multidisciplinary.

Having a broad definition of an occupational

perspective supports this multidisciplinarity. In-

terestingly, within the occupational science and

occupational therapy literature, there has been

very little, if any, discussion of whether an

occupational perspective is specific to occupa-

tional therapy or occupational science. The

comments that have been made appear to be

contradictory, e.g., ‘‘an occupational perspective

refers to a body of knowledge developed in the

literature of occupational therapy’’ (Hemmings-

son & Jonsson, 2005, p. 572) versus; ‘‘using an

occupational perspective was seen to be applic-

able to exploring a wide scope of phenomena, not

those only concerned with occupational therapy

practice’’ (Whiteford, 2000, p. 203). It is argued

here that the construct, by virtue of history, is not

unique to the discipline of occupational science

and therefore a definition that promotes a multi-

disciplinary future should be adopted.

Conclusion

The majority of the literature included in this

scoping review used the term occupational per-

spective as though there is a common under-

standing of the term; however, our review did not

support that assumption. No single definition

has, to date, prevailed. To address the need for a

common understanding, this paper proposes that

an occupational perspective be defined as a way

of looking at or thinking about human doing. It is

considered that adoption of this basic definition

will provide a common understanding of the

term occupational perspective, thereby enhancing

the clarity of future theoretical and empirical

endeavors.

This review further identified a number of under-

lying assumptions, namely: a connection to doing

that contributes to being, becoming, and belong-

ing; a relationship with health and well-being;

containing form, function, and meaning from

individual to societal levels; and a transactional

relationship with the context. While these offer a

starting point, each researcher needs to specify

the assumptions underlying his or her own

occupational perspective. The delineation of

commonly held assumptions is beyond the scope

of this review.

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