Occupational Functioning

Occupational Functioning

Assessing adaptive occupational functioning requires examining the ways in which an individual completes tasks, takes and gives orders, delegates responsibilities and cooperates with others. Job situations also require an ability to balance demands, obey regu-lations and make decisions. Clearly, success in these tasks in part depends on one’s capacity for interpersonal functioning.

Weissman’s Social Adjustment Scale (Weissman et al., 2001) provides a means of evaluating a person’s occupational functioning. The scale focuses on both externally observable behaviors, such as number of days lost in a month and the de-gree of impairment of performance at work, as well as internal states, such as feeling inadequate, angry and distressed at work. In addition, whether a person is distressed, disinterested and bored by work is also assessed. These questions begin to sug-gest what adaptive occupational functioning comprises, namely, that it consists of being engaged and feeling satisfied about and competent at work. In addition, the Social Adjustment Scale as-sesses whether these positive internal states are reflected in work performance and relationships with superiors and subordinates.