Week 13: The end!

As we near the end of the semester, what plans do you have for continuing or discontinuing your new occupation?  Other than the obvious fulfillment of course requirements, do you think that you have benefited from your involvement in the new activity?  If so, how?

To be completely honest I haven't established any "plans" for continuing my occupation of playing the ukulele.  But even without plans I do think that every so often I will pull the ukulele out review some of the songs, and every once in a while take a stab at learning a new song.  I enjoyed playing the ukulele on the weeks that I wasn't as busy with school, because it is a relaxing occupation and there is someting about playing music that can be fulfilling.  I hope that playing the ukulele after this course will be like the time I stopped taking piano lessons and actually practiced the piano more when I wasn't taking lessons, than I did the last couple of years of piano lessons.  There is something about external motivation that can take away some of the motivation and enjoyment of practicing.  I value learning new things and so I do not regret choosing to learn the ukulele this semester.  I have learned things about stringed instruments that I didn't know as well as some of the barriers that individuals face when learning something new.

  

Practice critical thinking by using the Criteria for Evaluating Reasoning on p. 12 of the Critical Thinking Concepts & Tools booklet (Paul & Elder, 2014) to analyze one of the two platform presentations you attended at Research Day.  Briefly review your analysis in your post.

One of the platform presentations I attended was "Informed Consent and the Limited English Patient: A Pilot Project to Assess Student Knowledge, Perceptions and Attitudes."  The purpose of the study was to investigate how attitudes of dental hygiene students change with education of limited english patients and working with interpreters.  The presenter clearly established the purpose of her presentation and the study that she was presenting on.  The question in which they researched was unbiased and was relevant to the study.  The presenter provided the results of the study and the percentages of attitude improvement based on questionairres that the dental hygiene students filled out before and after the intervention.  The presenter explained what informed consent was as well as what constitued a Limited English Patient.  I didn't notice any assumptions that the presenter made, but I could have missed them.  The presenter supported the conclusion of research with the data from the study.  The presenter did inform the audience on a point of view of having family members of a limited english patient be the interpreter.  The presenter did take the position that limited english patient education and experience can benefit many health fields and future clinicians/therapists.  

Do any of the articles/topics we have studied in class pertain to the information presented in the platform presentation?  How?

The communication barrier between the therapist and the limited english patient acts as a social barrier that impacts participation as Cantor and Sanderson talked about.  Another concept that we have discussed in class that could relate to this presentation is that of autonomous regulation.  With the assitance of an interpreter and informed conset the limited english patient and the therapist will better be able to communicate with one another and the patient will more likely feel a sense of autonomy as they are able to have a better understanding and agreement of treatment.  The autonomous regulation will lead to more positive affect, enhanced performance, and greater psychological well-being (Deci & Ryan, 2008).

Week 12: Hope

What's happening with your new occupation? Give us an update.

I didn't spend as much time practicing the ukulele as I did last week.  I went home for the weekend and so I ran through a couple of my songs on the ukulele.  I still really enjoy the song I was learning last week with the 'rifs' which are parts where you pluck instead of strum.  

What applications can you find from the Spencer, Davidson, & White (1997) article to apply to your experience with your new occupation?  How do they apply?

The cognitive aspect of hope allows one to imagine possibilities and establish goals.  The ability to use your imagination as a source of hope that leads to establishing goals has contributed somewhat to my playing the ukulele.  Despite the slow weeks or weeks of not wanting to play I still have hopes and imgaine myself being able to play the ukulele even if it takes a while to learn some of the songs.  Anyways, the emotional aspect of hope includes intention and will.  These factors largely determine whether I continue with an occupation.  I may lack some will for playing the ukulele, but I have a strong will when it comes to playing volleyball or other occupations.  The spiritual aspect of hope hasn't really influenced the playing of the ukulele for me. 

How would you characterize a movie made about your experience with your new occupation? For example, would it be a Gothic horror story? A heart-warming story of triumph over adversity? A madcap comedy? An instructional documentary, suitable for all ages? Something else? Why do you think so?

If my experience with playing the ukulele was made into a movie.  It would be a homemade video where the movie starts off pretty good but then keeps on going without plot and for the majority of the video the story doesn't seem to be going anywhere!  I had pretty high hopes after my first week of playing the ukulele and learning quite a bit, but then I plateaued for a long time and then every once in a while I learn something new and get a little bit of excitement and then it is back to the plateau.

Week 11: Story Telling and Story Making

1. What's happening with your new occupation?  Give us an update.

This week was a better week!  Thursday afternoon I sat down for an hour and played the ukulele.  I found "the ukulele teacher" youtube channel and learned from him.  I also worked on the song "Here Comes the Sun" which had rifs in the song.  Rifs were completely new to me and it is when you are plucking individual strings rather than strumming across all of the strings.  

1. How does the information regarding storytelling and story making as presented by Clark, Ennevor, and Richarson (1996) relate to your new occupation and its place in your personal story? 

In Clark's Slagle lecture, occupational storytelling is the history of the individual as an occupational being and occupational story making is the process of creating a story involving the therapist and the survivor that will be enacted in the future and focused on further development of the survivor as an occupational being.  With regards to playing the ukulele, my occupational story does not involve music very much.  Aside from the piano, the only other instruments I have played are ones that we were required to in elementary music class.  My orchestra class ended with me receiving the lowest grade I have ever received in school, multiple phonecalls to my mom, and my teacher crying. . . so that gives a little insight on how well that class went.  Anyways, music has played a role in my life, but it always went better when I felt intrinsically motivated rather than extrinsically motivated.  Granted some weeks I am more intrinsically motivated when I am practicing the ukulele and other weeks are strictly extrinsic motivation.  

When I first chose the ukulele as my new occupation I saw myself playing the ukulele and it sounding really good. . . . after the first week I realized that the ukulele is mainly used to accompany as you sing.  I originally thought that it would be fine and I would still play knowing that the songs would not sound the same without someone singing along, but it's been a little more challenging than I originally thought.  Although with the discovery of the rifs this week, it might get a little bit better, despite not singing along with the song.  My occupational story making is constantly being reshaped and remolded as I discover challenges or obstacles that are keeping me from becoming the ukulele player I originally envisioned.  

1. Lessons on Living, a collection of Ted Koppel's interviews with Morrie Schwartz, gives us many examples of occupational science concepts that we have studied this semester (such as factors that build resiliency, determinants of individual identity, the meaningfulness of occupation and its effect on life satisfaction, and many others). Which concepts seemed to be most exemplified by the video to you? How do Morrie's statements and/or actions support or refute these concepts?

One occupational science concept that was demonstrated in the interviews with Morrie Schwartz was that of social support.  Morrie emphasized the importance of relationships and the support that his friends and family gave to him when he said "interactions and relationships maintain me and keep me up and alive."  This comment along with many others such as his response to Ted's question about if there was anything they could do for him after the first interview, to which Morrie responded that they could call him regularly and come visit him.  Cantor and Sanderson (1999) listed social support as a resource that facilitates participation in occupations and has the ability to help one overcome barriers.  This supports what was said in the Resilience book where the authors defined social support as "a category of protective factors that deal with social relationships and ties to others" (King et. al., 2003).  Social support acts as a convoy and has the ability to protect one from possible adverse outcomes.  Even the support of just one individual can serve as a protective factor.  Morrie shared life lessons he has learned as he approaches death: talk about it, keep an open heart (encompass as much as you can with your love), be alert, aware, and involved, and be compassionate.  Each of these lessons involves a social relationship or interaction with another individual and demonstrates the value that Morrie placed on social support. 

Week 10:

I'm finding it to be more and more difficult to find motivation to keep playing the ukulele.  I don't know if it is attributed to where we are in the semester and motivation may be lacking in many areas, or if it is just a lack of motivation to play the ukulele.  I didn't learn any new songs this week, but did play through the songs I have previously learned.  

Deci and Ryan explained the self-determination theory and how the two types of motivation(autonomous and controlled) influece behavior.  External and introjected regulations are forms of controlled motivation, whereas identified/integrated and intrinsic regulation are forms of autonomous motivation. Introjection is when people take in an external contingency, demand, or regulation but don't accept it as their own.  Identification is when people identify with the value of the activity and willingly accept responsibility for regulating the behavior.  With identification the individual does not feel pressured or controlled to do the behavior.  At the beginning of the semester when I chose to learn the ukulele I would say that I had a mixture of identification and introjection extrinisically motivating me.  I saw the value of learning a new occupation and relating my experiences to the material we were learning, but my desire to learn a new occupation was heavily driven by class assignments.  As the semester has progressed I identify more with the introjection type of internalization which is a type of controlled motivation. The external factors of class assignments and expectations are what are driving my continuation of the occupation although most weeks practice feels more like a burden than a time of enjoyment.   

 Yerxa (1994) says that occupation is "engagement in self-initiated, self-directed, adaptive, purposeful, culturally relevant, organized activity." In the video "Half Man, Full Life" Jesse Stitcher demonstrated his drive to engage in occupations that give him meaning and enjoyment in life.  Some of the occupations Jesse participates in include driving, performing, physical labor, four-wheeling, etc.  Jesse talked about wanting to participate in occupations that challenged him.  One example was when he decided to switch from just selling the satellite dishes to running his own company that included the installation of the satelite dishes as well.  This relates to the concept of flow and participating in activities that provide the right amount of challenge for the set of skills one has.  When Jesse made this switch in his career he found more fulfillment and enjoyment out of his job.