Ecology of Human Performance framework (EHP)

  • The Ecology of Human Performance framework (EHP) focuses on the relationship between several important constructs in occupational therapy; they are person, context, task, performance, and therapeutic intervention, in order to get a throughout understand of human occupation. The person construct is one’s experience and his/her sensorimotor, cognitive, and psychological skills and abilities. Then the person construct is surrounded by a circle symbolizing this person’s context (including temporal, physical, social, and cultural contexts). In his/her environment, there are many tasks (objective sets of behaviors necessary to accomplish a goal), symbolized by little circles outside and within the context, which are available to the person. The person has the opportunities in performing multiple tasks in which he/she participate in among the available tasks, based on one’s skills, abilities, and environmental cues and features. By using the contextual lens (resulting from the individual’s own experiences and perceptions about his/her physical, social, and cultural features of the current performance settings) in the interaction with person's skills and abilities, the resultant scope of action is called the “performance range”. This framework considers life role among the task. Each life role has a unique constellation of tasks and some roles have overlapping tasks. Depending on the individuals’ skills, experience, desires, demand from the contexts, persons with the same role may have different tasks. The person who is unable to notice all environmental cues and support, or has limited skills. For example, limited physical capacity has a narrower performance range. Occupational therapists evaluate the client’s performance with consideration of the contextual information. Therapeutic interventions include “establish/restore”, “alter”, “adapt”, “prevent”, and “create”, each of which may intervene the person, context, and/ or the task. The intervention is a collaboration among the client, family, and the therapist, in order to enhance individuals’ occupational performance.

Summarized by

  • Macey Cho

Type

  • Framework

Population

  • Child
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Elderly

Disability

  • All

Domain of occupation

  • Unspecified

Application Note

  • Person, occupational performance, and contextual issues are considered as equally important in this framework.

Key Reference

  • Dunn, W., Brown, C., & McGuigan, A. (1994). The ecology of human performance: A framework for considering the effect of context. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 48, 595-607.

Year Published

  • 1994

Primary Developer

  • Winnie Dunn

Primary Developer Email

  • wdunn@kumc.edu

Related Models

European Conceptual Framework for Occupational Therapy

  • This European Conceptual Framework clarifies how occupational therapists (OTs) think about human action and how OTs can act to influence occupational performance of clients. This framework has four main characteristics: (1) it is dynamic, (2) it represents the perspective of the performer, (3) concepts are organized into eight clusters, and (4) it is organized into the person’s internal world, external world and the interface between those worlds. This framework organizes 25 terms that are commonly used by OTs, such as activity, occupation, and task.

A Service Delivery Model for Addressing Activity and Social Participation Needs of People Living with HIV

  • This model is a service delivery model that aims to provide a framework for occupational therapists to design and evaluate services for people living with HIV. It focuses on designing and evaluating interventions that target outcomes in activity and social participation. It comprises of the following components, prominent features of living with HIV, service delivery principles, promising interventions, and person-environment interactions across micro, meso, and macro levels of the environment.

Occupation-Centred Assessment with Children (OCAC) framework

  • The Occupation-Centred Assessment with Children (OCAC) framework is a top-down, family-centered, ad ecological assessment approach that provides a holistic view of children and their occupational performance within their naturalistic contexts. OCAC focuses on occupational performance issues most relevant and important to a child and his/her family. These may include leisure/play, productivity/school, self-care/activities of daily living, as well as time use, roles, habits, identity, and activity patterns.

A Model of Children’s Play

  • This model aims to conceptualize children’s underlying skills and behavioral elements characteristic of play, as well as the influences that both individual and environmental factors. Embedded in the play environment and cultural and familial milieu, this model includes developmental play capacities (cognitive, physical and social play skills) and individual play style (internal control, freedom to suspend reality and intrinsic motivation) that make up the child’s contribution to the play transaction. Play reflects the child’s cognitive, motor, language and social skills.

Model Type

Population

Disability

Domain of Occupation

  • © 2024 HOTheory - All rights reserved.