References + Comments

References:

Butler, M. (2011). Participation in Occupation II. Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author. Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy, Dunedin.

Caulton, R. & Dickson, R.  (2007). What’s going on? Finding an explanation for what we do.  In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy (pp. 87-114).  Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Crepeau, E.B.(2007). Analysing occupation and activity: a way of thinking about occupational performance. In E.B. Crepeau, S.E. Cohn & B.A.B. Schell (Eds.), Willard & Spackman’s occupational therapy (10e.d., pp. 189-1980). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin.

Christiansen, C. & Baum, C. (eds)(1997). Occupational Therapy enabling function and wellbeing. 2^nd ed. Slack: New Jersey.

Shepherd, R. & Raats, M. (2006). The psychology of food choice (frontiers in nutritional science). UK: CABI.

 

Simmons, M. & La Table, S. (). Things looks love” Implements, ingredients, recipes. USA: Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Sunderland, J (2010). Adaptive living and occupation: food and culture. Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author. Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy, Dunedin.

Merriam-Webster. (2011). Ambience. Retrieved 23^rd Oct from, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambience.

Comments:

 

Practical Considerations

Simmons & La Table (2008) discuss why making sure everything is available beforehand when cooking is important. They sate “having the right ingredients and tools for a specific job makes cooking easier and more fun, the results often taste better (p. vii).”

Practical considerations play an important role in cooking. Every day is a different day; each day presents new opportunities. As I stated in my previous posts, mood is a huge motivation factor if I want to cook, therefore I consider it as a practical consideration. There is no point for me to start an activity if I am not feeling it, in most cases; I would do a sloppy job of it. When I want to cook, I wold have to put everything into consideration, this would include; ingredients, appliances, utensils, amount of people I am cooking for etc.

Today I wanted to cook gourmet pizza for everyone. I usually make the base three hours before and leave it to rise. I like to use special sauces for this pizza, and most always you can find it at Nandos. I had previously bought some, but there weren’t any left for today, which meant that I had to drive up all the way to the city center just to get these sauces. I did not have the time to do that so I had to look for alternatives. Therefore, ingredients would come under practical considerations and the lack of it did not create the right circumstances for me to cook a gourmet pizza.

Another practical consideration was time; this is a huge factor when it comes to cooking. In this instance, the time of the day, did not permit me to prepare the base and insufficient time to go and buy the ingredients also hindered me from cooking this food, therefore, I decided to leave it for another day. Usually, I make sure everything is available the day before, or I decide to cook something a day before, this gives me ample time to make sure everything I need is available.

Reference:

Simmons, M. & La Table, S. (). Things looks love” Implements, ingredients, recipes. USA: Andrews McMeel Publishing.

Ambience

The Merriam-Webster dictionary (2011) defines ambience as “a feeling or mood associated with a particular place, person or thing.”

I associate ambience with the environment of the kitchen when I am cooking and the dining room when everyone is seated, eating their food. It usually depends on the people around me during these times. My mood is considerably different when I am alone cooking and eating my meals to when there is a large group of us in the kitchen and sitting in the dining room eating whilst conversing together in a relaxed atmosphere. Although there are times where I am content making a simple meal for myself - nothing that needs considerable amount of effort – and park myself in front of the television or my laptop. Ambience is important because it creates a nice environment where I am able to enjoy myself, have a good time with family and friends while making special memories.

Shephard and Raats (2006) discuss the need for ambience; “ changes in intake can be detected with different numbers of people being present, food accessibility, eating location, room ambience and food colour (cited in Stroebele and de Castro, 2004, p.295).” This shows that people are more likely to eat right and find enjoyment during that time, if ambience provides the right circumstances. I know when I cook, it is important what my mood is, how the environment improves what I am feeling and having my family or friends around me to share my time with.

References:

Shepherd, R. & Raats, M. (2006). The psychology of food choice (frontiers in nutritional science). UK: CABI

Merriam-Webster. (2011). Ambience. Retrieved 23^rd Oct from, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ambience

Affordances – Part Two

Cooking presents lots of opportunities for aesthetics. I feel the most aesthetic part of cooking is in the finished product. The presentation, taste, colour, aroma all come together in perfect harmony at the end. Therefore I feel how successful the completion is, is compared to the aesthetics of the finished product. However, unsuccessful completion (Uncooked, or burnt food) increases frustration and decreases motivation, thus aesthetics is very much part of my cooking.

Physical

Is described as the man-made aspects of the world we live in (Crepeau, 2007). The main physical aspects of this activity are the accessibility of good quality appliances in the kitchen and availability of ingredients. If there is significant environmental barrier (i.e. broken appliances), it hinders the successful completion of an activity. Having access to what I need when I cook is a source of motivation to do the best of my ability. We are encouraged to sincerely do our best in whatever we do; we call this ‘Ihsan’.

Spirituality

Crepeau (2007) defines spirituality as “the fundamental orientation of a person’s life that which inspires and motivates that individual (p.190).” Having the opportunity to engage in this activity with no limits either because of necessity or leisure reason is something I am deeply grateful for. The spiritual sense of it is being grateful, showing sincere reverence for what I do all the while being generous with it. This is influences by my history which was completely opposite to the present time. I did not have the opportunity to engage fully in cooking as a leisure activity let alone as a necessity; as we lived a meager life, we made do with whatever came our way. Sometimes hardly anything came by. Therefore, I feel that my spirituality is intertwined with my history.

Reference:

Crepeau, E.B.(2007). Analysing occupation and activity: a way of thinking about occupational performance. In E.B. Crepeau, S.E. Cohn & B.A.B. Schell (Eds.), Willard & Spackman’s occupational therapy (10e.d., pp. 189-1980). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin.

Affordance - Part One

Affordances are defined as “anything which the environment can offer the individual which is pertinent to the role challenge and can facilitate role competence (Christiansen & Baum 1997).” This is shown in the personal growth a person goes through when engaging in any activity. For me, the personal effects of cooking in my life have been discussed below.

Communication

In year one, we studied about food and culture, a quote that stood out for me was by Nigella Lawson (2004, cited in Sunderland, 2010) in which she states, “cooking has many functions, and only one of them is about feeding people. When we go into a kitchen, indeed when we even just think about going into a kitchen, we are both creating and responding to an idea we hold about ourselves, about what kind of person we are or wish to be. How we eat and what we eat lies at the heart of who we are as – individuals, families, communities.” This is particularly poignant because I feel cooking is essential for my wellbeing, not only physically but also mentally and spiritually. When I am in the kitchen, I feel more competent than in any other environment I could be in. Cooking can be done for individual gain but I feel it is more fulfilling if done for communal or familial gain. It gives me endless opportunities to express myself fully; it is unlimited because there is always room for improvement – learning new ways of cooking using new recipes. Communication between the environment (safety, hygiene), people (favourited dishes) and occupation (sense of accomplishment) is very important when I am cooking.

Action Properties

Is defined as “the indication of what to do next afforded by the activity (Butler, 2011).” Change is always inherent in cooking, not only to the person but also environment and as an occupation. Cooking reflects the stage a person is at – interests, habits etc. The type of cooking I enjoy changed as I grew older, motivation is influence intrinsically, and at present what motivates me is by the kind of person I want to be; healthy, competent and content.

Reference:

Butler, M. (2011). Participation in Occupation II. Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author. Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy, Dunedin.

Christiansen, C. & Baum, C. (eds)(1997). Occupational Therapy enabling function and wellbeing. 2^nd ed. Slack: New Jersey.

Sunderland, J (2010). Adaptive living and occupation: food and culture. Unpublished, cited with the permission of the author. Otago Polytechnic School of Occupational Therapy, Dunedin.

What is ergonomics?

According to Caulton and Dickson (2007) ergonomics is to, “constantly make slight invisible adjustments to an activity to adapt to the needs of those taking part and ensure that it continues to work for its intended purpose” ( p.93)

In simple words, this means that when you engage in your chosen activity, you make sure that everything is going according to how you planned in order to acquire your intended outcome. For example, you have to be in the right mood, right environment, have the right equipment if needed. It is necessary to have everything in harmony to feel motivated enough to perform that activity. That is my understanding of ergonomics.

I have noticed that majority of the time I get up and do the cooking is when everything is just right. Engaging in this activity can be ergonomically viewed from three perspectives; person, environment and occupation.

As I mentioned in my previous post there are things that help or hinder my engagement in this activity. They can all be grouped according to person, environment and occupation. For example, what helps me cook mindfully include being in a good mood (person), clean and safe kitchen (environment), and cooking for others (occupation). The same can be applied to the things that hinder me from cooking. I feel that having an activity be ergonomically fit provides me with the motivation I need to engage in it, this can be said for all other types of activities.

Being aware of this process has helped me a lot; before I would give up when something was wrong i.e. mood, timing or environment. However being aware the principles of ergonomics, I know I can acquire the desired outcome simply by fixing or adapting to the current circumstances.

Reference:

Caulton, R. & Dickson, R.  (2007). What’s going on? Finding an explanation for what we do.  In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy (pp. 87-114).  Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Cooking

My chosen activity for this post is cooking; I will explain what cooking means to me personally and as a future occupational therapist.

What cooking means for me personally...

Learning to cook at a young age is very important in my culture. Of course, once I learnt to cook, I found that to be a tedious task especially when it was my turn to cook. As I grew older¸, I acquired the drive to expand my horizon in terms of the types of dishes that I wanted to learn.  I was motivated to eat healthy, therefore my favorite past became searching for recipes in the internet. Learning a new recipe and making a dish out of it gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I found that my experience of cooking completely changed my outlook of engaging in such an activity. I found that I enjoyed myself more and found nothing tedious about it except on the days when I was not in the mood :)

What does cooking mean for me as a future OT?

As an occupational therapist, helping clients engage in their meaningful activities will be a priority. The task of making a meal will help in building rapport with clients¸ I feel that sharing my experiences and feelings while engaging in this activity is something that both the client and I can appreciate. One of the lessons I learnt in my fieldwork from my supervisor is that clients feel more comfortable with a therapist who shares a bit of themselves with them; of course, I know there are limitations to that but when it comes to this everyday activity, it is definitely something that I can share.

Words that I use to describe this activity are:

Relaxing

Fulfilling

Healthy

Satisfying

Life

Sustenance

Cultural

What will help me engage in cooking?

• Clean and safe environment – kitchen
• Having all the ingredients and recipe
• Being in a good mood – being mindfully conscious of what I am doing.
• Cooking for others.

What will hinder me engaging in cooking?

• Dirty and unsafe environment.
• Not having all the necessary ingredients.
• Feeling unwell or not being in a good mood.