Psicologia del funzionamento individuale, della disabilità e della salute

1. Psicologia del funzionamento individuale, della disabilità e della salute 2. L’assessment del funzionamento e della disabilità

2. Cap. 1 What individual functioning measures

3. The best measure • United Nations (2001) Document Index of the International Seminar on the Measurement of Disability.1thInternational Seminar on the Measurement of Disability. • Selected the ICF as the basic conceptual model • Principles and standard forms for global indicators of disability for use in censuses, and helped to build a network of institutions and experts.

4. The Definitional Paradox 1/2 • Madans& Altman (2006) Purposes of Disability Statistics • «There is no single operational definition of disability • multiple sets of questions, linked to the different purposes of measurement, may be needed. • Different operational definitions lead to different estimates. • The question you are trying to answer (the purpose) will determine which definition to use. • Need to understand the choices that are being made when a purpose and a definition are chosen. • Need to understand the choices that are being made when time, expenses and respondent burden limit number of questions».

5. The Definitional Paradox 2/2 • Altman & Gulley (2009). Convergence and divergence • «We are concerned with the similarities and differences in the populations identified as disabled when the conceptualization of disability, the resulting questions, and the methods used to code and analyze the data differ from one set of questions to the next. In addition, we are concerned with disability prevalence estimates when the same sets of questions are asked in two different national populations» (554).

6. Universal model • Zola (1993) Disability Statistics, What We Count and What It Tells Us  • «Any attempt to identify standard measures on disability reflects, more than anything else, the effort to consider it as a fixed and dichotomous entity and not, as the universal model of disability states, a fluid and continuous experience».

7. Medical model • The disability is a negative characteristic belonging to an individual which defines the gap from the normal standard health. • People have a disability because an illness or an impairment is attributed to them; and • People are worded with disabilityor, easier, wholly identified with the illness (e.g., Down, deaf, blind, ecc.)

8. Social model • It identifies disability as a social class of individuals to whom the majority recognizes a stigmatized status of minority (Goffman, 1963). • People are disabled since they are stigmatized by prejudices of society; • People are worded disabledpeople(not withdisability) since oppressed (not withoppression) (Oliver & Barnes, 1998).

9. Biopsychosocial model • Disability is no longer considered an identity that defines people or social classes. • The biopsychosocial model moves from the person to his or her functioning overcoming a causal inference of disability as a result of both the impact of diseases or other health conditions (ICF) and a social disadvantage. • Disabilityis just a way of functioning; • People are worded in a positive way as the ability to doin specific context and health conditions.

10. Is there an elixir of measurement? • The elixir of measurement is found when we orient the focus of the research not just on the theoretical definition of disability but in the clearness of the purpose of our measurements. • We will just measure what we want to find. • The variety of measuring tools and the flexibility to change the procedure of measurement, adapting them to different people, contexts and purposes, are the most reliable scientific approach.