MOHO

INTRODUCTION
MOHO is an open system that describes the development of
occupation and considers the role of environment in shaping the
occupation.
An open system can be affected by things around it (the
environment) and can also affect things around it.
MOHO emphasizes the effects of choice, interest, motivation, and
habits on human activity and difficulties that are psychosocial in
nature.
Framework – to understand and address the disruption and
challenges.
The central organizing principle of the human occupation model is
that humans have an innate (inborn) drive to explore and master
their environments (because the process of exploring, creating, and
controlling the environment is termed human occupation.)

Occupational behaviour is continually created.

By continually acting and receiving information, people change their
actions and adapt to their environment.

Occupational engagement changes the physical and mental

structures.
For physical (Fingers of a pianist and a mechanic)
For mental structures (study while at school and study while at
college)

ASSUMPTIONS
 Person and environment are inextricably linked that constantly
unfolds the dynamics about occupation.

Person and environment both are dynamic that is constantly

changing and are linked together and hence when the
characteristics of a person changes it will bring change in the
environment and vice-versa.

 What a person does is the result of interplay between persons

inner characteristics and the environmental conditions.

 A person’s inner capacities, motives, abilities are shaped and

maintained through changing in occupation.

 A person’s inner characteristics and environmental conditions

are involved in contributing how these changes occur.

Changes in the environment and occupation shapes the

person’s capacities and abilities.

 Experiencing a given occupation increases one’s capacity for

engaging in future.

A positive outcome or result will motivate you or increase your

engagement in future occupations.

MOHO can be summed up like

“WE BECOME WHAT WE DO AND WHAT WE DO BECOMES A
PART OF US”.

DIAGRAMATIC REPRESENTATION OF MOHO

SUBSYSTEMS OF MOHO.

1. VOLITION
Means motivation/control
People do things because on some level they choose to do so.
Volition, relates to this aspect of choosing and the reasons for
choosing one occupation over another.

Volition describes how people are motivated toward and

choose what particular occupations they do as well as the long-
term commitments that people make to particular occupations.

It consists of people’s thoughts about three issues

o PERSONAL CAUSATION
Personal causation refers to a person’s knowledge and
beliefs about his or her ability to have an effect
on the world.

o VALUES
Values are internalized images of what is important and
meaningful. Values are guides to action; they clarify what
is important in life.

o INTERESTS
 Interests are what people like. Interests attract a person
to new activities and help broaden and diversify the
person’s occupational pattern.

Together this volition thoughts and feelings occur in a

cycle
 Anticipating the possibility
 Choosing the plan of action or outline
 Experiencing
 Interpretating the experience

New or altered volitional thoughts and feelings emerge as

individuals discover and develop their capacities, skills, and
patterns of doing through engagement in occupations.

2. HABITUATION
Means being acquainted to
The ways in which people organize their participation into
patterns and routines is explained in MOHO by the concept of
habituation.

Habituation is expressed in habits and internalized roles.

How people establish and maintain this pattern of action is
shaped by habits and roles.

Habits are “acquired tendencies to automatically respond and

perform in certain, consistent ways in familiar environments or
situations”
Habits represent a learned way of doing things that becomes
established through repeated performance. (Example; brushing
teeth)

Internalized roles represent the “incorporation of a socially

and/or personally defined status and a related cluster of
attitudes and actions”
 Roles represent social and cultural ideas about identity and
associated expectations of what people should do and how
they should behave.
for example, studying for a test scheduled 2 weeks from today.
When, how, and the number of hours you study are personal
choices in the enactment of your internalized role of student.

A loss or lack of valued social roles, as too frequently experienced by

people with mental illness can contribute to difficulties in structuring
time use and maintaining patterns of routine activities.

3. PERFORMANCE CAPACITY
Performance capacity consists of “the abilities for doing things”
based on underlying mental and physical capacities and the
person’s subjective experience of those capacities. How the
person feels about his or her performance affects his or her
capacity to perform.

Performance capacity consists of both objective capacities to

do things and the subjective experience of that capacity.

This is the concept of the lived body, which is the personal

experience of understanding and knowing the world through a
particular human body.

MOHO IDENTIFIES THREE INTERCONNECTED LEVELS AT WHICH IT IS

POSSIBLE TO DESCRIBE DOING: SKILLS, PERFORMANCE AND
PARTICIPATION.
For example A woman who has devoted herself to her husband and
has lived her life through his may on his death become very
disorganized because her primary motivation is gone.

OCCUPATIONAL IDENTITY, COMPETENCE AND ADAPTATION

MOHO conceptualizes occupations as having a dynamic and ongoing
influence on our sense of who we are and what we are capable of as
we develop and respond to life changes during our lives.
MOHO shapes our identity, determines our competence level and
our adaptations capabilities.

The environment also influences human occupation. Minor changes

in the environment can affect the way a person acts
For optimum occupational performance, the environment should
provide the “just-right” level of stimulation.

The underlying principle is this: In an open system, changes in any of

the parts change the whole.