[Occupational and vocational rehabilitation of psychiatric patients: a control and attribution theory approach to examining the effect of working conditions]

Abstract

In recent years, work and occupational activity have come to assume a therapeutic orientation in the rehabilitation of persons with mental illness. The study presented addressed the specific ways in which work activities during rehabilitation programme participation may act in a manner conducive to rehabilitation. The findings point to a positive relationship between the opportunities objectively available in the work setting for rehabilitees to influence aversive conditions or occurrences and their work-related subjective well-being. A second step enabled us to show that subjective well-being is determined less by the situation objectively at hand but primarily by the mentally ill rehabilitees' perceptions of influenceability and, hence, the experience of controllability. Further, examination of the rehabilitees' attributional patterns concerning the various control experiences revealed that the extent to which their subjective well-being is affected is mediated cognitively. The findings are discussed in view of their implications for the vocational rehabilitation of persons with mental illness.