The transactional perspective on occupation: A way to transcend the individual in health promotion interventions and research

Abstract

Ten years after its introduction, the role of the transactional perspective in occupational science has grown. Although the perspective has been used for a variety of purposes, application remains primarily associated with qualitative modes of inquiry and within the domain of occupational science. We argue that the perspective has broader potential in empirical occupational science as well as in the fields of population health, health promotion, and intervention science. In this paper, we present one such opportunity for the transactional perspective to contribute substantially to science, namely, the problem of how best to theorize and ground empirical research on health behavior change and maintenance. The science of health behavior change and maintenance has suffered from a reliance on theories that privilege individual agency while neglecting how contextual influences shape health behavior. In this paper, we discuss how the issue of health behavior change and maintenance is a relevant problem for occupational science, especially if using a transactional perspective. We provide an overview of the perspective inclusive of key principles—continuity and change, habits, problematic situations and inquiry. We follow by suggesting how the perspective provides the theoretical tools to better connect persons and situations in the context of health behavior change and maintenance and how it can inform intervention design. We conclude with a discussion of potential challenges of applying the perspective to health behavior change and maintenance, and about the significance of these potentialities for the larger project of occupational science and transdisciplinary contributions.