Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
8
The Psych
ologist
F. Meloni, S. Federici, A. Stella, C. Mazzeschi, B. Cordella, F. Greco, and M. Grasso
CONTENTS
8.1 The Languishing Psychologist's Role in Assistive Technology Assessment ............ 149
8.2 Nothing about “Psycho” without Psychologists: The ICF and the Need for Its
Revision ............................................................................................................................... 151
8.3 The Personal Factors of Functioning and Disability .................................................... 153
8.4 Personal Factors and Assistive Solutions ....................................................................... 154
8.5 The Psychologist in a Center for Technical Aid: The Specialist in Personal Factors ...155
8.6 Outlining the Psychologist's Role in the ATA Process ................................................. 157
8.6.1 When the Psychologist Role in the ATA Process Is Required ......................... 158
8.6.2 How a Psychologist Facilitates the Awareness of the User/Client's
Context and Multidisciplinary Team Perspectives ........................................... 160
8.6.2.1 Methodology ............................................................................................ 160
8.6.2.2 Goals ......................................................................................................... 163
8.6.2.3 What a Psychologist Should Do in Promoting a User/Client
Request ..................................................................................................... 164
8.7 Psychologist “Know Thyself”: Psychologist and Professional's Representations
of the Disabled Users/Clients and Assistive Technologies ......................................... 164
8.7.1 Professionals' Representation of Disability ....................................................... 165
8.7.2 New Approach in Psychological Practice ........................................................... 168
8.7.3 Psychological Professional Practice Guidelines in the ATA Process.............. 168
8.7.3.1 The User.................................................................................................... 169
8.7.3.2 The Family ............................................................................................... 169
8.7.3.3 The Professionals' Multidisciplinary Team ........................................ 170
8.8 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 170
Summary of the Chapter ............................................................................................................ 172
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................................... 172
References ..................................................................................................................................... 172
8.1 The Languishing Psychologist's Role
in Assistive Technology Assessment
Psychology itself is dead. Or, to put it another way, psychology is in a funny situation.
My college, Dartmouth, is constructing a magnificent new building for psychology. Yet
its four stories go like this: The basement is all neuroscience. The first floor is devoted
to classrooms and administration. The second floor houses social psychology, the third
floor, cognitive science, and the fourth, cognitive neuroscience. Why is it called the psy-
chology building? (Gazzaniga 1998, pp. xi-xii)
149
