Dr Mazhar

03066980980
Cognitive and Behavioral
Demands of Work

BY : Dr.Mahum Rauf
DPT
 • Focus on positive psychology, studying “human
strengths and optimal functioning” and their impact on
the health and productivity of workers.

• Difficult to separate the cognitive and behavioral

demands required of work occupations from the human
capacity to execute those demands.
• Job demands and requirements:
• refer to the tasks and components of work, or the specific
requirements of a work occupation.
• Worker skills and abilities:
• refer to the capacities and expertise of the person that
are used in performing or executing job demands.
• Although these elements are related, each must be
evaluated separately using appropriate tools and
measures.
 Cognitive demands

• Def: “ Demands associated with work tasks that

require thinking, information processing, learning,
imagining, and anticipating.”
• Each job can be thought of as having a particular
physical or cognitive load, and often one of these
elements is in higher demand than the other.
• The domain of human cognitive abilities is often
understood and expressed through terms such as
short-term or long-term memory, problem solving,
attention span, communication skills, and
computational ability.
• Cognitive functioning is essential to occupational
competence at a personal level but is also important
in the workplace, as it enables workers to be
productive and fulfill the demands of work.
• Multilevel process… enable a person to perceive,
image , organize, analyze, communicate, sense
problem ,manipulate information & knowledge… ..
Problem solve , decision making etc..
• Cognitive work tasks can be classified into the
cognitive skills required to carry out work tasks and
the cognitive resources needed to execute those
cognitively based performance skills.
 Cognitive Requirements of Job Tasks
• Critical thinking (judgment, analysis, reasoning, calculation,
manipulation, generation of knowledge and ideas)
• Creative thinking using imagination and generating creative ideas
• Information acquisition, searching, and retrieval
• Information processing
• Mental planning and scheduling
• Learning
• Communicating
• Comprehending
• Translating knowledge
• Perceiving and interpreting interpersonal information
• Using intuition— sensing or anticipating problems
 Cognitive Resources
• Memory (short-term, long-term)
• Attention, visual and auditory concentration
• Imagination
• Communication skills (verbal, nonverbal), interpersonal
skills, graphic expression, written skills
• Vision
• Visual processing
• Visual perception
• Auditory processing
• Hearing and listening skills
• Literacy and reading, writing, and documentation skills
• Computer and technologic skills
 Behavioral Demands
• Def: The actions, efforts, and interactions required to
conduct work tasks.
• Require a specific response or subsequent set of actions to
manage or perform duties and tasks in the workplace
• These demands require a person to be able to demonstrate
specific social and interpersonal skills or competencies that
often combine or draw on prior experience, specific
training, cognition, and affective skills in order to
successfully exercise these behaviors.
• The role of the therapist is to identify which demands are
required and to determine the nature of these demands and
how they unfold when work occupations are executed.
 Behavioral Components of Work

• Enactment of social processes, interactions,

and relationships with others
• Enactment of worker responsibilities and
requirements
• Executing emotional job demands.
• Enactment of management responsibilities and
requirements.
• Enactment of general competencies and
accountabilities.
• Enactment of specific competencies.
WORKPLACE CONTEXTUAL FACTORS

• Aspects of work environment that affect the way

work may be performed and under what
conditions it is performed.
• W orkplace factors include the governance structures
in a workplace, workplace culture, exposure to
change, and risk concerns such as physical security
and safety.
• degree of power or responsibility a worker can
exercise at work.
• For therapists, the consideration of the environment
and how it shapes the way work unfolds in a given
environment is essential for designing a successful
RTW program
• accept changes and adapt activities and actions
based on the pressures exerted by the workplace
environment.
• Other environmental considerations such as noise,
heat, cold, physical space, location, tools and
equipment, and resources and supports may also
influence a worker’s capacity to fulfill cognitive and
behavioral demands.
 M EASURING THE COGNITIVE AND
BEHAVIORAL DEM ANDS OF WORK
• cognitive and behavioral demands are less
observable than physical demands.
• However, by focusing on behavioral aspects of
cognitive skills , it is possible to identify and rate work
demand levels.
• Different methods are:
a) Document Review
• Job descriptions provided by a company or work
unit… responsibilities, physical risks, hours of work,
and specific knowledge or preparation required.
• nature of the work.
 b)Observation

• Observe job performance and note the variety of

demands
• Use of A structured format or checklist
• Different times of the day or week.
c) Worker Interviews
• behaviorally based scales and examples
 d)Supervisor Interview s
• understanding job duties and how they fit with the overall
flow of the workplace.
e)Rating Systems
• Functional demands are examined in different ways
depending on the group conducting the analysis and the
group’s purpose. For exp:
• O*Net, the job database, includes ratings on more than 40
cognitive and behavioral skills for each job
• These skills range from the basic skills required to perform a
job to required aptitudes in areas such as complex problem
solving, resource management, and social, technical, and
systems skills.
 USING JOB DEM ANDS ANALYSIS TOOLS:
(CITY OF TORONTO JOB DEM ANDS
ANALYSIS INSTRUM ENT)

• City of Toronto Job Demands Analysis Tool (CoT)… .

addresses physical, cognitive, and behavioral aspects
of work.
• A four-point rating scale is provided for each item,
with “4” representing the highest level of demand