Abstract:
Occupational therapy is founded on the philosophical principle that engagement in meaningful occupations is a determinant of health and well-being. Foundational models such as the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO), the Person-Environment-Occupation (PEO) model, and the Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement (CMOP-E) have provided invaluable frameworks for understanding the components, context, and core drivers of occupation. However, a deeper, more structured understanding of the “Person” component—specifically, the predictable, patterned variations in what individuals find meaningful and how they are motivated—remains an area for theoretical development. This paper introduces the Enneastructural Model of Occupational Engagement (EMOE), a novel framework designed to complement existing models by providing a high-resolution lens into the person. The EMOE posits nine fundamental archetypes of occupational being, derived from the Enneagram of Personality, which describe core motivational structures that shape an individual’s volition, habits, and performance. This paper re-contextualizes these archetypes for occupational science, defining their Core Occupational Drivers, Core Occupational Threats, and their corresponding adaptive and maladaptive occupational patterns. To ground this phenomenological typology in empirical science, the EMOE establishes a theoretical bridge to the Five-Factor Model of personality, leveraging the extensive body of research in personality neuroscience to infer the neurobiological substrates of each archetype. By integrating Cloninger’s distinction between temperament and character, the EMOE further proposes a developmental framework wherein occupational therapy facilitates character growth through mindful engagement, enabling individuals to manage their innate temperamental predispositions. The discussion demonstrates how the EMOE enriches and unifies MOHO, PEO, and CMOP-E by providing a detailed etiology of volition, a structured view of the person, and a typology of the nine distinct paths to meaning. The EMOE offers a path toward a truly personalized, archetype-informed, and neuro-phenomenologically grounded occupational therapy.
Yıldırım, E. (2025). The Enneastructural Model of Occupational Engagement (EMOE): A Neuro-Phenomenological Framework for Occupational Therapy. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17057917
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