Wednesday 21 September 2011

Affordances

According to Hagedorn, (2000), Affordance is 'anything which the environment can offer the individual which is pertinent to the role challenge and can facilitate role competence'.

In light of this quote, I believe affordance is an important component of ergonomics in the way that it links a specific activity (cooking) with another activity, allowing us to make connections to factors such as spirituality, ethics, communication and memories that all play a part in my specific activity. From my personal experience of cooking I have identified that there is definitely a partnership between my family and I, and also a caring component as we have to be organised and think about the times everyone will be at home. There is also respect shown as I understand the importance of relaxing after a hard day of work and having dinner cooked for you. Moral sense is also an important factor, I do this by making sure I turn off the oven, washing dishes after cooking and washing my hands before touching any food.

Communication within the kitchen is a non-verbal sense of communication however if a family member is in the kitchen with me there is a verbal relationship. The primary relationship involved in the activity is parent / child and in some ways tutor / learner as if I am making a meal that is new to me I often ask my parents questions which allows me to learn from them.
There is definitely a spiritual side to my cooking, when I am organised and relaxed I can enjoy preparing, making and experimenting with new meals and take in the environment around me. Visser, (1986) quotes an interesting point; "as soon as we can count on a food supply (and so take food for granted), not a moment sooner, we start to civilise ourselves". I feel a strong connection to this quote as I believe in our society today food is something we take for granted and it is nice to stop, think and realise how special our food really is. I gain inspiration through magazines, recipe books and my mother as I love to learn to cook some meals that she makes especially her lemon cake and ouzo salad yum!


                                  




References:

Hagedorn, R. (2000). Tools for Practice in Occupational Therapy: A Structured Approach to Core Skills and Processes. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone

Visser, (1986). Much Depends on Dinner. New York: Grove Press

3 comments:

  1. Hey Laura! Totally agree with your ethics in this post (eating-good, cleaning up-bad). I don't know if this will work for you, but when I start to get a little teary eyed cutting onions I run some hot water in the sink and put my face over the sink. I think the steam helps the onion feel go away. Great post =).

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  2. Hi Laura, Reading your post has made me reflect on certain aspects of how I feel when cooking. I to have a look through recipe books and magazines to get inspiration. I enjoyed reading your post. You may may like to check spelling in a couple areas :)

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  3. Hi Laura
    Sure sounds like you really enjoy your cooking. You have linked your activity really nicely in with the different affordances. I agree with you and Paula as in I also get inspiration from magazines and recipe books. Perhaps you might like to look on the internet for different recipes as there are a lot on the internet.
    Kate =)

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