5 Domains of Functional Assessment for Disability Evaluation

January 6, 2020

Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry , Barbara Long, MD, PhD , Andrew O. Brown, MD , Sean Sassano-Higgins, MD , David “Daven” E. Morrison, MD , Christopher Flinton, MD

Problems with any one of these domains can disrupt an individual’s capacity to sustain work capacity.

These mental functions most commonly disrupt an individual’s capacity to sustain work capacity. Image ©archideaphoto/AdobeStock.

1. Social competence and/or teamwork: This functional domain refers to the individual’s capacity to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with peers, subordinates, or authority figures at the workplace.

2. Adaptability/flexibility: The mental functions that subserve adaptability and flexibility relate to an individual’s capacity to change perspective in response to changing demands in the external world.

3. Conscientiousness/dependability: These relate to an individual’s capacity to be consistently relied upon to perform the duties that he or she is charged to perform.

4. Impulse and behavioral control: Usually the impulses that are most likely to impair an individual’s capacity to work relate to anger and aggression, but any impaired capacity to control behavior can preclude work capacity.

5. Integrity: Integrity relates to, but encompasses more than, truthfulness and involves the consistency between an individual’s words and his or her actions, ie, whether he or she “walks the walk” in addition to “talking the talk.” This functional domain is generally more relevant to assessing an individual’s suitability to perform a specific occupation rather than his or her general capacity to work.

For more on this topic, see Functional Assessment for Disability Applications: Tools for the Psychiatrist, on which this slideshow is based.