Michael Carlson, Ph.D.

Because occupational therapy is a growing profession with a severe personnel shortage, the job market will remain bright for occupational therapists for many years to come. Although the healthcare marketplace is subject to change over time, occupational therapy's holistic emphasis enables professionals to readily adapt treatment to novel problems and settings and assist a wide range of clients in hospitals, schools, clinics, homes, or the community. This broad-based emphasis, in conjunction with the acknowledged importance of occupation to health and quality of life, will make occupational therapy services especially valuable in the decades ahead, as the numbers of older adults with special needs will continue to skyrocket.
At USC, where our mission has always been to train excellent practitioners, I help ensure that our occupational therapy and science students are well versed in statistics and research methods and designs. This enables them to analyze data on questions of importance in their practices, understand research articles pertinent to their special areas, and complete a thesis based on original research if they pursue a Ph.D. I also write grant proposals for our department and then serve on research teams after results are coming in. Using biometry, I define research issues and devise statistical analysis.
In my experience, I have found that beyond offering the opportunity to provide needed services of documented value, the study of occupational therapy promotes the personal development of its students and practitioners. In my own life, I have successfully used principles of time-use and health-through-occupation to organize a daily routine that is balanced and satisfying. Very importantly, I have seen how learning what is in a person's heart when he or she is doing something teaches therapists how to use occupation to help that person. And when we value what is in another's heart, we learn more about what is in our own.
With the field's emphasis on caring and altruism, our department maintains good morale and unity in striving to promote the vision of occupational therapy and occupational science as applying to all of us, not just those with disabilities. As participants in the nation's premier occupational therapy graduate program, USC students and faculty share a contagious excitement about occupation and its value for improving lives.

Biography
Michael Carlson is a social psychologist and occupational scientist with expertise in research design and statistical analysis. He did his undergraduate work at UC Irvine in Anthropology, Social Ecology and Psychology. At USC, he earned a Master's degree in Psychology and Applied Biometry (Biostatistics), in addition to his Ph.D. in Social Psychology. Within the USC Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Department, he participates in the generation and ongoing oversight of research grants, such as the Well Elderly Project and the Department's current study on the lifestyle factors that lead to pressure sores among persons with spinal cord injury. In addition, he teaches quantitative skills in the graduate program. To date, he has authored and co-authored nearly forty peer reviewed articles on occupational science, occupational therapy, psychology, and medical science. The journals in which his articles appear include the American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Journal of Occupational Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, and the Journal of Pediatrics, among others.