Substance use: A life skills perspective

The paper proposes a life skills perspective for understanding substance use, in which generative and context based competences and control strategies are central. Within that framework, reasons for substance use, general goal related competence, and specific strategies used to control substance use were examined for 360 young people (144 males, 216 females) aged 18–20 years. Relationships were established between frequency of use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and participants’ self reported knowledge of methods and effects of use, as well as of how much use was made of knowledge of effects in social situations. Participants also answered short tests on actual knowledge of effects and results on these were related to the extent of use reported. Finally perceptions of the best ways to learn about the effects of using these substances were related to patterns of reported use. The results supported the application of the life skills perspective to the domain of substance use in six areas; goal orientation; perceived competence; control over one’s actions; contextual competence; personality traits; and utilisation of knowledge. Educational strategies to develop this perspective were suggested.     

Synthesizing soft systems methodology and human performance technology

Human performance technology (HPT), like other concepts, models, and frameworks that we use to describe the world in which we live and the way we organize ourselves to accomplish valuable activities, is built from paradigms that were fresh and relevant at the time it was conceived and from the fields of study from which it grew. However, when the frameworks used by practitioners grow out of similar paradigms, important things can be missed when designing solutions in performance environments simply because of their practical limitations and exclusion of issues that may warrant our attention. This article looks at the paradigms most commonly used to explain performance environments, both within HPT and by those from other fields. From this a synthesized approach to solving perceived problems in performance environments is provided that introduces Soft Systems Methodology to the HPT practitioner, an approach built on premises very different from those commonly utilized in HPT frameworks.