Empowerment theory for rehabilitation research: Conceptual and methodological issues

The rapid paradigmatic shift in rehabilitation to more constituent-driven treatment, program planning, and research agendas has led to the proposal to include empowerment as a critical variable in outcome research (J. D. Banja, 1990; National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 1991). This article describes a conceptual framework for assessing empowerment at the individual level of analysis, that is, psychological empowerment. The discussion also includes a brief description of empowerment theory in general, including values, processes, and outcomes. Empowerment across levels of analysis is presented to place the construct of psychological empowerment in the larger theoretical context. Linkages between empowerment theory and the rehabilitation literature are presented.