Changes in beliefs held by occupational therapy students before and after the first field experience.

Occupational therapy programs seek to integrate classroom theory and clinical reality. Early introduction of clinical contacts, concurrency of theory and practice, and coordinated program planning is directed to orderly growth and change in the occupational therapy student. It was hypothesized that, with complete integration of theory and practice, no sharp belief changes would occur during the first full-time field experience. Data from responses to social psychological instruments by one group of 28 occupational therapy seniors supported the hypothesis. There were no statistically significant changes in authoritarianism, dogmatism, or Machiavellianism during the first full-time field experience.