| Planning and Organization are a subset of the cognitive skills often described as higher executive functions. Executive functions may not be organized hierarchically. Therefore, it is possible for individuals to have difficulty with the "lower level" executive functions such as sustained attention, inhibition, or initiation, while still having relatively intact abilities to complete more complex and integrative planning and organization tasks. Likewise, higher-order executive functions may be impaired despite intact lower level executive functioning. This dissociation may contribute to the poor ecological validity of neuropsychological tests. Therefore, there is a clinical and research need for instruments to sample real-world higher order executive functioning. In response to this need, the present questionnaire was created by reviewing multiple literatures, including peer-reviewed psychological literature and popular literatures in the fields of self-help and business. Questionnaire items were then abstracted from the suggestions presented in these literatures. The development of this questionnaire represents an attempt to expand the understanding of executive functioning by giving researchers another tool with which to investigate planning and organization in a variety of populations. The measure can also be used as a clinical or motivational tool that presents individuals with ideas for skills that they can use in order to improve their planning and organizational skills in a positive rather than deficit-focused manner. |
