BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY

BSN-1D (A.Y. 2022-2023)

Presented by: Mostales, Michylea Jade S.

Nonog, Avelyn L.
Vicente, Aurelia V.
I. Getting to know the Theorist
II. Theoretical Sources of the
Theory
III. Main Discussion
- Major Assumptions
- Concepts and Relationships
- Theoretical Assertion
- Metaparadigm
IV. Use of Empirical Evidence
V. Analysis
VI. Acceptance by the Nursing
Community
VII. Application of Theory
VIII. Additional
- Symbol of the Theory
- Strengths and Weaknesses
IX. Summary
X.References
I. GETTING TO KNOW THE THEORIST
Born on July 28, 1938
Graduated at Duquesne University, Pittsburg
A professor Emirita at Loyola University Chicago.
A consultant and visiting scholar at the New York University

College of Nursing.
She is the founder and editor of Nursing Science Quarterly.
The president of Discovery National.
She published her first theory in 1981.
She is also a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
She was also the recipient of the New York Times Nurse

Educator of the Year Award in 2008.

 Rosemarie Rizzo Parse's Works
Nursing Fundamentals(1974)
Man-Living-Health: A Theory of Nursing (1981)
Nursing Science: Major Paradigms, Theories, and

Critiques (1987)
Illuminations: The Human Becoming Theory in

Practice and Research (1995)

The Human Becoming School of Thought (1998)
An International Human Becoming Perspective

(1999)
 II. THEORETICAL SOURCE OF THE THEORY

Influences of Rosemarie Rizzo Parse

-studied many philosopher while creating her theory was
greatly influenced by Martha E. Rogers who developed the
"Theory of Unitary Human"
- Existential Phenomenology was also one of the motivations
of Parse in the making of this theory.
Major Assumptions
Concepts and

Relationships
Theoretical Assertion
Metaparadigm
 MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS
The major assumptions of Parse’s theory originated with Rogers’s Science of Unitary
Human Beings and from Existential Phenomenology.
Parse’s thinking has brought her to a new ontology.
 MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS
Parse synthesized the nine assumptions of humanbecoming in four

broad statements:

1. Humanbecoming is structuring meaning, freely choosing the

situation.
2. Humanbecoming is configuring rhythmic humanuniverse

patterns.
3. Humanbecoming is cotranscending illimitably with emerging

possibilities.
4. Humanbecoming is humanuniverse cocreating a seamless

symphony (Parse, 2013, p. 113).

 MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS
Three themes arise from the assumptions of the humanbecoming school of thought.
These include (1) meaning, (2) rhythmicity, and (3) transcendence (Parse, 1998).
The postulates illimitability, paradox, freedom, and mystery (Parse, 2007b)
permeate the three themes.

3 THEMES
1. meaning
Meaning is borne in the messages that persons give and take with others in
speaking, moving, silence, and stillness (Parse, 1998, 2012b).
Meaning indicates the significance of something and is chosen by people.
Outsiders cannot decide the meaning or significance of something for
another person.
 MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS
2. rhythmicity
Rhythmicity is about patterns and possibilities.
For Parse, people are recognized by their unique patterns. People change
their patterns when they integrate new priorities, ideas, and dreams, and show
consistent patterns that continue.

3. transcendence
Transcendence is about change and possibility, the infinite possibility that
is humanbecoming.
To believe one thing or another, to go in one direction or another, to be
persistent or let go, to struggle or acquiesce, to be certain or uncertain, to
hope or despair—all these options surface in day-to-day living.
Considering and choosing from these options is cotranscending with the
possibles.
 CONCEPTS AND RELATIONSHIPS
The three themes lead us to the three principles of this theory.

3 PRINCIPLES
The principles (Parse, 2012b) are as follows:
1. Structuring meaning is the imaging and valuing of languaging.
2. Configuring rhythmical patterns is the revealing-concealing and

enabling-limiting of connecting-separating.
3. Cotranscending with possibles is the powering and originating of

transforming (p. 45).

Parse explained these principles through concepts and paradoxes.

 CONCEPTS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Principle I: Structuring Meaning
“Structuring meaning is the imaging and valuing of languaging” (Parse, 2012b,
p. 45), proposing that persons structure, or choose, the meaning of their
realities, and this choosing happens with explicit-tacit knowing.

1. Imaging: explicit-tacit; reflective-prereflective

how the patient view reality

2. Valuing: confirming-not confirming

patient's acceptance of belief

3.Languaging: speaking-being silent; moving-being still

where patients express their realities and valuing priorities
 CONCEPTS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Principle 2: Configuring Rhythmical Patterns
This principle means that human beings create patterns in day-to-day life, and
these patterns tell about personal meanings and values.

1. Revealing-concealing: disclosing - not disclosing

cocreating pattern of the patients; involves patient-nurse trust and
relationship

2. Enabling-limiting: potentiating-restricting
possibilities and opportunities and the consequences along the
journey of achieving of the patient's goal

3. Connecting-separating: attending-distracting
how two people get very close yet separate; they dwell on the
absence of the other one
 CONCEPTS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Principle 3: Cotranscending with Possibles
Persons continuously change and unfold in life as they engage with and choose
from infinite possibilities about how to be, what attitude or approach to have, whom
to relate with, and what interests or concerns to explore.

1. Powering: pushing-resisting; affirming-not affirming; being-nonbeing

struggle of the patient, the life, and the will to go on

2. Originating: certainty-uncertainty; conforming-not conforming

strive of the patient who want to be like other yet they want to be unique

3. Transforming: familiar-not familiar (Parse, 2013, p. 113)

about the new discoveries of the patient
 THEORETICAL ASSERTIONS
Parse’s (1981, 1998, 2012b) principles are the assertions of the humanbecoming theory.
Each principle interrelates the nine concepts of humanbecoming.
 METAPARADIGM
Person, Environment, and Health Viewed as Humanuniverse,

Humanbecoming, and Health

Person: intentional beings involved with their world, having a

fundamental nature of knowing, being present, and open to their

world
Environment: the world, the universe, and those who occupy

spaces along with others who freely choose to be in the situation.

Health: a way of being in the world
Nursing: guides humans toward ways of being, finding meaning in

situations, and choosing ways of cocreating their own health

 METAPARADIGM
Parse (1998, 2007b, 2012b) views the concepts human, universe and health as
inseparable and irreducible. To emphasize this inseparability, she specified
humanuniverse and humanbecoming as one word (Parse, 2007b).

For Parse, health is humanbecoming and a personal commitment, which means, “an
individual’s way of becoming is cocreated by that individual, incarnating his or her own
value priorities”

Persons change and are changed in relating with others, ideas, objects, and events.
Thus, people become known and understood as they cocreate patterns of relating
with people, ideas, culture, history, meanings, and hope.

Examples of the indivisibility, mystery, and complexity of humanuniverse and

humanbecoming is how people have relationships with their parents and other loved
ones who are no longer in this world.
IV. Use of

Empirical

Evidence
 Use of Empirical Evidence
Title: The Living Experience of Suffering: A Parse
Method Study With Older Adults
Objectives:
to investigate the living experience of suffering

Method used: Parse's research method was used to

answer the question: "What is the structure of the

living experience of suffering?"

 Use of Empirical Evidence
Results:
The living experience of suffering is resolved

amidst permeating anguish of diverse affiliations

with the blissful reprieve of tranquil acceptance.

The living experience of suffering is discussed in

relation to the principles of the humanbecoming

paradigm and in relation to how it can inform

further research.
 V. ANALYSIS
Clarity Simplicity Generality
helped nurses be with individuals,

concepts and
often resonate
families, and groups and was

interrelationships are in
with people when considered

evaluated in practice settings

principles written at an
at the level of human
where patients commented on

abstract level of discourse experience.

the positive difference it made

Accessibility Importance
useful because it provides a

has taken human science

meaningful foundation that is

beliefs into service and

helpful for nurses who want to

knowledge development in

live certain values in practice

new and important ways.

and research
 Acceptance by the Nursing Community
Practice:
Essentially to know more on human-lived experiences.
To guide the patient.
To have the ability to diagnose.
Education:
To understand and provide experiences to student nurses. (Arbes,

Acebes, & Arevalo, 2015)

To educate student nurses.
To be able to respond new possibilities.
Research:
Expands the theory itself. (Arbes et al., 2015)
Creates new nursing knowledge.
Heightens the understanding.
 VII. Application of theory
Situation: The grieving family who has experienced a

pregnancy loss, still birth, or neonatal death

The Parse nurse would not seek to change the

feeling experienced.
The nurse would listen for paradoxes to emerge as

the family explored the experience.

The nurse would not offer advice.
The nurse would ask questions to help the family

explore the paradoxes identified.

Black and white = opposite paradox

significant to ontology of human

becoming and green is hope

Center joined =co created mutual

humanuniverse process at the

ontological level & nurse-person

process
Green and black swirls intertwining

= humanuniverse co creation as an

ongoing process of becoming

 Strengths Weaknesses
Research considered to be in a “closed

Differentiates nursing from other

circle”
disciplines Rarely quantifiable results - Difficult to

Practice - Provides guidelines of

compare to other research studies, no

care and useful administration control group, standardized questions,

Useful in Education etc.

Provides research
Does not utilized the nursing

methodologies process/diagnoses
Provides framework to guide
Negates the idea that each person

inquiry of other theories (grief,

engages in a unique lived experience
Not accessible to the novice nurse
hope, laughter, etc.)
Not applicable to acute, emergent care
 IX. SUMMARY
The Humanbecoming Theory is a combination of biological, psychological, sociological, and
spiritual factors, and states that a person is a unitary being in continuous interaction with his or her
environment. It is centered around three themes: meaning, rhythmicity, and transcendence.

In nursing, the Humanbecoming Theory explains that a person is more than the sum of the parts,
the environment and the person are inseparable, and that nursing is a human science and art that uses
an abstract body of knowledge to help people. The theory allows nurses to create a stronger nurse-
patient relationship because the nurse is not focused on “fixing” problems, but is viewing the patient
as a whole person living experiences through his or her environment.

The Humanbecoming Theory of Nursing is a model that focuses on the quality of life of the
patient and sees the patient not as different aspects of a whole, but as a person. This is different than
many other nursing theories, and allows nurses to do what so many of them go into the nursing field to
help people.
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YouTube. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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