BEHAVIORAL SYSTEM MODEL
Interventions, and Evaluation.
So now we will discuss about Dorothy Johnson’s
Behavioral System Theory. Dorothy Johnson
may not be familiar for us unlike Florence
Nightingale, but her theory contributed a lot in
terms of nursing health care.
Dorothy Johnson was an American Nurse,
Researcher, Author, and Theorist. She was born
on August 21, 1919 in Savannah, Georgia. She
was the youngest among seven children.
She finished her associates degree at Armstrong
Junior College in Savannah, Georgia on 1938.
After that, she took a year of from school due to
The Great Depression and became a teacher of
two children in Miami, Florida. This is a
significant moment for Johnson because she
realized her love for children, nursing, and
education.
She finished her Bachelors of Science in Nursing
at Vanderbilt on 1942. She was the top student
in her class. After that, she received her
Master’s Degree in Public Health from Harvard
University in Boston Massachusetts on 1948
Johnson focused on teaching while she was a
Staff Nurse at Chatham-Savannah Health
Council. Between 1955-1956 she was already an
Assistant Professor in Pediatric Nursing later
became an Associate Professor in Nursing.
In 1965, She became the Chairperson on the
Committee of the California Nurses Association.
She proposed Behavioral System theory in 1968.
Her career expanded for over 29 years until she
retired on 1978. She died at the age of 80 on
February 4, 1999.
The model advocates, meaning that they are
promoting, and nurturing desirable and
effective behavioral functioning, it is the actions
that you can observe from the patient to
prevent illness.
She defined humans as a system; a behavioral
system that is composed of seven subsystems.
The nurse’s role is to help the patient to
maintain and stabilize the patient’s self-balance.
(katinuan). She also noted that this theory is an
adaptive response (makapag adjust) to stimuli (a
thing or event that might trigger the patient) to
maintain stability and comfort. This System
includes Nursing Care Plan, Assessment,
Diagnosis, expected client outcomes, Nursing
a. to assist patient whose behavior is
proportional (corresponding – same amount or
value) to social needs
b. to assist patient who is able to change his/her
behavior that justifies biological imperatives
(biological imperatives – things or processes
that living organisms need to live and survive)
c. to help the patient who has the greatest
benefit or chance to be healed from a doctor's
skills and knowledge when they are ill.
d. to assist the patient whose behavior does not
give evidence of unnecessary trauma that can
lead to illness. Example, mood swings, feeling
numb, increased heart rate, etc.
SUBSYSTEMS
1. ingestion – intake of needs such as oxygen,
food, and medications (when, how, what, how
much dosage, and under what conditions we
eat)
2. eliminative – dumping of wastes that may
have several ways to eliminate. Exp. Sewage
treatment, sewage sludge treatment, fecal
matter, composting, and fecal sludge and fecal
sludge management
3. affiliative – maintenance of a strong social
bond. Basis for all social organizations. It
provides security, assurance, and survival.
4. dependency – it promotes helping behavior
that calls for a nurturing response. (Approval,
attention/recognition, and physical assistance. It
develops dependency from almost having
dependency to others to being an independent
that is essential for surviving social groups
5. sexual – it is a social and biological factor that
affects behavior. It can be procreation, gender
identity and sex-roles behaviors.
6. aggressive-protective – it is like self-defense,
building shields of protection when they feel a
threat. People in this kind of behavior needs to
be respected and protected
7. achievement – it kind of manipulates the
environment to control or mastery an aspect of
self to some standard of excellence. For
example, intellectual, physical, creative, and
social skills.