Sister Callista

Roy’s
Adaptation
Theory

Prepared by: Emmanuel D. Habilag, RN, MANc

Sister Callista Roy
 nurse theorist, writer, lecturer,
researcher and teacher
 Professor and Nurse Theorist at the
Boston College of Nursing in Chestnut
Hill
 Born at Los Angeles on October 14,
1939.
 Bachelor of Arts with a major in
nursing - Mount St. Mary's College,
Los Angeles in 1963.
 Master's degree program in pediatric
nursing - University of California, Los
Angeles in 1966.
Sister Callista Roy
 Master’s and PhD in Sociology in
1973 and 1977.
 Worked with Dorothy E. Johnson
 Worked as f faculty of Mount St.
Mary's College in 1966.
 Organized course content according
to a view of person and family as
adaptive systems.
 RAM as a basis of curriculum at
Mount St. Mary’s College
 1970 - The model was implemented
in Mount St. Mary’s school
 1971- she was made chair of the
nursing department at the college.
Adaptation Theory
- Grand Theory
 Theoretical Sources
 Roy’s Adaptation Model for Nursing was derived
in 1964 from Harry Helson’s Adaptation
Theory – adaptive responses are a function of
the incoming stimulus and the adaptive level

 Roy combines Helson’s work with Rapport’s

definition of system and views the
person as an adaptive system.
Major Concepts
and
Definitions
 System
 A set of units so related or connected as to form
a unity or whole and characterized by inputs,
outputs, and control and feedback processes.
 Adaptation Level
 A constantly changing point, made up of focal,
contextual and residual stimuli, which represent
the person’s own standard of the range of stimuli
to which one can respond with ordinary adaptive
responses.
 Adaptation Problems
 The occurrences of situations of inadequate
response to need deficits or excesses.

 Seen not as nursing diagnosis, but areas of

concern for the nurse related to adapting person
or group (Within each adaptive mode)
 Stimulus
 Focal Stimulus – the degree of change or stimulus most
immediately confronting the person and the one to which the
person must make an adaptive response, that is, the factor
that precipitates behavior

 Contextual Stimuli – all other stimuli present that

contribute to the behavior caused or precipitated by the focal
stimuli

 Residual Stimuli – factors that may be affecting behavior

but whose efforts are not validated
 Subsystems
 Regulator – subsystem coping mechanism
which responds automatically through neural-
chemical-endocrine processes.

 Cognator - subsystem coping mechanism

which responds to complex processes of
perception and information processing,
judgment, and emotion.
 Responses
 Adaptive Responses – responses that
promote integrity of the person in terms of goals
of survival, growth, reproduction, and mastery

 Ineffective Responses – responses that do

not contribute to adaptive goals, that is, survival,
growth, reproduction, and mastery
 Adaptive Modes
1. Physiological Mode – involve the body’s basic needs
and ways of dealing with adaptation in regard to fluid and
electrolytes; exercise and rest; elimination; nutrition;
circulation and oxygen; and regulation, which includes the
senses, temperature and endocrine regulation

2. Self-Concept Mode – the composite of beliefs and

feelings that one holds about oneself at a given time. It is
formed from perceptions, particularly of other’s reactions,
and directs one’s behavior. (physical self and personal self)
 Adaptive Modes
3. Role Performance Mode – role function is the
performance of duties based on given positions
in society.

4. Interdependence Mode – involves one’s

relations with significant others and support
systems. In this mode one maintains psychic
integrity by meeting needs for nurturance and
affection.
Major Assumptions
 ASSUMPTIONS
 The person is a bio-psycho-social being.
 The person is in constant interaction with a
changing environment.
 To cope with a changing world, person uses both
innate and acquired mechanisms which are
biological, psychological and social in origin.
 Health and illness are inevitable dimensions of
the person’s life.
 ASSUMPTIONS
 To respond positively to environmental changes, the
person must adapt.
 The person’s adaptation is a function of the stimulus
he is exposed to and his adaptation level
 The person’s adaptation level is such that it
comprises a zone indicating the range of stimulation
that will lead to a positive response.
 The person has 4 modes of adaptation: physiologic
needs, self- concept, role function and inter-
dependence.
Nursing
• A “theoretical system of
knowledge which prescribes a
process of analysis and action
related to the care of the ill or
potentially ill person.”

• Roy differentiates nursing as a

science from nursing as a
practice discipline.
Person
• A “biopsychosocial being in constant
interaction with a changing environment.”

• The recipient of nursing care, as a living,

complex, adaptive system with internal
processes (cognator and regulator) acting
to maintain adaptation in the four
adaptive modes (physiological needs, self-
concept, role function, and
interdependence.)

• The person as a living system is “a whole

made up of parts of subsystems that
function as a unity for some purpose.”
Health
• A “state and a process of
being and becoming an
integrated and whole person.
Lack of integration
represents lack of health.”
Environment
• “all the conditions, circumstances, and
influences surrounding and affecting the
development and behavior of persons or
groups. ”

• The input into the person as an adaptive

system involving both internal and
external factors (may be slight or large,
positive or negative)

• Any environmental change demands

increasing energy to adapt to the
situation. Factors in the environment that
affect the person are categorized as focal,
contextual, and residual stimuli.
Theoretical
Assertions
THANK YOU!