untitled

My peers at the house of delegates at the Florida
Nurses Association voted in 1996 to give me life-
time membership. The University of Tampa
Department of Nursing named the annual research
award given to students the “Imogene M. King
Research Award.” I was honored at the 75th
anniversary convention of Sigma Theta Tau
International with a research grant named for me
and with a program that presented a description of
me as a caring individual. I also appear in Who’s
Who in America, American Women,and Who’s Who
in Nursing.

Introducing the Theory

Continuous discoveries in telecommunications
and technology, and a daily bombardment of infor-
mation about world events bring complexity to
one’s life that is unprecedented in history. Instant
communication reminds us that we live in an
information-processing world of systems: “A sys-
tem is defined as a series of functional components
connected by communication links exhibiting pur-
poseful goal-directed behavior” (King, 1996). As in-
dividuals, we are born, grow, and develop within
each nation. Nations make up the world society. A
sense of a global community can be understood as
we view the interactions of individuals and groups
with linguistic, ethnic, and religious differences.
The commonality in this worldview is the human
being. How is this global community and health
care related to theory construction and testing in
research in nursing?
The commonality in my worldview is human
beings who communicate and interact in their
small groups within their nations’ social systems;
that is, human environments as well as physical en-
vironments. Three dynamic interacting systems,
shown in Figure 16–1, represent individuals as per-
sonal systems, groups as interpersonal systems, and
large groups as social systems that make up most
societies in the world (King, 1981). These systems
represent interconnected links for information pro-
cessing in a high-tech world of health care and
nursing. This conceptual system provides one ap-
proach to structure a world community of human
beings, who are the recipients of nursing care.
This chapter presents a review of my ideas about
developing theoretical knowledge for nursing. A

process for developing a conceptual system is

explained. The method used to derive a theory of

goal attainment from my conceptual system is

demonstrated. The application of this conceptual

system and Theory of Goal Attainment is discussed

in Part 2 of this chapter.

INITIAL IDEAS

My first theory publication pronounced the prob-

lems and prospect of knowledge development in

nursing (King, 1964). Over 30 years ago, the prob-

lems were identified as (1) lack of a professional

nursing language; (2) atheoretical nursing phe-

nomena; and (3) limited concept development.

Today, theories and conceptual frameworks have

identified theoretical approaches to knowledge

development and utilization of knowledge in

practice. Concept development is a continuous

process in the nursing science movement (King,

1988).

My rationale for developing a schematic repre-

sentation of nursing phenomena was influenced

by the Howland Systems Model (Howland, 1976)

and the Howland and McDowell conceptual frame-

work (Howland & McDowell, 1964). The levels of

236 SECTION III Nursing Theory in Nursing Practice, Education, Research, and Administration

SOCIAL SYSTEMS

(Society)

INTERPERSONAL SYSTEMS

(Group)

PERSONAL

SYSTEMS

(Individuals)

FIGURE 16–1 King’s conceptual system.