untitled

interaction in those works influenced my ideas rel-
ative to organizing a conceptual frame of reference
for nursing, as shown in Figure 16–1. Because con-
cepts offer one approach to structure knowledge
for nursing, a comprehensive review of nursing lit-
erature provided me with ideas to identify five
comprehensive concepts as a basis for a conceptual
system for nursing. The overall concept is a human
being, commonly referred to as an “individual” or a
“person.” Initially, I selected abstract concepts of
perception, communication, interpersonal rela-
tions, health, and social institutions (King, 1968).
These ideas forced me to review my knowledge
of philosophy relative to the nature of human be-
ings (ontology) and to the nature of knowledge
(epistemology).

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

In the late 1960s, while auditing a series of courses
in systems research, I was introduced to a philoso-
phy of science called General System Theory (Von
Bertalanffy, 1968). This philosophy of science
gained momentum in the 1950s, although its roots
date to an earlier period. This philosophy refuted
logical positivism and reductionism and proposed
the idea of isomorphism and perspectivism in
knowledge development. Von Bertalanffy, credited
with originating the idea of General System
Theory, defined this philosophy of science move-
ment as a “general science of wholeness: systems of
elements in mutual interaction” (Von Bertalanffy,
1968, p. 37).
My philosophical position is rooted in General
System Theory, which guides the study of organ-
ized complexity as whole systems. This philosophy
gave me the impetus to focus on knowledge
development as an information-processing, goal-
seeking, and decision-making system. General
System Theory provides a holistic approach to
study nursing phenomena as an open system and
frees one’s thinking from the parts-versus-whole
dilemma. In any discussion of the nature of nurs-
ing, the central ideas revolve around the nature of
human beings and their interaction with internal
and external environments. During this journey, I
began to conceptualize a theory for nursing.
However, because a manuscript was due in the
publisher’s office, I organized my ideas into a con-
ceptual system (formerly called a “conceptual

framework”), and the result was the publication of

a book entitled Toward a Theory of Nursing(King,

1971).

DESIGN OF A CONCEPTUAL SYSTEM

A conceptual system provides structure for organ-

izing multiple ideas into meaningful wholes. From

my initial set of ideas in 1968 and 1971, my con-

ceptual framework was refined to show some unity

and relationships among the concepts. In addition,

the next step in this process was to review the re-

search literature in the discipline in which the con-

cepts had been studied. For example, the concept of

perception has been studied in psychology for

many years. The literature indicated that most of

the early studies dealt with sensory perception.

Around the 1950s, psychologists began to study in-

terpersonal perception, which related to my ideas

about interactions. From this research literature, I

identified the characteristics of perception and de-

fined the concept for my framework. I continued

searching literature for knowledge of each of the

concepts in my framework. An update on my con-

ceptual system was published in 1995 (King, 1995).

Process for Developing a Concept

“Searching for scientific knowledge in nursing is an

ongoing dynamic process of continuous identifica-

tion, development, and validation of relevant con-

cepts” (King, 1975). What is a concept? A conceptis

an organization of reference points. Words are the

verbal symbols used to explain events and things in

our environment and relationships to past experi-

ences. Northrop (1969) noted: “[C]oncepts fall into

different types according to the different sources of

their meaning.... A concept is a term to which

meaning has been assigned.” Concepts are the cate-

gories in a theory.

The concept development and validation

process is as follows:

1. Review, analyze, and synthesize research litera-
   ture related to the concept.


2. From the above review, identify the character-
   istics (attributes) of the concept.


3. From the characteristics, write a conceptual
   definition.


4. Review literature to select an instrument or
   develop an instrument.

CHAPTER 16 Imogene M. King’s Theory of Goal Attainment 237