SISTER CALLISTA ROY Two subsystems:
(Adaptation Model) 1. Cognator subsystem: is a major coping process
BACKGROUND:
 October 14, 1939 in Los Angeles, California
 Education
 1963: Callista Roy received her Bachelor of Arts
Major in Nursing from Mount Saint Mary’s
College in Los Angeles
 1966: received her master’s degree in nursing from
the University of California
 1973: After earning her nursing degrees, Roy
began her education in sociology, receiving both a
master’s degree in sociology
 1977: a doctorate degree in sociology from the
University of California
 Career
 A Professor and Nursing Theorist at Boston
College's Connell School of Nursing
 1991: she founded the Boston Based Adaptation
Research in Nursing Society (BBARNS), which
would later be renamed the Roy Adaptation
Association.
 She has lectured across the United States and in
more than thirty other countries.
 She belongs to the Sisters of St. Joseph of
Carondelet.
 2017: Retires from the Connell School faculty,
returns to California
ADAPTATION MODEL
“The goal of nursing is to promote adaptation for
individuals and groups in each of the four adaptive modes,
thus contributing to health quality of life, and dignity with
dying” (Roy 1999, p. 19)
Influenced by:
 Dorothy Johnson: After working with her, Roy
became convinced of the importance of
describing the nature of nursing as a service to
society.
 Harry Helson
 Rapoport definition of systems
 Concepts from Lazarus and Selye
The environment has three components (Stimuli):
1. Focal: the internal or external that immediately
confronts the person;
2. Contextual: which is all stimuli present in the
situation that all contribute to the effect of the
focal stimulus
3. Residual: whose effects in the current situation
are unclear.
involving four cognitive-emotive channels:
perceptual and information processing, learning,
judgment, and emotion.
2. Regulator subsystem: is a basic type of
adaptive process that responds automatically
through neural, chemical, and endocrine coping
channels.
Ten explicit assumptions:
1. The person is a bio-psycho-social being.
2. The person is in constant interaction with a
changing environment.
3. To cope with a changing world, a person uses
coping mechanisms, both innate and acquired,
which are biological, psychological, and social
in origin.
4. Health and illness are inevitable dimensions of a
person’s life.
5. In order to respond positively to environmental
changes, a person must adapt.
6. A person’s adaptation is a function of the
stimulus he is exposed to and his adaptation
level.
7. The person’s adaptation level is such that it
comprises a zone indicating the range of
stimulation that will lead to a positive response.
8. The person has four modes of adaptation:
physiologic needs, self-concept, role function,
and interdependence.
9. Nursing accepts the humanistic approach of
valuing others’ opinions and perspectives.
Interpersonal relations are an integral part of
nursing.
10. There is a dynamic objective for existence with
the ultimate goal of achieving dignity and
integrity.
Four implicit assumptions:
1. A person can be reduced to parts for study and
care.
2. Nursing is based on causality.
3. A patient’s values and opinions should be
considered and respected.
4. A state of adaptation frees a person’s energy to
respond to other stimuli.
Four Adaptive Modes:
1. Physiologic need – the manifestation of physiologic
activities of all cells, tissues, organs, and systems
making up the body
2. Self-concept – 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)
3. Role function – the performance of duties based on
given positions in society
4. Interdependence – involves one’s relations with
significant others and support systems.

The Adaptation Model includes a six-step nursing

process:
1. Assesses behaviors
a. Observable behavior- vital signs
b. Non-observable behavior- feelings,
experienced by the person
2. Assesses stimuli
Stimulus- any change in internal and external
environment that induces a response in the
adaptive system
3. Diagnosis
4. Sets goals to promote adaptation
5. Nursing interventions
6. Evaluation

References:
 https://nursing-theory.org/theories-and-
models/roy-adaptation-model.php
 Gonzalo, A. (2014, August 19). Sister Callista
Roy: Adaptation Model of Nursing. Retrieved
from Nurses Labs:
https://nurseslabs.com/sister-callista-roys-
adaptation-model/

 http://samples.jbpub.com/9781449626013/723
76_CH10_Masters.pdf