IMOGENE KING

Imogene Martina King (January 30, 1923 – December 24, 2007) was one of the pioneers and
most sought nursing theorists for her Theory of Goal Attainment which was developed in the
early 1960s. Her work is being taught to thousands of nursing students from all over the world
and is implemented in a variety of service settings as well.

As a recognized global leader, King truly made a positive difference for the nursing profession
with her significant impact on nursing’s scientific base. She made an enduring impact on nursing
education, practice, and research while serving as a consummate, active leader in professional
nursing.

THEORY: Goal Attaintment 

 The Theory of Goal Attainment states that “Nursing is a process of action, reaction, and
interaction whereby nurse and client share information about their perception in the
nursing situation.”
 Imogene King’s Theory of Goal Attainment was first introduced in the 1960s. From the
title itself, the model focuses on the attainment of certain life goals. It explains that the
nurse and patient go hand-in-hand in communicating information, set goals together, and
then take actions to achieve those goals. The factors that affect the attainment of goals are
roles, stress, space, and time. On the other hand, the goal of the nurse is to help patients
maintain health so they can function in their individual roles. The nurse’s function is to
interpret information in the nursing process, to plan, implement, and evaluate nursing
care.
 To help nurses understand her work, she defined several terms which include the patient,
defined as a social being who has three fundamental needs: the need for health
information, the need for care that seeks to prevent illness, and the need for care when the
patient is unable to help him or herself.
 She also explained health as involving life experiences of the patient, which includes
adjusting to stressors in the internal and external environment by using resources
available. The environment, defined as the background for human interaction. It involves
the internal environment, which transforms energy to enable people to adjust to external
environmental changes, and it involves the external environment, which is formal and
informal organizations. A nurse is considered part of the patient’s environment.
 There are three interacting systems in the Theory of Goal Attainment according to King.
These are the personal system, the interpersonal system, and the social system. Each
system is given different concepts. The concepts for the personal system are: perception,
self, growth and development, body image, space, and time. The concepts for the
interpersonal system are: interaction, communication, transaction, role, and stress. The
 concepts for the social system are: organization, authority, power, status, and decision
making.

Major Concepts and Subconcepts:

 The following are the major concepts and subconcepts of Imogene King’s Theory of
Goal Attainment:

1. Nursing

 Nursing is a process of action, reaction, and interaction whereby nurse and client share
information about their perceptions in the nursing situation. The nurse and client share
specific goals, problems, and concerns and explore means to achieve a goal.

2. Health

 Health is a dynamic life experience of a human being, which implies continuous

adjustment to stressors in the internal and external environment through optimum use of
one’s resources to achieve maximum potential for daily living.

3. Individual

 Individuals are social beings who are rational and sentient. Humans communicate their
thoughts, actions, customs, and beliefs through language. Persons exhibit common
characteristics such as the ability to perceive, to think, to feel, to choose between
alternative courses of action, to set goals, to select the means to achieve goals, and to
make decisions.

4. Environment

 Environment is the background for human interactions. It is both external to, and internal
to, the individual.

5. Action

 Action is defined as a sequence of behaviors involving mental and physical action. The
sequence is first mental action to recognize the presenting conditions; then physical
action to begin activities related to those conditions; and finally, mental action in an
effort to exert control over the situation, combined with physical action seeking to
achieve goals.

6. Reaction
  Reaction is not specifically defined but might be considered to be included in the
sequence of behaviors described in action.

Interacting Systems of Theory of Goal Attainment:

According to King, there are three interacting systems in the Theory of Goal Attainment. These
are the personal system, the interpersonal system, and the social system. Each system is given
different concepts. The concepts for the personal system are: perception, self, growth and
development, body image, space, and time. The concepts for the interpersonal system are:
interaction, communication, transaction, role, and stress. The concepts for the social system are:
organization, authority, power, status, and decision making.

1. Personal Systems

o Each individual is a personal system. King designated an example of a personal

system as a patient or a nurse. King specified the concepts of body image, growth,
and development, perception, self, space, and time in order to comprehend human
beings as persons

o “The self is a composite of thoughts and feelings which constitute a person’s

awareness of his individual existence, his conception of who and what he is. A
person’s self is the sum total of all he can call his. The self includes, among other
things, a system of ideas, attitudes, values, and commitments. The self is a
person’s total subjective environment. It is a distinctive center of experience and
significance. The self constitutes a person’s inner world as distinguished from the
outer world consisting of all other people and things. The self is the individual as
known to the individual. It is that to which we refer when we say “I.”

o Growth and development can be defined as the processes in people’s lives

through which they move from a potential for the achievement to the actualization
of self.

o King defines body image as the way one perceives both one’s body and others’
reactions to one’s appearance.

o Space includes that space exists in all directions, is the same everywhere, and is
defined by the physical area known as “territory” and by the behaviors of those
occupying it.
 o Time is defined as “a duration between one event and another as uniquely
experienced by each human being; it is the relation of one event to another event.”

2. Interpersonal Systems

o These are formed by human beings interacting. Two interacting individuals form
a dyad; three form a triad, and four or more form small or large groups. As the
number of interacting individuals increases, so does the complexity of the
interactions. Understanding the interpersonal system requires the concepts
of communication, interaction, role, stress, and transaction.

o Interactions are defined as the observable behaviors of two or more individuals

in mutual presence.

o King (1990) defines communication as “a process whereby information is given

from one person to another either directly in a face-to-face meeting or indirectly
through telephone, television, or the written word.”

o King defines transactions as “a process of interactions in which human beings

communicate with the environment to achieve goals that are valued… goal-
directed human behaviors.
o The characteristics of the role include reciprocity in that a person may be a giver
at one time and a taker at another time, with a relationship between two or more
individuals who are functioning in two or more roles that learned, social,
complex, and situational.

o Stress is “a dynamic state whereby a human being interacts with the environment
to maintain balance for growth, development, and performance, which involves
an exchange of energy and information between the person and the environment
for regulation and control of stressors.”

3. Social Systems

o A more comprehensive interacting system consists of groups that make up

society, referred to as the social system. Religious, educational, and health care
systems are examples of social systems. The influential behavior of an extended
family on an individual’s growth and development is another social system
 example. Within a social system, the concepts of authority, decision
making, organization, power, and status guide system understanding.

o Power is the capacity to use resources in organizations to achieve goals… is the

process whereby one or more persons influence other persons in a situation… is
the capacity or ability of a person or a group to achieve goals… occurs in all
aspects of life and each person has potential power determined by individual
resources and the environmental forces encountered. Power is a social force that
organizes and maintains society. Power is the ability to use and to mobilize
resources to achieve goals.

o Status is “the position of an individual in a group or a group in relation to other

groups in an organization” and is identified that status is accompanied by
“privileges, duties, and obligation.”

o Decision making is “a dynamic and systematic process by which goal-directed

choice of perceived alternatives is made and acted upon by individuals or groups
to answer a question and attain a goal” (King, 1990).

o King (1986) added control as a subconcept in the social system but did not
further define the concept.