What is Theory of Goal Attainment?

The Theory of Goal Attainment states that “Nursing is a process of action, reaction, and
interaction by which nurse and client share information about their perception in a nursing
situation” and “a process of human interactions between nurse and client whereby each
perceives the other and the situation, and through communication, they set goals, explore
means, and agree on means to achieve goals.”

Major Concepts and Subconcepts

The following are the major concepts and subconcepts of Imogene King’s Theory of Goal
Attainment:
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 how to achieve a goal.

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 daily living potential.

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, think, feel, choose between alternative courses
of action, set goals, select the means to achieve goals, and make decisions.

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

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 personal system concepts 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 social system concepts are
organization, authority, power, status, and decision-making.
1. Personal Systems
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, development,
perception, self, space, and time to comprehend human beings as persons.

“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 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.”

Growth and development can be defined as the processes in people’s lives through which
they move from a potential for achievement to the actualization of self.

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

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.

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.”

King (1986) added learning as a subconcept in the personal system but did not further define
it.

2. Interpersonal Systems
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.
Interactions are defined as the observable behaviors of two or more individuals in mutual
presence.

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.”

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.

The characteristics of the role include reciprocity. A person may be a giver at one time and a
taker at another time, with a relationship between two or more individuals functioning in two
or more, learned, social, complex, and situational roles.

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
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. An extended family’s influential behavior 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.

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. 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 mobilize resources to achieve goals.

Status is “the position of an individual in a group or a group concerning other groups in an

organization,” It is identified that status is accompanied by “privileges, duties, and
obligation.”
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).

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

The figure above represents a process of human interactions that lead to transactions: A
model of transaction. According to King, “The human process of interactions formed the
basis for designing a model of transactions that depicted theoretical knowledge used by
nurses to help individuals and groups attain goals.”

Interaction
Interaction is a process of perception and communication between a person and environment
and between person and person represented by verbal and nonverbal behaviors that are goal-
directed.

Transaction
The transaction is a process of interactions in which human beings communicate with the
environment to achieve valued goals; transactions are goal-directed human behaviors.
Perception is “each person’s representation of reality.”

Communication
Communication is defined as “a process whereby information is given from one person to
another either directly in face-to-face meetings or indirectly through telephone, television, or
the written word.”

Role
The role is defined as “a set of behaviors expected of persons occupying a position in a social
system; rules that define rights and obligations in a position; a relationship with one or more
individuals interacting in specific situations for a purpose.”

Stress
Stress is “a dynamic state whereby a human being interacts with the environment to maintain
balance for growth, development, and performance… an energy response of an individual to
persons, objects, and events called stressors.”

Growth and Development

Growth and development can be defined as the “continuous changes in individuals at the
cellular, molecular, and behavioral levels of activities… the processes that take place in the
life of individuals that help them move from potential capacity for achievement to self-
actualization.”

Time
Time is “a sequence of events moving onward to the future… a continuous flow of events in
successive order that implies a change, a past and a future… a duration between one event
and another as uniquely experienced by each human being… the relation of one event to
another.”
Space
Space exists in every direction and is the same in all directions. Space includes that physical
area called territory. Space is defined by the behaviors of those individuals who occupy it.