BEHAVIORAL THEORY

DOROTHY JOHNSON

DOROTHY JOHNSON

• Early life• Dorothy E. Johnson was born August 21, 1919, in Savannah,

Georgia.

• Dorothy Marie Johnson was the only child of Lester Eugene Johnson (December 20, 1870–December 13, 1915) and Mary Louisa Johnson (née Barlow, December 30, 1879–December 28, 1960). In March 1913 her family moved to Whitefish in Northwest Montana.

• She always considered Whitefish to be her home town, and later wrote a memoir of her early years there: "When You and I Were Young, Whitefish," published in 1982. She was appointed to the lifetime position of Whitefish's honorary chief of police.

• It was while she was a student at Whitefish High School that she began her professional writing career.

DOROTHY JOHNSON

• Her writing career began to take off by the 1930s. In 1935 her story Beulah Bunny was published and began a series of four stories. Her writing was temporarily detoured by World War II as she went to work for the Air Warden Service. After the war she produced some of her best known Western stories. These include The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1949 and A Man Called Horse. These two stories would later be filmed.

Professional life

• Past observational studies and generalsystem theory influenced Dorothy Johnsonin the development of her BehavioralSystem Model

Historical source

• In 1968 Dorothy first proposed her model of nursing care as fostering of “the efficient and effective behavioral functioning in the patient to prevent illness".

• She also stated that nursing was “concerned with man as an integrated whole and this is the specific knowledge of order we require”.

• In 1980 Johnson published her conceptualization of “behavioral system of model for nursing” this is the first work of Dorothy that explicates her definitions of the behavioral system model.

Johnson’s behavior system model

• She defined nursing as “an external regulatory force which acts to preserve the organization and integration of the patients behaviors at an optimum level under those conditions in which the behaviors constitutes a threat to the physical or social health, or in which illness is found”

Definition of nursing

There are 4 assumptions of system• First assumption states that there is “organization,

interaction, interdependency and integration of the parts and elements of behaviors that go to make up The system

” • A system “tends to achieve a balance among the various

forces operating within and upon it', and that man strive continually to maintain a behavioral system balance and steady state by more or less automatic adjustments and adaptations to the natural forces impinging upon him.”

Assumptions of behavioral system model

• A behavioral system, which both requires and results in some degree of regularity and constancy in behavior, is essential to man that is to say, it is functionally significant in that it serves a useful purpose, both in social life and for the individual.

• The final assumption states “system balance reflects adjustments and adaptations that are successful in some way and to some degree.”

• System must be “protected" from noxious influences with which system cannot cope”.

• Each subsystem must be “nurtured” through the input of appropriate supplies from the environment.

• Each subsystem must be “stimulated” for use to enhance growth and prevent stagnation

Each subsystem has three functional requirements

Goal ----- Set --- Choice of Behavior --- Behavior

• Affiliation

• Dependency

• Sexuality

• Aggression

• Elimination

• Ingestion

• Achievement

Representation of Johnson's Model

• Attachment or affiliative subsystem: “social inclusion intimacy and the formation and attachment of a strong social bond.”

• Dependency subsystem: “approval, attention or recognition and physical assistance”

• Ingestive subsystem: “the emphasis is on the meaning and structures of the social events surrounding the occasion when the food is eaten”

• Eliminative subsystem: “human cultures have defined different socially acceptable behaviors for excretion of waste ,but the existence of such a pattern remains different from culture to Culture.”

• Sexual subsystem:" both biological and social factor affect the behavior in the sexual subsystem”

• Aggressive subsystem: " it relates to the behaviors concerned with protection and self preservation Johnson views aggressive subsystem as one that generates defensive response from the individual when life or territory is being threatened”

• Achievement subsystem: " provokes behavior that attempt to control the environment intellectual, physical, creative, mechanical and social skills achievement are some of the areas that Johnson recognizes".

• Johnson’s Behavioral system model is a model of nursing care that advocates the fostering of efficient and effective behavioral functioning in the patient to prevent illness. The patient is defined as behavioral system composed of 7 behavioral subsystems. Each subsystem composed of four structural characteristics i.e. drives, set, choices and observable behavior.

• Three functional requirement of each subsystem includes

(1) Protection from noxious influences,

(2) Provision for the nurturing environment, and

(3) stimulation for growth. Any imbalance in each system results in disequilibrium .it is nursing role to assist the client to return to the state of equilibrium.

Summary