Sister Callista Roy is a nurse theorist known for developing the Roy Adaptation Model (RAM). She received her Bachelor's degree in nursing from Mount St. Mary's College in 1963 and went on to work as faculty there. In the 1970s, she implemented RAM as the basis for the curriculum at Mount St. Mary's College and was made chair of the nursing department. RAM views the person as an adaptive system that responds to stimuli in the environment in four modes: physiological, self-concept, role function, and interdependence. The goal of adaptation is to promote integrity of the person through survival, growth, reproduction and mastery.

1. C A L I S T A R O Y ’ S
A D A P T A T I O N M O D E L
M E L A N I E V I L L A R A N D A

2. S I S T E R
C A L I S T A R O Y

3. Nurse theorist, writer, lecturer, researcher,
and teacher.
Professor and Nurse Theorist at the Boston
College of Nursing in Chesnut Hill.
Born at Los Angeles on October 14, 1939.
Bachelor of Arts with a major in nursing -
Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles in
1963.
S I S T E R C A L I S T A R O Y
Worked with Dorothy E. Johnson
Worked as faculty of Mount St. Mary’s
College in 1966.
Organized course content according to a
view of person and family as adaptive
systems.
RAM as a basis of curriculum at Mount St.
Mary’s College.
Master’s degree program in pediatric
nursing - University of California, Los
Angeles in 1996.
Master’s and PhD in Sociology in 1973 and
1977.
1970 - The model was implemented in
Mount St. Mary’s school.
1971 - she was made chair of the nursing
department at the college.

4. A D A P T A T I O N
T H E O R Y
G R A N D T H E O R Y

5. T H E O R E T I C A L
S O U R C E S
Roy combines Helson’s work with Rapport’s
definition of system and views the person as an
adaptive level.
After the development of her theory, Roy developed
the model as a framework for nursing practice,
research,and education.
According to Roy, more than 1500 faculty and
students have contributed to the theoretical
development of the adaptstion model.
The model uses concepts from AH to explore beliefs
and values of persons. Roy’s holistic approach to
nursing is based in humanism.
Roy Adaptation Model for Nursing was derived on
1964 from Harry Helson’s Adaptation Theory -
adaptive responses are a function of the incomiing
stimulus and the adaptive level.

6. M A J O R
C O N C E P T S
A N D
D E F I N I T I O N

7. M A J O R C O N C E P T S
A N D D E F I N I T I O N
A constantly changing point, made up of focal,
contextual and residual stimuli, which represent the
person’s own standard of the range of the range of
stimuli to which one can respond with ordinary adaptive
responses.
ADAPTATION LEVEL
The occurrences of situations of inadequate response
to need deficits or excesses. Seen not as nursing
diagnosis, but areas of concern for the nurse related to
adapting person or group (Within each adaptive mode)
ADAPTATION PROBLEMS
FOCAL STIMULUS - the degree of change or
stimulus most immediately confronting the person
and the one to which the person must make an
adaptive response, that is, the factor that
preecipitates behavior.
STIMULUS
REGULATOR - subsystem coping mechanism which
responds automatically through neural-chemical-
endocrine processes.
SUBSYSTEMS
A set of units so related or connected as to form a unity
or whole and characterized by inputs, outputs, and
control and feedback processes.
SYSTEM
CONTEXTUAL STIMULI - all other stimuli present
that contribute to the behavior caused or
precipitated by the focal stimuli.
RESIDUAL STIMULI - factors that may be affecting
behavior but whose efforts are not validated.
COGNATOR - subsystems coping mechanism which
responds to complex processes of perception and
information processing, judgement, and emotion.

8. PHYSIOLOGICAL MODE - involve the bod’s basic
need and ways of dealing with adaptation in regard
to fluid and electrolytes; exercise and rest;
elimination; nutrition; circulation and oxygen; and
regulation, which includes the senses, temperature
and endocrine regulation.
SELF-CENCEPT MODE - the composite beliefs and
feelings that one holds about oneself at a given
time. It is formed from perceptions, particularly of
other’s reaction, and direct one’s behavior.
ROLE PERFORMANCE MODE - role function is the
performance of duties based on given positions in
society.
INTERDEPENDENCE MODE - involves one relations
with significant others and support systems. In this
mode one maintains psychic integrity by meeting
needs for nurturance and affection.
1.
2.
3.
4.
ADAPTATIVE MODES
ADAPTIVE RESPONSES - responses that promote
integrity of the person in terms of goals of survival,
growth, reproduction, and mastery.
RESPONSES
INEFFECTIVE RESPONSES - responses that do
not contribute to adaptive goals, that is, survival,
growth, reproduction, and mastery.

9. M A J O R
A S S U M P T I O N S

10. A S S U M P T I O N S
To respond positively to environmental changes, the
person must adopt.
The person’s adaptation is a function of the stimulus he
is exposed to and his adaptation level.
The person’s adaptation level is such that it comprises a
zone indicating the range of stimulation that will lead to
a positive response.
The person has 4 modes of adaptation; physiologic
needs, self-concept, role function and inter dependence.

11. N U R S I N G
A “state and process of being and becoming an
integrated and whole person. Lack of integration
represents lack of health.”
A “theoretical system of knowledge which
prescribes a process of analysis and action related
to the care of the ill or potentially ill person.”
Roy differentiates nursing as a science from nursing
as a practice discipline.
P E R S O N
A “biopsychosocial being in constant interaction
with a changing environment.”
The recipient of nursing care, as a living, complex.
adaptive system with internal processes acting to
maintain adaptation in the four adaptive modes
(physiological needs, self-concept, role function,
and interdependence.)
The person as a living system is “a whole made up
of parts of subsystems that function as a unity for
some purpose.”
H E A L T H
E N V I R O N M E N T
“all the conditions, circumstances, and influences
surrounding and affecting the development and
behavior of persons or groups.”
The input into the person as an adaptive system
involving both internal and external factors (may be
slight or large, positive or negative.)
Any environmental change demands increasing
energy to adapt to the situation. Factors in the
environment that affect the person are categorized
as focal, contextual, and residual stimuli.