tems that include two control mechanisms (coping processes) and four adaptive modes, each of which is meticulously delineated in terms of both physical and perceptual processes.
The output of an adaptive system is said to be either adaptation or maladaptive (ineffective) responses. Ineffective coping results in illness. Adaptive coping results in health. The goal of nursing is to "maintain and enhance adaptive behavior and to change ineffective behavior to adaptive." (Roy, 1984, p. 59). The nurse must also act to expand the individual's coping abilities so that a wider range of stimuli is tolerated.
It is important to note that the Adaptation Model holds that each individual has limits to adaptation that are affected by the condition of the person or the individual's state of coping. This introduces the idea of control into stress, an idea that went beyond early theories of stress in which the individual was considered a passive recipient of stimuli. It also reflects a more optimistic
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