Concept determination as part of the development of knowledge in caring science

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to highlight concept determination as part of the development of knowledge in caring science, by describing Eriksson's model of concept determination. Concepts belong to and are developed in science, and it is through concepts that reality is shaped. Concepts and language are closely related, and Gadamer's guiding thought is that language constitutes the middle where I and the world, join together. It is by its very activity of thinking that the meaning is to be heard, and Gadamer emphasizes that the being that can be understood is language and points to a universal ontological structure against the fundamental nature of what is allowing to be understood. The first outlines of the model of concept determination are described as a research design for the development of the care process model. In developing the model of concept determination, the intent has been to fill a void in the international caring science literature, where no model is sufficiently comprehensive to meet the requirement for a model from a humanistic hermeneutic perspective with roots in an explicit ontology and ethos. Eriksson's model of concept determination includes both an ontological and a contextual determination. Concept determination is the main concept in Eriksson's model and includes concept formation and concept analysis. The starting point of concept determination is a hermeneutic epistemology developed in a scientific tradition of caring. The model of concept determination opens itself to versatility in determining concepts and provides a nuanced picture of the concept in question, while the whole-part-whole thinking simultaneously leads to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted caring reality and the current object of knowledge. By constantly returning to the what-questions, the course of events will continue and conceptual determination moves around the substance towards a deeper understanding of the core.

Concept determination of human dignity

“…18 A concept determination needs both an ontological and a contextual determination in order to bring a deeper understanding of the conceptual meaning and essence. 9 Ontological determination aims at determining what the unique nature and meaning of dignity is. Contextual determination tries to find the features that dignity assumes when it is related to practice.…”

“…9 The semantic analysis of dignity (värdighet) was carried out by an analysis of 11 Swedish dictionaries published between 1850 and 1991. 8 Discrimination analysis is where the selected synonyms are analyzed to glean important characteristic features.…”

“…8 Our understanding of this methodology is formed by using and developing it in caring science at Å bo Academy University in Finland. 9 Wide ranges of perspectives of dignity have been published by many Scandinavian nursing researchers in nursing journals. Anderberg et al's 10 study deals with the concept of dignity in itself and describes older persons' experiences of dignity in nursing homes.…”

Love in Connectedness

“…Eriksson (2010b) points to the paradigmatic shift in the 1970s, toward the development of nursing knowledge and caring science based on a human science way of thinking. The humanistic-oriented thinking gave caring science a new significance in the search for the core of caring, and fostered the development of fundamental concepts and theory to bring to light knowledge that may help the patients in an increasingly complex world (Eriksson, 2002(Eriksson, , 2010a. Concepts are essential elements of theories that describe a part of the reality (Eriksson, 2010a).…”

“…The humanistic-oriented thinking gave caring science a new significance in the search for the core of caring, and fostered the development of fundamental concepts and theory to bring to light knowledge that may help the patients in an increasingly complex world (Eriksson, 2002(Eriksson, , 2010a. Concepts are essential elements of theories that describe a part of the reality (Eriksson, 2010a). Through concepts, the theoretical structures of nursing may become visible, and this knowledge may as well guide observations and nursing actions in practice (King, 1988).…”