This study was a survey done for the purpose of constructing a nursing theory according to Korean culture and to identify the traditional Korean view of humans and the expectations of the sick role, and to confirm changes from the traditional view of humans and expectations of the sick role according to general characteristics of the population. The subjects were all adults over 18 years old. 517 who lived in six large cities and 191 who lived in five rural communities. Data collection was done from November 19th, 1994 to January 19th, 1995 using a tool to measure the traditional view of humans and expectations of the sick role which was developed by the investigator through a literature review. Collected data were analyzed using frequency, percent, Cronbach alpha, t -test, F- test and Scheffe post hoc contrasts, with the SAS program. Thr results of this study are summerized as follows; 1. The Traditional view of human score for all subject was 49.92, which shows that Korean traditional view of human is moderate. High scored items were "human need to live by making harmony with nature, not by overcoming the nature" (3.44), "Filial duty to parents and elders is important"(3.31), "Think of family more than a individual"(2.96). 2. The differences in the traditional view of humans between residential districts showed that the residents of Chungbuk(56.00), Kyungbuk(55.26), Chonbuk(51.32), Taegu(50.59) had a more traditional view of humans than those in Pusan(45. 42)and Seoul(47.27). 3. The differences in the traditional view of humans according to general characteristics showed that rural community residents, males, older people, people with lower levels of education, married and house-resident groups had a significantly higher traditional view of humans than urban residents, females, younger people, people with a higher levels of education, single and apartment-resident groups. There were differences according to religion and job. Buddhism had a higher traditional view of humans than those of atheism, Christianity and Catholicism and physical workers, a significantly highers score, than technicians and professional workers. 4. Daily expected task performance during illnesses was lowest for patients with stroke(2.16) and psy-chosis (2.40), in which case almost no daily general tasks were expected, followed by arthritis 4. 06, peptic ulcer 4.79, headache 4.99 and cough 5. 58. The amount of expected role exemption during illnesses was also highest for stroke(2.25), followed by psychosis(2.08), arthritis(1.64). peptic ulcer(1.29), headache(1.16) and cough(1.09). The amount of daily task performance in the acute stage(3.05) was significantly lower than that of convalescent stage(4.95). 5. Total expectation of role exemption according to general characteristics showed that there was no significant differences in urban/rural community, marriage, level of education and religion. By sex, women showed higher expectation of role exemption during illnesses than men. By age, the 31-40 year old group showed lower expectation of role exemption than the 41-50 year old group or over the 61 year old group.