The adaptive change model: an advance on the transtheoretical model of change

The author proposed a hypothetical model of change, the adaptive change model (ACM), to advance the current conceptualization and operationalization of the transtheoretical model of change (TTM; D. Grimley, J. Prochaska, W. Velicer, M. Blais, & C. DiClemente, 1994; J. Prochaska, 1979; J. Prochaska & C. DiClemente, 1984). He used exploratory factor analysis to identify items contributing to 2 sets of factors defining the Adaptive Change Questionnaire (T. Bowles, 2001). The factors were consistent for both clinical (n = 222) and nonclinical (n = 194) respondents. The first set of factors defined the process of change and included Openness to Opportunity, Visualization, Planning, Action, and Closure. The second set of factors described the factors that support change and included Social Support, Inner Drive, and Negative Emotions. Through analysis of gender effects, the author found that men scored significantly and slightly higher than did women on Openness to Opportunity, Visualization, and Inner Drive. There were no interactions involving gender and clinical status. Discriminant function analysis predicting clinical status on the basis of the 8 factors placed 80% of respondents in the correct category. The author discusses the relevance of the ACM in comparison with the characteristics of the TTM.     

A stage-matched intervention for exercise behavior change based on the transtheoretical model

The effectiveness of a stage-matched intervention for enhancing exercise behavior was investigated with related Transtheoretical Model constructs among young Korean adults. 265 university students (147 men, 118 women; M age=24.1 yr., SD=3.5) enrolled in Seoul National University of Technology voluntarily participated in an 8-wk. intervention study. In order to measure exercise behavior and its related psychological constructs, the Stages of Readiness for Exercise Behavior Scale, Decision Balance Scale for Exercise, Exercise Self-efficacy Scale, Processes of Change Scale, and Leisure Time Exercise Questionnaire were used. Results indicated that the participants' exercise readiness was significantly changed in a positive way after the 8-wk. intervention. There was a significant main effect of testing time and an interaction between testing time and exercise readiness stage at baseline. There were significant interactions between testing times and groups for all Transtheoretical Model measures, implying that the stage-matched intervention can be an effective tool for increasing exercise readiness and related psychological variables. The present study provides a starting point for stage-matched interventions aimed at increasing exercise levels, and a baseline level from which to evaluate interventions.     

Sun protective behaviour,optimism bias,and the transtheoretical model of behaviour change

This study investigated the relationship between sun protective behaviours and three psychological variables influencing health behaviour: decisional balance, optimism bias, and the transtheoretical model of behaviour change. Two hundred participants completed the ‘Readiness to Alter Sun Protective Behaviour’ questionnaire, and a short questionnaire investigating optimism bias, decisional balance, attitudes, and experiences of sun protection and skin cancer. Participants were evenly distributed between the precontemplation, contemplation, and action stages. Participants in the action stage were significantly more likely to endorse the perceived advantages associated with sun protective behaviour than participants in the precontemplation and contemplation stages. They also reported sunbathing significantly less—and being more concerned about contracting skin cancer—than participants in the earlier stages. Decisional balance and optimism bias scores varied systematically across the stages of change; however, decisional balance was the only significant psychological predictor of sun protective behaviours. Optimism bias was greatest in the precontemplation stage, whereas the action stage was characterised by more positive attitudes to sun protection. This suggests that knowledge of the real risks of skin cancer might be a precursor to behaviour change, but only a change in attitudes results in a move to the action stage and measurable behaviour change.     

Exploring the retirement from sport decision-making process based on the transtheoretical model

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to complement and extend the current knowledge of the particular stages of athletes’ career transition process through employing the transtheoretical model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1984) as a theoretical framework. More specifically, the current study aimed to explore Korean elite tennis players’ career transition process through focusing on their retirement decision-making process, including their cognitive and behavioral changes and internal and external influences for their decisions during the final stages of their sport careers and the retirement decision-making process.DesignWe employed focus groups.MethodsA total of 12 participants took part in one of three focus groups (i.e., four current players, five retired players, and three coaches) that focused on the process of athletes' retirement decision-making. All participants (seven males and five females; Mean age = 31.25, SD = 3.49 years) were either current or former Korean elite-level tennis players. The data were thematically content analyzed.ResultsThe results revealed three themes: (a) readiness for retirement, (b) psychological and emotional responses during the decision-making process, and (c) coping strategies; and showed that athletes’ decision-making at the end of their sports careers is a dynamic process, accompanied by various emotional responses requiring different coping strategies at different stages.ConclusionFindings indicated that the transtheoretical model helped to explain athletes’ decision-making in retiring from sport and suggested to the need to provide different interventions at different stages. Identifying detailed aspects of readiness for retirement and examining the effectiveness of interventions grounded in the transtheoretical model are recommended as future research directions.     

The relationship among the transtheoretical model of behavioral change,psychological distress,and diet attitudes in obesity: Implications for primary care intervention

Obesity is prevalent but undertreated in primary care. Family practice volunteer outpatients (N=454) were administered the Stage of Change for Weight (URICA), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and the Diet Readiness Test (DRT) to assess the relationship between these variables and obesity. The body mass index (BMI) was used to classify obesity revealing 197 patients with elevated BMI's. There was no significant difference between the obese and the nonobese on any of the psychological measures. The obese reported significantly more difficulty setting diet goals and less control over their eating, ate more to emotional situations, and exercised less than the nonobese. The obese sample (46.7%) reported being in the Action stage of change for weight management. Implications for intervention in primary care include targeting attitudes (DRT) and dispelling physician attitudes that obese individuals have increased levels of psychological distress. Addressing Stage of Change for weight management can facilitate tailoring the appropriate intervention when used in concert with the DRT variables.     

The contributions of Rosenbaum's model of self-control and the transtheoretical model to the understanding of exercise behavior

ObjectivesRosenbaum's [1990. The role of learned resourcefulness in the self-control of health behavior. In M. Rosenbaum (Ed.), Learned resourcefulness: On coping skills, self-control, and adaptive behavior (pp. 3–30). New York: Springer Publishing Company; 2000. The self-regulation of experience: openness and construction. In P. Dewe, A. M. Leiter, &; T. Cox (Eds.), Coping and health in organizations (pp. 51–67). London: Taylor and Francis] model of self-control depicts learned resourcefulness as a key component of the goal attainment process. Despite this model's popularity, few studies have examined its importance in the maintenance of exercise. The transtheoretical model of change has been used instead. The two models, nonetheless, share strikingly similar components with the exception of learned resourcefulness.Design/MethodsOur 265 participants, ranging from wanting to be active to being regular exercisers, completed instruments assessing learned resourcefulness, stage of change for exercise, self-efficacy, reasons for exercising and the processes of change for exercise.ResultsAs predicted, participants in the maintenance stage for exercise were on average more highly resourceful than participants in the contemplation, preparation and action stages of change. Low resourceful participants in the contemplation stage of change were the least likely to be employing strategies to help facilitate activity.ConclusionImplications for exercise promoters are discussed.     

Conscientiousness, the transtheoretical model of change, and exercise: a neo-socioanalytic integration of trait and social-cognitive frameworks in the prediction of behavior

ABSTRACT Relationships between conscientiousness-related traits and transtheoretical model (TTM) of change constructs, exercise self-efficacy, and exercise behavior were examined in college and community samples ( N =566). Measures of the conscientiousness-related traits of conventionality and industriousness were expected to show positive relations with measures of exercise behavior stage location, processes of exercise behavior change, endorsing the benefits of exercise behavior (i.e., decisional balance), exercise self-efficacy, and self-reported exercise behavior. In addition, based on Neo-Socioanalytic Theory ( Roberts & Wood, 2006 ) an intervening role was predicted for TTM constructs and exercise self-efficacy in the relationship between conscientiousness-related traits and exercise behavior stage location. The results showed industriousness (being hardworking) to be the most robust conscientiousness-related predictor of stage location, processes of change, endorsing the benefits of exercise behavior, and exercise self-efficacy. Mediation analyses showed the relationship between industriousness and exercise behavior stage location to be fully accounted for by select processes of change and exercise self-efficacy scales. The results are discussed in terms of a useful integration of trait and social-cognitive approaches to exercise behavior, with an emphasis on the role of industriousness as an important individual difference factor therein.     

The treatment of stammering in children by the shadowing method

There are very few reports about the application of behaviour therapy to child stammering and these are not encouraging. Remedial education treatment is followed by frequent relapses. The present work gives data about the methods, effects and long-term results in nineteen child stammerers treated by the shadowing technique. A discussion of some of the theoretical problems involved is given and shows how the theoretical analysis influences treatment procedures. Seventy per cent of the cases were successfully treated by the shadowing technique and subsidiary procedures; relapses occurred in only 12 per cent of the cases.     

Bridging professional and mutual-help: An application of the transtheoretical model to the mutual-help organization

The authors suggest that the mental health system of the nation could benefit by more fully embracing the idea of mutual-help (i.e., self-help), and this collaboration could be facilitated by the utilization of a well-established clinical theory to elucidate the psychological processes at work within mutual-help organizations. The processes of change of the transtheoretical model is offered as one potential framework. This well-established model has been used to help psychologists better understand clinical and professional phenemonena, but, to date, has been used less frequently with non-professional interventions. This article applies the ten processes of change of the transtheoretical model to mutual-help organizations, focusing on four groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Oxford House, GROW, and Schizophrenics Anonymous. The advantages of the transtheoretical model and its potential ability to act as a common language across clinical professionals and mutual-help organizations are discussed. In addition, advantages of bolstering the present mental health system using combinations of both forms of care along the recovery continuum are described.     

The change from visible to invisible:

It is argued that the problem of the phenomenal persistence of objects in experience, often called “object permanence,” is actually a problem of the discriminating of persisting from nonpersisting things. A distinction is made between objects that go out of sight and objects that go out of existence, and it is shown that optical information exists to distinguish these two cases. Evidence is provided from a series of motion picture displays to suggest that Os do in fact distinguish them. The various optical transitions are shown to be reversing in the first case, but nonreversing in the second. In particular, the transition that specifies the occlusion of one surface by another is analyzed, together with the inverse of this transition. This study is a sequel to an earlier one of optical transformations.     

Implicit ambivalence from attitude change: an exploration of the PAST model

Traditional models of attitude change have assumed that when people appear to have changed their attitudes in response to new information, their old attitudes disappear and no longer have any impact. The present research suggests that when attitudes change, the old attitude can remain in memory and influence subsequent behavior. Four experiments are reported in which initial attitudes were created and then changed (or not) with new information. In each study, the authors demonstrate that when people undergo attitude change, their old and new attitudes can interact to produce evaluative responses consistent with a state of implicit ambivalence. In Study 1, individuals whose attitudes changed were more neutral on a measure of automatic evaluation. In Study 2, attitude change led people to show less confidence on an implicit but not an explicit measure. In Studies 3 and 4, people whose attitudes changed engaged in greater processing of attitude-relevant information than did individuals whose attitudes were not changed.     

The center/satellite model: grand strategy for change

Whatever happened to the federal monies that used to support NDEA and EPDA counseling and guidance institute programs? Starting in 1971, an abrupt change in USOE policy led to the development of a new program, one that was no longer as much of a counseling and guidance program as it was a national and regional grand strategy for institutional and organizational change. In this article the author traces the new program from its origins during the days of the NDEA Institutes, and he also describes its potential as an instrument for change.     

Promoting exercise behavior among Chinese youth with hearing loss: a randomized controlled trial based on the transtheoretical model

The transtheoretical model proposes that behavior change is experienced as a series of stages. Interventions tailored to these stages are most likely to be effective in progressing people through the model's hypothesized behavior change continuum. In this study, a stage-tailored, 12-week, exercise behavior intervention based on the transtheoretical model was conducted among a sample of 150 Chinese youth with hearing loss. Participants were randomized into an intervention or control group with all the core transtheoretical model constructs assessed pre- and post-intervention. Participants in the intervention group showed greater advances in their stage of exercise behavior change, decisional balance, and processes of change use compared to those in the control group. The intervention, however, was insufficient for increasing participants' self-efficacy for exercise behavior. The findings partially support the utility of the theory-based intervention for improving the exercise behavior of Chinese youth with hearing loss, while simultaneously helping to identify areas in need of improvement for future applications.     

On the devalued self: Implications for a transtheoretical psychotherapy

An outline of a transtheoretical psychotherapy dealing with the participants' individual and interacting self-concepts is presented. It is believed that this approach (1) is consistent with social learning and conflict theories of psychopathology, (2) provides a concise definition of the patient's central problem and of the relevant goals of treatment, (3) suggests ways of understanding the centrally important covert processes of psychotherapy and of dealing with the participants' resistances to treatment, (4) offers empirical criteria for determining treatment progress and for terminating treatment, and (5) suggests possibilities for psychotherapy research based on empirical criteria.     

The relevance of generalization techniques to the treatment of stammering and phobic symptoms

This paper is presented as a further illustration of the important role which generalization techniques may play in the treatment of certain neurotic disorders. It also aims to provide a timely reminder that in one's concern with symptomatic treatment the historically earlier conditioned autonomic drive-casually related to these symptoms, may, in certain instances, be ignored. Treatment of the surplus motor, conditioned responses alone might thus result in only partial improvements and a failure either to make a positive or a lasting response to treatment.     

The Meno's Metaphilosophical Examples

I propose that an ill‐appreciated contrast between the examples Socrates gives Meno, to show him how he ought to philosophize, is the key to understanding the Meno. I contend that Socrates prefers his definitions of shape to his account of color because the former are concerned with what shape is, while the latter is concerned with how color comes to be. This contrast suggests that Plato intends an analogous contrast between the (properly philosophical) way of inquiry that leads to Socrates' definition of knowledge as “true belief tied down with an account” and the (not properly philosophical) way of inquiry that leads to Socrates' account of how knowledge comes to be, that is, the “theory of recollection.”