Originally this theory was developed when Prochaska and DiClemente studied how smokers were able to give up their habits (1982 Prochaska studied 872 smokers). Now it is applied to various fields like weigh loss, injury prevention and drug problems.

 Behavioural change doesn’t just happen in one step – instead people tend to progress through a series of steps. Cessation is a dynamic process.  The pace is individual. Some stay at one step for the rest of their lives.  The decision to change and to move through the steps must come from within the individual himself – to force people to change is naive and can be counterproductive.

Relapses are to be expected!

Proschaska aimed to see whether his model could be used to predict smoking cessation. Procedure: 1466 participants included in a minimum intervention program were asked to complete assessment questionaires (om confidence, perceived stress, physical tolerance, perceptions of pros and cons and smoking processes of change(5)) at the start and after one and six months. Result: the results showed that people in the preparation stage scored higher and ”better” on the other assessment questions. Implication: this is a tool that can be used to predict whether people will be open to change or not.

Hawkins aim – can the stages of change model be used to predict weight loss. Procedure: 200 African American women. 142 were overweight or obese. Classified into different stages of change. Result: those in the preparation stage were more likely to view weigh loss as positive than other groups. Implication: knowledge about whether people are ready or not to change can be useful in social support and weigh-loss interventions.

West and Sohal (2006) – according to them many ex- smokers reported that they just stopped – without making any plans. They compared ”unplanned” vs ”planned” attempts to stop smoking (large-scale cross-sectional survey of ex- smokers and smokers who had tried to stop) and saw that unplanned attempts to quit was actually more successful. ”Catastophe theory” – one catastrophy can change what matters – the motivation – at once.