The Transtheoretical model (TTM) is a theory that explores how people change their behavior. It was proposed in the 1980s by Prochaska and DiClemente (1982) and is different from other ways of thinking about behavior change because it combines various ideas from other theories into one big theory. One way the TTM is often used to help people start exercising when they haven’t before (Wunsch, 2019).
The TTM states that there are six stages that people go through when they change their behavior. The first stage is when people have not thought about changing their behavior. The second stage is when they start to think about change. The third stage is when they get ready to change and start planning for it. The fourth stage is when they actually start changing their behavior. The fifth stage is when they keep doing the new behavior and try not to revert back to old behavior. The sixth stage is when they don’t even want to do the old behavior anymore and are good at doing the new behavior.
TTM has some critics who say it is too vague or does not explain the process of change enough (Wunsch, 2019). For example, it doesn’t say exactly how people move from one stage to the next or how fast they do it. It also doesn’t talk about things like money, culture, or how different people cope with things. But even with these problems, the TTM is still a useful way to think about how people change their behavior (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997).
Prochaska, J. O., & DiClemente, C. C. (1982). Transtheoretical therapy: Toward a more integrative model of therapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, 19, 267288.
Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12, 3848.
Wunsch, K. (2019). In D. Hackfort, R. J. Schinke, & B. Strauss (Eds.), Dictionary of sport psychology: Sport, exercise, and performing arts. Academic Press.
