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STAGES OF CHANGE DIAGRAM
QUIZ 5: The Stages of Change
A key question of behaviour change practitioners is how to gauge people’s readiness for change. Answering this question requires understanding the process of change that people go through to adopt and sustain a behaviour change. The ‘trans-theoretical’ model (TTM) of behaviour change, also called as ‘stages of change’ model developed by Prochaska and colleagues [27], seeks to help us understand this, suggesting that behaviour change isn’t just a single movement from one way of behaving to another, but rather occurs by moving through sequential stages including the following stages which are further defined below: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance [27, 29]. The model also recognises the possibility of relapse, and that a person may move back to a former stage at any point.
Figure 25: Stages of Change [30]
Definitions of each stage of change with animal welfare related examples are provided below:
PRE-CONTEMPLATION
People in pre-contemplation are unaware of the issue and therefore are not considering change. They may be unaware or do not believe there is a problem, or may be aware, but ambivalent, unwilling, or unmotivated to engage in change for whatever reason (e.g. resistant, defensive, low self-confidence) [30].
Example: donkey owners who are unaware of the negative issues related to whipping or resist as they do not see the benefits of changing, or they are defensive as they feel wrongly criticised for the behaviour, or they do not think they can change [19].
CONTEMPLATION
People in contemplation is aware of the issue, is thinking about behaviour change, but is not committed to acting. These people might be receptive to feedback and information compared with the previous stage but might be ambivalent about change in relation to how it will benefit them or not; as a result, people might get stuck at this stage for some time.
Example: a person may feel bad about whipping their donkey, and has seen a peer using alternatives to whipping, so is considering their options, but may have mixed feelings about the benefits versus the costs of whipping or not whipping [19].
PREPARATION
People in preparation are motivated and intend to act and have taken steps to prepare to change their behaviour.
Example: donkey owners talked to a friend who does not whip about how they communicate with their donkey or have made unsuccessful attempts to communicate with their donkey in a different way [19].
ACTION
In the action stage, people have moved from an intention to change their behaviour to undertaking effort to enact the new behaviour, experiencing its benefits as well as costs, such as time, effort, money, opinions of others [20].
Example: A donkey cart owner has stopped whipping and is performing a new or existing communication behaviour with the donkey instead [19].
MAINTENANCE
People in maintenance have managed to sustain the behaviour change and are working to avoid relapsing. It typically takes some effort before people continue acting without external prompts or are capable of self-regulating the triggers that may lead to relapse [20].
Example: donkey care owners are now using the voice, or another means to communicate with the donkey instead, and have stopped carrying the whip to ensure they do not relapse to whipping behaviour [19].
RELAPSE / RECURRENCE
Relapse is when a person reverts to the old problem behaviour. Relapse is possible from any stage to any stage at any time, and may be triggered by something (e.g. psychological, or environmental factor etc.).
Example: a donkey cart owner who is at the action stage may revert to the contemplation or pre-contemplation stage relapse when they experience emotional stress such as a customer pressuring them to transport goods quickly or they won’t do business with them, which might trigger the individual to relapse to whipping behaviour [19].
The stages of change outlined by the TTM help identify an individual’s readiness for changing their current behaviour by categorizing target groups depending on their state of preparedness for change. “The early stages change relate to an intention to change (i.e. pre-contemplation, contemplation and preparation) whereas the later stages focus on the actual behaviour change (i.e. action, maintenance) [27]. “The strengths of the TTM is that it provides a framework that can be used to proactively move an individual through the stages towards sustained behaviour change, rather than assuming behaviour change is one single moment or event. It provides processes to understand and assist the individual at each stage of change to tailor the intervention” [19]. By helping users understand what stage of behaviour change people are in, and how best to support their contributed change process through it, the TTM enables behaviour change practitioners to tailor their engagement for greatest effectiveness.
Further guidance on how to identify what stage of behaviour change someone is in, and how to support community members’ progress through them is provided in the following C4A facilitator resources: Guidance on Listening for Change Talk, Guidance on Effective Techniques for Supporting Progress through Stages of Change, Negotiated Behaviour Change: Guidance on Overcoming Resistance to Change, and Guidance on Facilitating Conversations for Change. The participatory learning and action (PLA) tools provided in this guide can also be used to facilitate learning and reflection which can support progress through the stages of change, as well as enable facilitators to gauge where people are in their stages of change.
Link to References Cited
QUIZ 5: The Stages of Change
The table below provides a summary of general guidance for community facilitators to support working with community members to progress through the different stages of change. It includes definitions of each stage of change with examples in the context of animal welfare, along with the process for community facilitators to focus on when individuals are in each stage, as well as recommended tools and techniques helpful to harnessing people’s own motivations and rationales for change, and building their confidence and commitment to take action and sustain change.
Project Phase:
Initiation Phase, Planning Phase, Implementation Phase, Exit & Evaluation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities:
Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Motivation
Stages of Change:
Stages of Change, Pre-contemplation Stage, Contemplation Stage, Preparation Stage, Action Stage, Maintenance Stage
Project Support:
Facilitator Resources, Training
Specific Topics:
Outreach and Communication, Community Change Agents
| Stage of Change | Processes for Change / What to Focus On | Recommended Tools / Techniques to Use in Each Stage of Change |
Pre-contemplation:
Individuals do not recognize the need for change or are not actively considering change.
Consequences/cons of change are felt to outweigh the benefits/positives.
For example, a person doesn’t think it is a problem if they do not provide their animals with access to water to drink throughout the day. | • Build Rapport – show respect and empathy by recognizing individuals’ expertise in their own lives/situations, their intentions for acting informed by their expertise and lived experiences, support their autonomy in decision making rather imposing your expertise.
• Evoke individuals’ reasons for change by connecting behaviour change to the things the individual cares about.
• Elicit change talk/their rationales for change by bringing their attention to their rationales for change and minimize attention and discussion focused on exploring rationales for sustaining their current practices.
• Consciousness Raising: Support individuals to seek out new information to gain understanding and feedback about the problem behaviour to help improve their awareness of the problem (e.g. facts, leaflets). You may wish to consider undertaking a Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach as a first step.
• Dramatic relief: Support individuals experience and express feelings about the problem behaviour and potential solutions, encourage self-evaluative process that enables individuals to assess/understand the negative impacts of the current behaviour and potential benefits of change.
• Environmental Re-evaluation: help raise doubt and increase the person’s perception of the risks and problems with their current behaviour e.g. guided discussions with others, testimonies, storytelling that promote learning and reflection about how their actions affect their animals/themselves/others.
If individuals continue not to recognize or accept there is a problem, focus on continuing to build rapport through active listening, asking open ended questions, using reflections and summaries about what they community and show empathy so they feel understood. Ensure they understand change is ultimately up to them and not being pushed on them. Consider asking to schedule a time when the discussion can be revisited, perhaps after they take time to reflect or seek out additional information. | Recommended Tools/Techniques:
Use OARS to elicit change talk, build rapport, show empathy, and:
• Open ended questions to invite individuals to tell their story in their own words, and provides an opportunity to learn more about what the person cares about e.g. their values and goals.
• Affirmations: Can take the form of compliments or statements of appreciation and understanding that recognize a person’s strengths and acknowledge behaviours / qualities / characteristics that encourage the direction of desired positive change, helps build rapport and their confidence in their ability to change.
• Reflective listening: Involves rephrasing a statement to capture the implicit meaning and feeling of a person’s statement, encourages and helps people understand their motivations more, and helps amplify or reinforce individuals desire for change.
• Summarize what you have heard individuals, highlighting in particular any recognition of the problem, their concerns about the issue, their intent to change, or their optimism about their ability or outcome of making change.
Provide Feedback using Ask – Offer – Ask approach:
• Ask permission to discuss behaviour to show respect, Ask what they already know before offering feedback / advice / information about the issue, Ask permission to offer information they may not know.
• Offer information or feedback if granted to permission to do so.
• Ask them to reflect on the feedback/information you have provided.
C4A Participatory Tools:
• T16. Animal Welfare Snakes and Ladders Game
• T17. If I Were an Animal
• T18. Thriving not Surviving
• T19. Animal Feelings Analysis
• T22. Animal Welfare Transect Walk
• T23. Three Pile Sorting
• T32. Animal Welfare Conversation Tool
C4A Facilitator Resources:
• 2. Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
• 3. Guidance on Listening for Change Talk
• 4. Guidance on Facilitating Conversations for Change
• 5. Negotiated Behaviour Change: Guidance on Overcoming Resistance to Change
• 7. Guidance on Effective Outreach Messaging |
Contemplation:
Individuals recognize the problem related to their behaviour and are considering change.
They are weighing the pros and cons of change but are ambivalent and/or uncertain, and may feel the negatives of change still outweigh the positives.
For example, a person doesn’t take preventative measures against animal disease despite being concerned about the health risks diseases pose. | • Guide their internal motivation by continuing to elicit change talk / their rationales for change to strengthen their commitment to change.
• Self re-evaluation/Re-evaluating self-image: work to facilitate changing their beliefs and attitudes by (Davis Jr. 2010):
- helping them recognise the difference between their values and behaviour/creating cognitive dissonance,
- values clarification activities or discussions,
- contact and discussions with role models,
- guided imagery (where people imagine themselves in the new situation [e.g., animal experiences good welfare and they feel good about practicing desired behaviour]
• Support individuals to choose change through weighing up the pros and cons of change to resolve their ambivalence/tip the balance between the pros and cons by:
- exploring ambivalence and alternatives,
- identifying reasons for change/risks of not changing,
- increasing the persons confidence in their ability to change.
Highlight/promote awareness of success stories/those who have made and sustained similar change to encourage others to follow their example and improve their confidence in their ability to change. | Recommended Tools/Techniques:
Strengthen commitment to change through use of OARS (see above):
• Elicit change talk by asking open-ended questions related to:
disadvantages of the status quo
advantages of change
optimism for change
their intention to change.
• Use reflections to amplify or reinforce individuals desire for change.
• Use affirmations to help build individuals confidence in their ability to change.
• Use summaries to point out discrepancies between the person’s current situation and future goals.
A Readiness for change ruler, and/or Decisional balance /costs and benefits analysis exercise can also support strengthening commitment to change.
C4A Participatory Tools:
• T15. Cost Benefit Analysis
• T16. Animal Welfare Snakes and Ladders Game
• T17. If I Were an Animal
• T22. Animal Welfare Transect Walk
• T24a. Closed Ended Story Telling to promote a specific behaviour to solve a particular problem
• T26. Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis
• T27. Increasing Perceived Importance of Animals
• T33. Community Animal Welfare Needs Analysis
C4A Facilitator Resources:
• 2. Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
• 3. Guidance on Listening for Change Talk
• 4. Guidance on Facilitating Conversations for Change
• 5. Negotiated Behaviour Change: Guidance on Overcoming Resistance to Change
• 9. Example of Five Domains of Animal Welfare for Donkeys Linked with Human Behaviours |
Preparation:
Individuals are motivated to change their behaviour/see the benefits of change, and are intent upon taking action.
They believe the positives/benefits of change outweigh the costs, however are considering what to do.
For example, a person is convinced of the benefits of addressing a particular welfare issue, but lack the understanding of what to do about it. | • Goal Setting - support individuals to identify a specific target for change / goal.
• Making a commitment to change.
• Support them to explore options for making the change and select appropriate strategies for taking action e.g. identify time to act, who/what will help.
• Recognize/reiterate individuals’ choice and control over any decisions or change they make.
• Develop a realistic plan for taking action.
• Discuss potential problems/challenges and solutions to help reduce their perceived/real barriers that may make the behaviour more difficult to adopt e.g. how to acquire the necessary knowledge or skills, or ideas for reducing costs.
• Create social conditions to support individuals in making the change as needed (Davis Jr. 2010):
- work to change community norms to favour change
- draw attention to those who have made a change
- organize events or create opportunities for individuals to make their commitment to change publicly or in front of others for greater accountability | Recommended Tools/Techniques:
• Continue elicit change talk to strengthen individuals commitment to change.
• Write down individuals goals for change and change plan.
C4A Participatory Tools:
• T21. Animal Welfare Practice Gap Analysis
• T22. Animal Welfare Transect Walk
• T24b. Animal Welfare Before and After Story to promote understanding of the steps to achieving desired change
• T24c. Open Ended Story Telling to help identify possible solutions to problems
• T26. Animal Welfare Cause and Effect Analysis
• T28. Group Sustainability Mapping
• T30. Community Animal Welfare Visioning
• T33. Community Animal Welfare Needs Analysis
• T34. Community Animal Welfare Action Planning
C4A Facilitator Resources:
• 2. Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
• 3. Guidance on Listening for Change Talk
• 4. Guidance on Facilitating Conversations for Change
• 9. Example of Five Domains of Animal Welfare for Donkeys Linked with Human Behaviours
• 19. Community Action Planner |
Action:
Individuals have initiated change and start practicing the new behaviour, experiencing its benefits as well as costs, such as time, effort, money, opinions of They are taking steps towards change, however haven’t fully stabilized in the process.
For example, a person has begun sheltering their animals at night, however may find that this now requires extra effort to regularly keep it clean. | • Support individuals to implement action plans and take steps toward change based on the plan they developed and revise as needed.
• Work to
• Recognize/reward successes: provide encouragement and feedback on positive steps taken towards desired behaviours, praise and recognize individuals efforts.
• Support individuals to overcome challenges e.g. skill building, assisting with solving problems, identifying and removing/avoiding problem behaviour triggers.
• Consider mechanisms for supporting accountability to help maintain individuals motivation and commitment e.g. self-monitoring, public sharing of achievements/proud moments, give praise and recognition of efforts, facilitate peer-peer support networks. | Recommended Tools/Techniques:
Affirmations can be used to recognize individuals’ strengths and efforts in taking action to change.
C4A Participatory Tools:
• T22. Animal Welfare Transect Walk
• T24c Open Ended Story Telling to help identify possible solutions to problems
• T34. Community Animal Welfare Action Planning
C4A Facilitator Resources:
• 2. Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
• 17. Ideas for Structuring Community Meetings to Promote Reflection And Learning
• 19. Community Action Planner |
Maintenance:
Individuals are practicing the new behaviour and making necessary adjustments to sustain the change. The benefits or positives of change are clearly outweigh the costs/negatives. new behaviour is sustained for at least 6 months.
For example, despite efforts to require to learn how to train their animals using positive reinforcement rather than harmful punishments, a person continued guiding their horses without whipping for at least 6 months. | Ensure preconditions for sustainability of change.
Support individuals to develop processes and skills for maintaining change.
Support individuals to identify and use strategies to prevent return to prior behaviour.
Continue to promote individuals’ motivation and confidence in abilities to sustain change through:
• Regular discussions and reflection, and sharing of success stories by those who have made and sustained change, and recognize people’s efforts to change and encourage others to follow their example.
• Continue positive reinforcement and establish mechanisms of rewards and recognition for maintaining behaviours e.g. acknowledge individuals efforts, commitment, and achievements, encourage individuals to be role models for others, public sharing of their successes, continued self-monitoring and reflection on their positive efforts and achievements, as well as benefits of change.
• Encouraged utilization of support systems e.g. peer support networks, linkages with local organizations/extension agents etc.
Establish accountability mechanisms that encourage individuals to sustain change e.g. self-monitoring and sharing of results, peer-peer support and sharing of progress. | Recommended Tools/Techniques:
Affirmations can be used to recognize individuals’ strengths and efforts in maintaining change.
C4A Participatory Tools:
• T11b. Change Analysis: Before and Now Analysis
• 17. Ideas for Structuring Community Meetings to Promote Reflection And Learning
• T22. Animal Welfare Transect Walk
C4A Facilitator Resources:
• 2. Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
• 17. Ideas for Structuring Community Meetings to Promote Reflection And Learning |
Relapse:
When individuals return/relapse to previous behaviour.
Individuals may relapse to any prior stage of change. | Help the person renew the processes of contemplation and action without becoming stuck or demoralised. | Refer to suggested tools associated with stage of change individual has relapsed to.
Use affirmations to recognize individuals’ strengths and efforts to change rather than focusing on their unsuccessful results.
C4A Facilitator Resources:
• 2. Essential Communication Skills for Promoting Behaviour Change
• 3. Guidance on Listening for Change Talk |
This resource was developed with aid of Human Behaviour Change for Animals and the following sources [114, 112, 57].
![Figure 25: Stages of Change [30]](https://communitiesforanimals.thebrooke.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/A18-Change-Complete.png)