The Stages of Change Model focuses on the decision-making of a person and is a model of intentional change. In other words, it is used when the person actively makes the decision of making a change.
The stages of this model are:
Precontemplation: People do not intend to take action in the foreseeable future (within the next 6 months). They don't even realize that their behavior is problematic.
Contemplation: People are <u>intending to start the healthy behavior in the foreseeable future (within the next 6 months).</u> They start to recognize that their behavior is problematic but still feel ambivalent towards changing it.
Preparation: People are ready to take action within the next 30 days. They start taking small steps toward the change and think this can lead to a healthier life.
Action: People have recently changed their behavior (within the last 6 months) and intend to keep moving forward with it. They now have healthier habits.
Maintenance: People have sustained their behavior change for over 6 months and they are working to prevent relapses.
Termination: People have no desire to return to their unhealthy behaviors and they know they won't relapse.
We can see that in the contemplation stage, people still feel ambivalent towards the idea of changing their behavior (and therefore there's no action yet) but they intend to change this behavior within the next 6 months.
Thus, we can say that if a person doesn't exercise (and therefore there's no action) but are thinking of becoming more active in the next six months (intend to change their behavior), this person would be in the stage of contemplation.
