Discuss the relevance of psychological models to explain some of the Essay

Discuss the relevance of psychological models to explain some of the barriers to the implementation and maintenance of exercise in the field of exercise for health - Essay Example The Transtheoretical Model (TTM; Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982, p. 83) has been used to facilitate positive behaviour change towards physical activity. The model is a combination of stages of change, self-efficacy, temptation, decisional balance and processes of change. The first stage, the stage of change, has been widely adopted by health and fitness professionals to help individuals move through the six theoretical stages: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, termination with a positive outcome (progression) or negative outcome (relapse). In the pre-contemplation stage the individual is not identifying the need for an exercise programme within the next 6 months. While smoothly moving to the next stage - the contemplation, the individual has begun to form an idea about exercising and eventually initiates it within the next 6 months. The preparation stage involves planning to start exercising within the next 60 days. The action period represents the first 6 months after commencing the exercise programme. In the maintenance stage a sustained exercise programme is developed which lasts no more than 6 months. The termination of the exercise program would mean that the individual has successfully changed his/her behaviour and consolidated the life-style in accordance with it. According to Prochaska & Velicer (1997) the termination stage is when an individual has embedded in himself/herself in an exercise behaviour for more than five years and has no desire for temptations and a maintains a robust self-efficacy for a health y lifestyle. There is a possibility for a relapse phase to appear. The relapse can happen during any one of the enumerated stages. The relapse results in returning of the individual to the previous stage. According to Bandura (1997) it is vital for a theoretical stage model