Prochaska Stages of Change Model

Self-esteem is defined as a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value (Cherry, 2016). Self-esteem has been established to have a connection with well-being, happiness, and even stress. Higher self-esteem, and this relationship is a two-way street. Higher levels of self-esteem help individuals to deflect stress in their lives. They manage stress better when self-esteem is higher, and minor stressors are less likely to become major ones. However, there is also evidence that stress can influence one's level of self-esteem.

Stress factors can challenge a person, and in doing that can even challenge their sense of self. When things start to go wrong, self-esteem can be reduced. There is evidence from college students that stress has a negative influence on self-esteem (Hudd et al., 2000). Stress affects many other facets of our lives as well. Because stress activates particular responses in our brain, especially the "fight or flight" response, it causes us to act in ways that can have an impact on our relationships.

Partners, friends, and acquaintances might perceive this tension, and conflict may be more likely when stress is higher. But stress can also influence our values. The fight or flight problem when facing high stress ends up illustrating this clearly -- our only values are either fight or flight. Other considerations are not as important. If fight or flight do not fit in with who we really are, then these values will conflict with our own personal values.

In situations like that, the stress has had a negative impact on our values. It can be difficult to determine a meaningful purpose in life at the best of times, and under situations of stress such grander, existential matters can simply cease to exist. We are not even interested in meaningfulness when under severe stress. Minor stressors can challenge our notions of why we are here, and for what purpose, especially when those stressors trigger fear of failure. I perceive that there are differences between beliefs, attitudes and values.

Beliefs are things that we hold to be true. These are not necessarily verifiable, but they are subject to change if we are presented with evidence or argument that shows our beliefs are incorrect. Still, beliefs can be quite central to our identity, and may be hard to change. Attitudes are more like opinions that we have; they are less certain than beliefs in general, and may not be about important issues. They are the least concrete of these notions. Values are what we feel is important.

These are more likely to be tied to our beliefs. The values that we hold are with respect to how we think the world should be, where our beliefs are more in line with how the world is. Values are as important as beliefs in most people, and most people have a strong sense of their personal values that they hold. The stages of change model outlines six stages of behavioral change.

These are the pre-contemplation stage (or status quo), the contemplation stage where one conceives the idea of change and the preparation stage. This is a stage where the focus is on making some plans, doing research and getting mentally ready for the change. In someone is planning to quit smoking, for example, they would go through these stages in terms of thinking about quitting, and then reading up on quitting techniques.

They might even tell people they are going to quit, in order to build up a support network prior to actually quitting. The action stage comes next. At this point, the person has actually quit smoking. They are implementing their plans to stick with this, and to deal with things like cravings and smoke-friendly social situations. The maintenance stage is where they keep it up. After six.