emplation Stage: At this stage, smokers are much more receptive to information about the health hazards of smoking. It is at this stage that people begin to ask for help.
(3) Action Stage: In the third stage of smoking cessation, people take definite actions designed to help them quit smoking, e.g. they join a smoking cessation program.
(4) Maintenance Stage: This is considered to be the most difficult stage in that it involves maintaining a continued abstinence from smoking.
(5) Relapse Stage: Although this stage does not apply to all, there are those who return to smoking after a period of non-smoking. According to Mathre (1994), this return to smoking occurs so frequently that it must be considered to be part of the quitting process.
Each of the foregoing stages are said to be associated with a number of internal changes which, taken together, constitute the entire process by which one changes from a smoker to a non-smoker. In the stages preceding the action stage, these internal change processes are said to consist of:
(1) efforts to seek new information and obtain a deeper understanding of the problems associated with smoking (Process of consciousness raising);
(2) attempted substitution of alternative behaviors for smoking behavior (Process of counterconditioning); and
(3) consideration and assessment of how one's smoking affects the regular and social environment (Process of environmental evaluation).
The action stage is associated with one predominate process of change; this is termed the Self-Liberation process. Here the individual makes a choice to change from a smoker to a non-smoker. This choice is associated with commitment and with the belief that one is able to change.
The maintenance and relapse stages are also said to be associated with a number of internal change processes. These are: (1) accepting support form others; (2) changing contingencies that control or maintain smok...