A Comparison of the Prochaska Cycle of Change and the Holling Adaptive Cycle: Exploring Their Ability to Complement Each Other and Possible Applications to Work with Offenders

Abstract

The Prochaska Cycle of Change was developed in the field of cognitive behaviour and is used in areas such as nursing and criminal justice to effect behavioural changes in people. This proposes a cycle with the phases of pre‐contemplation, contemplation, determination, action and maintenance. The Holling Adaptive Cycle was developed from research into ecological systems and is also used in such areas as financial and organizational systems. This model proposes a cycle of exploitation, conservation, release and re‐organization. This paper attempts to map the two cycles on top of each other and explore how this mapping might provide useful metaphors, enhance our understanding of both cycles and provide useful tools for offenders to understand their behaviour. Resilience is a central concept of the Adaptive Cycle and in work with offenders. Just as building resilience helps natural and organizational systems to be adaptive, so too will it assist offenders to gain appropriate governance over themselves and avoid falling back into further offending. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.