DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

“In order to make commitments to self-responsible, proactive living most of the ten
needed first to come to greater awareness of their own unique selves rather than being
exclusively aware of external factors. For example one man believed he had been
“just a bunch of walking habits and reflexes,” with no “identity apart from what my
parents thought” and not “the faintest idea who I was.” (Denne and Thompson, 1991,
p.120)
All the transitions described in Denne and Thompson’s sample led to what they
described as “a more balanced relation between self and world” (p.124), which echoes
the change towards integration and balance found in the data of this thesis.
Clinical models of change also exist that have clear parallels with the
current model. Prochaska and DiClemente’s (1982) integrative model of change
has six phases; Pre-contemplation, Contemplation, Determination, Action,
Maintenance and Relapse. The phases are not seen as a linear progression, but
more of a dynamically interacting set of components through which the
individual will cycle a number of times when attempting change. This model
points towards the necessity of lasting change in all kinds of therapy, and has
parallels with the current model. The phases of Pre-contemplation and
Contemplation link to the rising consideration of change that characterises Phase
1 in the current model, while Determination involves a determined effort to
create change and so relates to the major transition period and so links to Phase 2.
The Action phase links to the proactive nature of Phase 3 of the current model
and Maintenance links to the need for enduring balance that characterises Phase
4. A key difference between Prochaska and DiClemente’s clinical model of
change and the current model is that their clinical change process ends in relapse.
Relapse is seen as being a normal part of change within a clinical context and
reinitiates the change process so that progress occurs in a spiral with relapse
being a natural part of the process. Perhaps the difference between a
transformative crisis and a clinical state of mental ill-health is that individuals
who are transformed by crisis do not get drawn into a cycle of relapse but are able
to create a robust new state of being. While in the crises of this thesis there are
temporary relapses into old patterns and failed false starts in Phase 3, these are
blips on an overall upward trajectory of transformation.
Another clinical model of change is the Assimilation of Problematic
Experiences Model (Stiles, 1996). Here we have a sequence of change phases
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