A simple phenomenological model is developed for describing the macroscopic constitutive response of ferroelectric materials based on consideration of the fact that domain switching is a progressive evolution process with loading. The volume fraction of domain switching is taken as an internal variable, which is derived from the domain nucleation theory. The proposed theory can simulate the dielectric hysteresis, reversed butterfly hysteresis, nonlinear strain-stress hysteresis, as well as electric displacement-stress relation of ferroelectric materials. Its comparison with experimental results and two other theoretical models reveals that the model presented can well predict the nonlinear hysteresis of ferroelectrics under electrical or mechanical loading.