The Interplay Between Goal Intentions and Implementation Intentions

Abstract

Two studies tested whether action control by implementation intentions is sensitive to the activation and strength of participants' underlying goal intentions. In Study 1, participants formed implementation intentions (or did not) and their goal intentions were measured. Findings revealed a significant interaction between implementation intentions and the strength of respective goal intentions. Implementation intentions benefited the rate of goal attainment when participants had strong goal intentions but not when goal intentions were weak. Study 2 activated either a task-relevant or a neutral goal outside of participants' conscious awareness and found that implementation

Strategic automation of emotion regulation.

“…The idea is that people do not have to deliberate anymore about when and how they should act when they have formed an implementation intention-unlike people who have formed mere goal intentions. Evidence that if-then planners act quickly (Gollwitzer & Brandstätter, 1997, Experiment 3), deal effectively with cognitive demands (Brandstätter, Lengfelder, & Gollwitzer, 2001), and do not need to consciously intend to act at the critical moment (Sheeran, Webb, & Gollwitzer, 2005, Study 2) is consistent with this idea. In sum, strategically forming if-then plans automates goal striving (Gollwitzer & Schaal, 1998) because people delegate control of goal-directed responses to preselected situational cues, with the explicit purpose of facilitating goal striving; that is, automatic response initiation originates in a conscious act of will (if-then planning).…”

A cluster randomised controlled trial of an intervention based on the Health Action Process Approach for increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in Iranian adolescents

“…However, evidence suggests that it is important to ensure that individuals are motivated before they are provided with volitional strategies and techniques (e.g. planning) to promote the translation of this motivation into health behaviour change (Schwarzer, 2008;Sheeran, Webb, & Gollwitzer, 2005;Weinstein & Sandman, 1992). With this in mind, the present intervention drew on the HAPA to identify the putative determinants of motivation (e.g.…”

Too Much of a Good Thing: The Benefits of Implementation Intentions Depend on the Number of Goals

“…The automatic execution of goals furnished with implementation intentions depends on goal commitment, unlike habits and other automatic behaviors that operate independently of commitment (Brandstätter et al 2001;Sheeran, Webb, and Gollwitzer 2005). This dependency on commitment is typically described in positive terms because it enables people to disengage from automatic goals that they are no longer committed to.…”