Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes

By Peter M. Gollwitzer, P. Sheeran. 2006

3,087 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Holding a strong goal intention (“I intend to reach Z !”) does not guarantee goal achievement, because people may fail to deal effectively with self‐regulatory problems during goal striving. This review analyzes whether realization of goal intentions is facilitated by forming an implementation intention that spells out the when, where, and how of goal striving in advance (“If situation Y is encountered, then I will initiate goal‐directed behavior X !”). Findings from 94 independent tests showed that implementation intentions had a positive effect of medium‐to‐large magnitude ( d = .65) on goal attainment. Implementation intentions were effective in promoting the initiation of goal striving, the shielding of ongoing goal pursuit from unwanted influences, disengagement from failing courses of action, and conservation of capability for future goal striving. There was also strong support for postulated component processes: Implementation intention formation both enhanced the accessibility of specified opportunities and automated respective goal‐directed responses. Several directions for future research are outlined.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c4deb3507fe725ce6363c1735f1ba83bab20d665

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Citations in the corpus

Towards Decision Support and Goal Achievement: Identifying Action-Outcome Relationships From Social Media (2015, background): “Research in the ﬁelds such as social psychology, medicine and human computer interaction has shown that information, such as action plans, task and goal reminders, and reviews can have a signiﬁcant positive impact on goal achievement of individuals [35, 17, 23].”
Committing to implementation intentions: Attention and memory effects for selected situational cues (2012, background): “…research has only addressed the following features of the super-ordinate goal intention as potential moderators of implementation intention effects (Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2006): the strength of the superordinate goal intention (e.g., Sheeran et al. 2005, Study 1) and whether or not the…”
Commitment and Behavior Change (2013, methodology): “A meta-analysis (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006) showed a medium to strong effect size for the relationship between specific goal intentions and actually performing the behavior.”
Changing environmentally harmful behaviors: A stage model of self-regulated behavioral change (2013, background): “Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) assumed that the ability to engage in mental simulation (planning) might be one such factor.”
Impact of the perceived risk from Covid-19 on intention to travel (2020, methodology): “The analysis is based on one of the most established theoretical frameworks in the analysis of intention (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006), the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1985).”
Bridging the intention-behavior gap : Inducing implementation intentions through persuasive appeals (2011, neutral): “…of implementation intentions as a strategy to promote goal-directed action (Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999), their effectiveness has been demonstrated for various types of behavior, such as health-related, academic or prosocial behaviors (for a complete overview, see Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006, 2009).”
The Person-Based Approach to Intervention Development: Application to Digital Health-Related Behavior Change Interventions (2015, background): “…social modeling of overcoming obstacles, using stories or testimonials from other users (which also increases relatedness), implementation planning [67], and providing tailored feedback based on self-reported progress towards goals (congratulating success in goal achievement and providing remedial…”
Sensory Imagery in Craving: From Cognitive Psychology to New Treatments for Addiction (2012, background): “I’ll get up at 6 tomorrow morning and go for a run”) help to address this specificity issue—and the potential utility of these ‘implementation intentions’ (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 1996) is discussed further below.”
An Action-Based Model of Cognitive-Dissonance Processes (2015, background): “This approach-motivated state, which has been referred to as an implemental or actionoriented mind-set (Gollwitzer & Bayer, 1999), increases decision implementation and goal accomplishment (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).”
Self-efficacy Feelings Moderate Implementation Intention Effects (2010, background): “…person is cognitively burdened that implementation intentions are needed, as only the latter manage to automate action control (i.e., strategically create automaticity; Gollwitzer, 1999; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006), thus allowing for high performances even under conditions of high cognitive load.”
The impact of changing attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy on health-related intentions and behavior: A meta-analysis. (2015, background): “The implemental phase concerns the translation of respective intentions into action and involves a different set of processes that have to do with action preparation (e.g., planning when, where, and how to act; Gollwitzer, 1999; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).”
Using Mental Imagery to Enhance the Effectiveness of Implementation Intentions (2009, methodology): “This should support the implementation intentioninherent process of automating the goal-directed response (cf. Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2006).”
A Generalizable Scale of Propensity to Plan: The Long and the Short of Planning for Time and for Money (2010, background): “Goal attainment is higher when goal intentions are′′ ′′′a a made concrete by thinking of how, when, and where one will enact one’s goal intentions, as with implementation intentions (Gollwitzer 1999; Gollwitzer and Sheeran 2006).”
A User's Guide to Debiasing (2014, background): “When an individual is prompted to decide on the when, where, and how of an intended action, the newly formed plan represents a commitment that is both psychologically difficult to break and memorable (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).”
The self-regulation of motivation: Motivational strategies as mediator between motivational beliefs and engagement for learning (2017, background): “…students in motivational strategies increases their use of such strategies and subsequently has more impact on their motivational outcomes 128 (Bembenutty & Zimmerman, 2003; Boekaerts & Corno, 2005; Dignath & Buttner, 2008; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006; Kramarski & Mizrachi, 2006; Kuhl, 2000).”