Open questions in implementation intention research

Abstract

WEBB (THISVOLUME) CONSIDERS the making of if-then plans (i.e. implementation intentions such as 'If thewaiter asks me for my order, then I will choose a vegetarian dish and a non-alcoholic drink!') as a powerful self-regulation strategy that helps people to meet their goals of doing more good and less bad. He points to the comparative lack of success that is achieved when people restrict their self-regulation to the forming of mere goals (e.g. 'I want to eat more vegetables!' and 'I want to drink less alcohol!'). This common goal intention-behaviour gap is due to the fact that people often do not have access to the necessary skills, efforts, and opportunities, and that they often face conflicting behavioural tendencies exactly at that point in time when it were appropriate to act on the focal goal no matter whether these opposing forces originate from inside or outside, from chronic bad habits or pressing competing goals. Webb argues that explicating the implementation of one's goals should facilitate their attainment, in particular if this is done in the form of if-then plans (implementation intentions). This should be the case because of the following psychological mechanisms (Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999): the mental representation of the critical situational cues specified in the if-part of an implementation intention becomes highly activated and thus these cues are more easily recalled and detected, as well as more readily attended to. Moreover, in the presence of the critical cue, the initiation of the goal-directed response specified in the then-part becomes automated in the sense that it is now immediate, efficient (i.e. effortless), and no longer requires a conscious intent. In support of these ideas, Webb reports studies showing that goal attainment is generally facilitated when implementation intentions have been formed, and that implementation intention effects are particularly pronounced when goal attainment is difficult by itself or becomes difficult because of the interference of bad habits. He then describes experiments that allow attributing these beneficial effects to the postulated mechanisms (e.g. Aarts et al., 1999, for the heightened activation of the mental representation of specified cues; and Webb and Sheeran, under review, for the automation of the specified goal-directed response). Finally, Webb raises some open issues of implementation intention research. He asks intriguing questions of: (a) how the motivation to reach a given goal influences the effects of respective implementation intentions on actual goal attainment; (b) whether the formation ofmultiple if-then plans in the service of a given goal weakens implementation intention effects; and (c) whether there are individual difference variables that potentially modify implementation intention effects. In the following I will address these issues one by one.