Peter Gollwitzer's 'If-then plan' 拖延症治疗方法
Peter Gollwitzer: a German professor of psychology in the Psychology Department at NYU. His research centers on how goals and plans affect cognition, emtion and behavior.
An implementation intention (II) is a self-regulatory strategy in the form of an 'if-then plan' that lead to better goal attainment, as well as help in habit and behaviour modification. It is subordinate to goal intentions as it specifies the when, where and how portions of goal-directed behaviour.
The basic structure of an implementation intention is as follows:
IF {situation} THEN I will {behaviour}
Concept:
People generally have positive intentions, but often fail to act on them. The question is how to ensure that the set goal intentions will reliably lead to the desired goal-directed behaviours, and subsequent attainment of those goals.
Implementation intentions offer a practical solution for such a problem.
Achieving one's goals requires that certain goal-directed behaviour be institued, but people are often unsuccessful in either initiating or maintiaing these behaviours. The problem of initiating and maintiaing goal-directed behaviour can be addressed by using the implementation intention process.
This 'if-then plan' is a very specific approach as compared to goal intentions.
A goal intention may be phrased in the following way:"I want to reach X!"
Implementation intentions on the other hand are much more specific and seek to connect a future critical situation (an opportunity for goal attainment) will a specific goal-direct behaviour, thereby leading to what could be called automatization in goal attainment.
They are often phrased in the following way: "When situation X arises, I will perform response Y!"
Where goal intentions are more general and abstract, implemention intentions are much more concrete and procedural.
Having formed a concrete plan involving a specific situation, this situation then becomes mentally represented and activated, leading to better perception, attention, and memeory concerning the critical situation.
As a result, the chosen goal-directed behaviour (the then-part of the plan) will be performed automatically and efficiently, without conscious effort.
The automatization of the behaviour in response to the future situation or cue, removes all hesitation and deliberation on the part of the decision maker when such a critical situation arises.
This also has the effect of freeing cognitive resources for other mental processing tasks, and also for avoiding goal-threatening distractions or competing goals.
It is also assumed that an implementation intention, once set, will continue operating non-consciously. this process is called strategic automaticity.
The strength of commitment related to both the plan and the goal is very important for the implementation intention to have an effect on people's behaviour. Without commitment, an implementation intention will hardly have any effect on goal-directed behaviour.
If the phase model of action, the use of implementation intention takes place in the post-decisional phase (Implemental mindset, volition is the driving force of action) which follows the predecisional phase (deliberative mindset, motivation is the driving force of setting goals). In the implemental mindset, a person is already committed to a goal and an implementation intention can be a good strategy to reach this goal.
