The Control of the Unwanted

Abstract

Intentions to do more good and less bad are reliably associated with actual efforts in the intended directions (Ajzen, 1991; Godin & Kok, 1996; Sheeran, 2002). However, intention-behavior relations are modest, largely due to the fact that people, despite having formed strang intentions, fail to act on them (Orbell & Sheeran, 1998). Given this predicament, one wonders what people can do to facilitate the translation of intentions into behavior. In this chapter, it is suggested that people should engage in a seeond act of willing by making if-then plans (i. e., implementation intentions) that specify how the (goal) Intention is to be realized. We argue that such plans produce automatic action control by intentionally delegating the control of one's goal-directed thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to specific situational cues. Thus, by forming implementation intentions, people can strategically switch from conscious and effortful control of their goal-directed behaviors to being automatically controlled by selected situational cues. We understand this type of automatic action control as strategic automaticity or instant habits (Gollwitzer, 1999), as it originates from a single act of will rather than being produced by repeated and consistent selection of a certain course of action in the same situation (i. e., principles of routinization; Anderson, 1987; Fitts & Posner, 1967; Newell & Rosenbloom, 1981). The first part of the chapter discusses research that explores how implementation intentions can help people to promote getting started on their goals. In the second part, we discuss findings on how people can use implementation intentions in an attempt to prevent straying off-course from goal attainment.