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How to achieve your goals by using implementation intentions.

goalImplementation intentions and behavioural follow-through

Like many people (I suspect!) I am sometimes not so good at following though on my goals. Here are a bunch of things which this week I fully intended to do, but failed epically to achieve. Note this is the abridged version – the full list runs to 3 volumes.

  1. Buy light bulbs for the kitchen
  2. Call an old friend I ran into on the train last week (Hello J!)
  3. Lose weight
  4. Write down when my annual leave is on our kitchen calendar
  5. Call a work colleague to discuss a new project
  6. Write up some work related expense forms

For many of these things I actively thought about doing them several times a day (as well as whilst cooking crazily calorie laden food in a near pitch-black kitchen).I’m not alone here – these sort of goals only seem to account for around 30% of the variance in our behaviour. Now, I am a reasonably well motivated guy, so why the apparent multiple lack of follow through? Part of the is probably due to the way I formulate my intentions.

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One Lovely Blog Award

1lovelyblog

I am really touched to say my blog has been nominated for a One Lovely Blog Award by ThugsandRuffians over at the AGreatBigBeautiful blog. A massive thank you for this – it’s a tremendous motivator 🙂 🙂 :-). Do check out AGBB – it’s a super positive, inspiring, honest and at times funny blog about parenting, everyday magic moments and life. I love it. Go and check it out now (then come back and read on).

Back? Ok. There are some strings attached to this award.

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A Big Thank You!

thank youA Big Thank You!

As we come up to the end of the first month of PsychologyItBetter I just wanted to say a big thank you. Since we launched we have had over 350 visitors from all over the world including the UK (where parents are sleepy, and people are taking exams), Canada (where micro-veg is popular, China, Mexico, Russia, India, Greece and many others!

It’s great to hear from you…

If you like something, let me know! I’m really thrilled every time someone leaves a comment or likes a blog entry, so do keep them coming.

…and keep telling others about it!

I’d also really like to thank everyone who has taken a couple of seconds to facebook liked, reposted or retweeted links I have sent out – it’s a little action which gives me a real boost. Please please please keep it up 🙂

Thanks again

Dan

Alien Abductions and the Science of Psychology

What does psychology make of alien abductions? And what does this study tell us about the discipline?

UFO

 

Last night, my partner and I were watching a rerun of the X-Files. It was great, Mulder and Scully being curious and sceptical, hints of conspiracy, images of alien abduction and some great dry humour. But it got me thinking – what does my discipline make of belief in alien abduction? And what does it study tell us about the wider context of psychological science?

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The Psychology of Gardening

My family and I have a allotment (well, a half sized allotment)a short walk from our home. The growing season starts in earnest soon, and our windowsills are covered in small seedlings and the like already. Whilst digging last week (something which allotments seemingly demand endlessly!) I began to wonder about the psychology of gardening.

Spade

Interestingly, a quick search of the research literature revealed a pretty decent selection of papers. Gardening seems to have a great stress reducing effect – lowering physiological reactions to stress1, being of therapeutic benefit for everyone from children2 to the elderly3. It is also linked to higher self-efficacy and self esteem4. But how does it work? This seems to be a bit more of a mystery, but I’m happy to speculate. One argument is that simply looking at green landscapes is simply inherently soothing (Soylent Green anyone?). I think this is true from hiking trips, but looking at my allotment is NOT viewing a inherently pleasant vista (more of a muddy diorama covered in bravely struggling flora!). I wonder if it is more about the states of mind gardening can produce, and the social connections it brings.

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Hello!

Why am I writing this?

My name is Dan Frings and I’m an academic – specifically an Associate Professor in Psychology. Academics write copiously, but within quite strict confines. We write journal articles each focused on a single experiment. We write book chapters (or even books) to specialist audiences of academics. Occasionally we write text books for undergraduates. We are always very circumspect in the claims we make about what our work means.

At the end of last year I was invited to be involved in writing a book which was a little different (for me at least). This books was called called “Psychology Squared:100 Concepts in Psychology you should know”. It’s aimed at a mass audience, and boils down complex concepts into bite sized chunks (and each gets a picture or diagram). Although it’s not out until June, for me it’s already had a big impact. I discovered that I really enjoyed writing for a non-academic audience.

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