Implementation intention and planning interventions in Health Psychology: Recommendations from the Synergy Expert Group for research and practice

Abstract

The current article details a position statement and recommendations for future research and practice on planning and implementation intentions in health contexts endorsed by the Synergy Expert Group. The group comprised world-leading researchers in health and social psychology and behavioural medicine who convened to discuss priority issues in planning interventions in health contexts and develop a set of recommendations for future research and practice. The expert group adopted a nominal groups approach and voting system to elicit and structure priority issues in planning interventions and implementation intentions research. Forty-two priority issues identified in initial discussions were further condensed to 18 key issues, including definitions of planning and implementation intentions and 17 priority research areas. Each issue was subjected to voting for consensus among group members and formed the basis of the position statement and recommendations. Specifically, the expert group endorsed statements and recommendations in the following areas: generic definition of planning and specific definition of implementation intentions, recommendations for better testing of mechanisms, guidance on testing the effects of moderators of planning interventions, recommendations on the social aspects of planning interventions, identification of the preconditions that moderate effectiveness of planning interventions and recommendations for research on how people use plans.

Keywords:

• implementation intentions
• planning
• volition
• if-then plans
• goal striving
• cues-to-action

Notes

This research reported in this article was conducted as part of the European Health Psychology Society’s (EHPS) Synergy Expert Meeting held in 2014 in Innsbruck, Austria facilitated by Martin S. Hagger, Aleksandra Luszczynska, and John de Wit. The EHPS Synergy expert meetings are organised annually to facilitate collaborative discussion between health psychologists conducting research in core fields within health psychology.

1. The five general areas were introduced to the expert group at the outset of the meeting to guide discussions. The goal was not to impose a reified list or preclude discussion of issues that extended beyond these areas. Rather, it was to provide a starting point for group discussions based on a previous review of the literature.

2. It is important to note that the list of priorities are listed in this section and in Appendix C are in the order in which they were put to vote in the expert group meeting and not in order of priority. While there was some variation in the percentage agreement for each priority area, using these percentages as a basis for a hierarchy of priorities would be erroneous. As we have no formal basis for prioritising within the current list, we offer no hierarchy or order within the six areas and 18 issues listed here.

3. Collaborative implementation intentions are defined as developing an if-then plan to enact the target behaviour together with a significant other.

4. Dyadic planning is defined as planning together with significant other, but enacting the behaviour alone without using the partner as a cue.

5. We thank an anonymous reviewer for suggesting these additional priorities.