Does forming implementation intentions help people with mental health problems to achieve goals? A meta-analysis of experimental studies with clinical and analogue samples

摘要

ObjectivePeople struggle to act on the goals that they set themselves, and this gap between intention and action is likely to be exacerbated by mental health problems. Evidence suggests that forming specific if-then plans (or implementation intentions') can promote goal attainment and a number of studies have applied such techniques in clinical contexts. However, to date, the extent to which planning can help people with mental health problems has not been systematically examined.