title: 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.
authors.affiliation: a Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences , Curtin University , Perth , Australia.|b School of Applied Psychology and Menzies Health Institute Queensland , Griffith University , Brisbane , Australia.|c School of Human, Health and Social Sciences , Central Queensland University , Rockhampton , Australia.|d Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, Department of Sport Sciences , University of Jyväskylä , Jyväskylä , Finland.
authors.forename: Martin S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hagger
authors.affiliation: e University of Social Sciences and Humanities , Wroclaw , Poland.|f Trauma, Health, & Hazards Center , University of Colorado at Colorado Springs , Colorado Springs , USA.
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Luszczynska
authors.affiliation: g Centre for Social Research in Health, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences , University of New South Wales , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Wit
authors.affiliation: h Bob Shapell School of Social Work , Tel Aviv University , Tel Aviv , Israel.
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Benyamini
authors.affiliation: i Institut für Medizinische Psychologie , Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Burkert
authors.affiliation: j Département de psychologie , Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières , Trois-Rivières , Canada.
authors.forename: Pier-Eric
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Chamberland
authors.affiliation: k School of Pharmacy, Centre for Behavioural Medicine, Department of Practice and Policy , University College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chater
authors.affiliation: l School of Natural Sciences, Division of Psychology , University of Stirling , Stirling , UK.
authors.forename: Stephan U
authors.initials: SU
authors.lastname: Dombrowski
authors.affiliation: m Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: van Dongen
authors.affiliation: n School of Psychological Science , University of Manchester , Manchester , UK.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: French
authors.affiliation: o Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Psychologie Personnalité, Cognition, et Changement Social , Université Grenoble Alpes , Grenoble , France.
authors.forename: Aurelie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gauchet
authors.affiliation: p Department of Social Research , University of Helsinki , Helsinki , Finland.
authors.forename: Nelli
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hankonen
authors.affiliation: q Department of Psychology , University of Cyprus , Nicosia , Cyprus.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Karekla
authors.affiliation: r Department of Internal Medicine , University of New Mexico , Albuquerque , USA.
authors.forename: Anita Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Kinney
authors.affiliation: a Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine, School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences , Curtin University , Perth , Australia.
authors.forename: Dominika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kwasnicka
authors.affiliation: s Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Health Behaviour Research Centre , University College London , London , UK.
authors.forename: Siu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hing Lo
authors.affiliation: t Departamento de Psicología de la Salud, Facultad de Medicina , Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche , Elche , Spain.
authors.forename: Sofía
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: López-Roig
authors.affiliation: o Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Psychologie Personnalité, Cognition, et Changement Social , Université Grenoble Alpes , Grenoble , France.
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Meslot
authors.affiliation: u CIPER, Faculty of Human Kinetics , University of Lisbon , Lisbon , Portugal.
authors.forename: Marta Moreira
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.affiliation: v Ruppin Academic Centre , Emek Hefer , Netanya , Israel.
authors.forename: Efrat
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Neter
authors.affiliation: w Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) , Utrecht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Plass
authors.affiliation: x Institute of Health & Society , Newcastle University , Newcastle , UK.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Potthoff
authors.affiliation: y B-Research/Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense , Paris , France.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rennie
authors.affiliation: z Department of Psychology, Applied Social Psychology , University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Urte
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Scholz
authors.affiliation: aa Department of Psychology , Columbia University , New York , USA.
authors.forename: Gertraud
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stadler
authors.affiliation: ab Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences , VU Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Elske
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stolte
authors.affiliation: ac Psychology and Neuroscience, Work and Social Psychology, Applied Social Psychology , Maastricht University , Maastricht , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gill
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ten Hoor
authors.affiliation: ad Clinical & Health Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences , Utrecht University , Utrecht , The Netherlands.|ae Department of Clinical Psychology , University of Amsterdam , Amsterdam , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Aukje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verhoeven
authors.affiliation: af Department of Medical Psychology , Medizinischen Universität Innsbruck , Innsbruck , Austria.
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: ag Department of Psychology , New York University , New York , USA.|ah Department of Psychology and Human Movement , University of Hamburg , Hamburg , Germany.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oettingen
authors.affiliation: ai Department of Psychology , University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill , USA.
authors.forename: Paschal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheeran
authors.affiliation: ag Department of Psychology , New York University , New York , USA.|aj Department of Psychology , University of Konstanz , Konstanz , Germany.
authors.forename: Peter M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Gollwitzer
mesh_terms: D001524:Behavioral Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*; D035841:Behavioral Research; D005544:Forecasting; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention
keywords: cues-to-action; goal striving; if-then plans; implementation intentions; planning; volition