The Influence Of Implementation Intention On Ego Depletion

Implementation intention and Goal intention are two kinds of individual psychological intentions. The aim of this research was to test whether forming implementation intentions could prevent ego-depletion and/or offset the effects of ego-depletion, through discussed the relationship between implementation intention and ego-depletion. Implementation intention was supposed by Gollwizer in1993. It was a strategy that increases the likelihood of attaining one's objectives. Technically, it claimed that individuals would make specific action strategy for some specific situation, during the process of achieving goals. This kind of specific strategy refers to statements of the form:"As soon as situation y occurs, I will initiate goal-directed behavior x, is called "if then plan". The plan could help manage the self-control resources during the period of achieving goals.Different types of ego-depletion tasks, related to sport practice, had been adopted. With the three experimental paradigms-behavioral control, emotional control, and attentional control, the compensation and prophylaxis methods had been studied. Study1was to test whether implementation intention could be a prophylaxis method for ego-depletion. It showed that participants who formed implementation intentions during an initial ego-depleting task subsequently showed greater persistence on grip strength task compared to participants who did not form implementation intentions, was similar with that of non-depletion participants. Study2focused on the compensation effect that implementation intention imposes on ego-depletion. It showed that among participants who had been ego-depleted during an initial task, forming implementation intentions improved subsequent performance on a Stroop task to the level exhibited by non-depleted controls. Study3was to test the influence of competition trait anxiety on compensation between implementation intention and ego-depletion. Similar with the results of study2, it showed that implementation intention would effectively compensate ego-depletion, to individuals with high competition trait anxiety. It also showed that to the individuals wi th low compet ition trait anxiety, both implementation intention and goal intention would compensate ego-depletion.The achievement in this paper offered a theoretical and practical method for making competition preparedness, so that the athletes can use scheme Y for managing situation X. That is the "if-then plan". This study indicated that the athletes would confront many cases that would distract their attention, like pressures given by media and competitors, applauds given by audiences, and even the behaviors of judges, many of which can hinder his or her success. If one can make proper preparedness, the athletes would save ego-depletion sources, and avoid or compensate ego-depletion effectively and successfully.