From Fantasy to Action Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII) Improves Academic Performance in Children

Angela Lee Duckworth; Teri A. Kirby; Anton Gollwitzer; Gabriele Oettingen

doi:10.1177/1948550613476307

From Fantasy to Action

Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions (MCII) Improves Academic Performance in Children

¹University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
²University of Washington, Seattle, WA
³New York University, New York, NY, USA
⁴University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Angela Duckworth, Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, 3701 Market Street Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA Email: duckworth{at}psych.upenn.edu

Abstract

The current intervention tested whether a metacognitive self-regulatory strategy of goal pursuit can help economically disadvantaged children convert positive thoughts and images about their future into effective action. Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) entails mental contrasting a desired future with relevant obstacles of reality and forming implementation intentions (if–then plans) specifying when and where to overcome those obstacles. Seventy-seven 5th graders from an urban middle school were randomly assigned to learn either MCII or a Positive Thinking control strategy. Compared to children in the control condition, children taught how to apply MCII to their academic wishes and concerns significantly improved their report card grades (η² = .07), attendance (η² = .05), and conduct (η² = .07). These findings suggest that MCII holds considerable promise for helping disadvantaged middle school children improve their academic performance.

Article Notes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding The research reported here was supported by Grant K01-AG033182 from the National Institute on Aging to the first author.