8/12/2023 0 Comments Does dreams come true![]() Under the WOOP model, you work on goal attainment by: Combining her ideas with those of her husband and fellow researcher, Peter Gollwitzer, she writes of a motivation exercise called WOOP, which marries mental contrasting skills with action plans for goal attainment, and gives tips on how to use it. But for those interested in applications of the research, you can skip ahead to where Oettingen takes her work into more practical realms. Though Oettingen’s research is compelling, the sheer number of studies she reports on may leave readers immune to her findings at some point. Results showed that those students who thought they could improve in math and who used mental contrasting tried harder and achieved more according to independent teacher reports than those who indulged in positive fantasies or dwelled on negative obstacles. Dividing the students into three groups, the researchers asked students to either indulge in fantasies based on their positive outcomes, dwell on their negative obstacles, or engage in mental contrasting. In another study, Oettingen and her colleagues asked male computer science students to rate how likely it would be for them to get better at math, and to list four potential positive outcomes and four potential negative obstacles to achieving this goal. It’s also important for goals to be realistic. In the moment, the fantasy feels good, and it also feels relaxing-so much so that we don’t take action.” “In the face of a big challenge or chore, people often fantasize about how it feels to have achieved it. “These results correspond well with many people’s daily experiences, “ she writes. In addition, a week later the participants were questioned about how much they had accomplished during the week the less energized participants had felt, the less they’d accomplished. Immediately after the exercise, the participants reported lower energy levels if they positively fantasized only than if they had a mixed view of the week. In one experiment, she and her colleagues asked college students to either write down positive fantasies about the upcoming week unfolding exactly as they’d like it to, or to just write their thoughts and fantasies about the upcoming week. Oettingen’s book is chock full of science experiments showing positive thinking alone prevents goal attainment-perhaps because daydreaming can decrease the energy needed to take and sustain positive action. Mental contrasting, she argues, is particularly useful when pursuing a realistic goal, such as losing weight or improving a once thriving relationship, but is less likely to work if your goal is unrealistic, such as starting a business from scratch without any prior experience. From the GGSC to your bookshelf: 30 science-backed tools for well-being.Ī combination of dreaming and anticipating failure-which Oettingen calls “mental contrasting”-is important for motivation, setting in motion unconscious cognitive processes that are important in goal attainment.
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