Goal Setting and Behavior Change
The Stronger By Science Podcast
Do You Have an Emergency Reserve?
The idea of slack with a cost is to combine hard goals that are a bit of a stretch, and incorporate some flexibility. When you lean on that flexibility, it is not internalized as failure. It's about building in flexibility to the dayto-day targets - so when possible, slack with the cost i's a really nice way to be nervous about setting a stretch goal.
In preparation for the new year (and the resolutions that come with it), today’s episode is all about goal setting and behavior change. Eric and Greg have a long, evidence-based conversation about the research on setting effective goals and successfully changing health behaviors. The discussion yields several evidence-based tips for setting better goals and maximally supporting your ability to achieve them.
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TIME STAMPS
Intro/Announcements (0:00)
Road to the Stage / Road to Athens (2:29)
Feats of Strength (4:12)
Research Review: Goal setting and behavior change (9:54)
Fake urgency (12:06)
Success rates of New Year’s Resolutions (14:36)
- Auld lang syne: success predictors, change processes, and self-reported outcomes of New Year's resolvers and nonresolvers
- A large-scale experiment on New Year's resolutions: Approach-oriented goals are more successful than avoidance-oriented goals
Temporal landmarks (22:19)
- The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior
- Anticipated Temporal Landmarks Undermine Motivation for Continued Goal Pursuit
SMART goals (27:31)
Creating a goal hierarchy (30:19)
Superordinate goals (34:16)
Equifinality and Multifinality (41:12)
Mental contrasting (44:12)
- Mental contrasting for health behaviour change: a systematic review and meta-analysis of effects and moderator variables
- A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions on Goal Attainment
Approach versus avoidance (52:37)
Flexible versus rigid restraint (56:16)
Process versus outcome (1:01:28)
Mastery versus performance (1:06:05)
Goal difficulty; “slack with a cost” (1:13:44)
- Goal Setting and Action Planning for Health Behavior Change
- The Benefits of Emergency Reserves: Greater Preference and Persistence for Goals that Have Slack with a Cost
Setting specific goals (1:23:12)
Implementation intentions (1:23:47)
- A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions on Goal Attainment
- Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling
Stimulus control; modifying your environment (1:30:24)
Social support and feedback (1:33:08)
- Periodic Prompts and Reminders in Health Promotion and Health Behavior Interventions: Systematic Review
- Designing in-app messages to nudge behavior change: Lessons learned from a weight management app for young adults
How MacroFactor supports evidence-based goal striving and behavior change (1:45:06)
To Play Us Out: Protein Bread, Winter Break (1:54:54)
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