Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
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Date of Graduation
Spring 2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Department
Department of Psychology
Advisor(s)
Jaime Kurtz
Abstract
One avenue to help students reach educational goals is implementation intentions, a tool encouraging
planning the “when, where, and how” of goal-oriented actions (Gollwitzer, 1999). However,
implementation intentions need validating outside of the laboratory (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006). To
help do so, they can be viewed through Construal-Level Theory (CLT), which explains why we may have
trouble setting intentions before we can fulfill them (Trope & Liberman 2010). A study was conducted
wherein 56 participants from a section of PSYC 330 either wrote about their college study habits or
completed implementation intentions preparing them to study for an upcoming exam. As they wrote,
participants also completed measures of construal-levels. It was hypothesized that implementation
intentions would immediately reduce construal levels and, over the following week, increase time
students studied for their exam and the score they received. None of these hypotheses were supported;
implementation intentions had no effect on study habits, exam scores, or construal levels. Results and
their implications are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Deitrick, Christopher R., "Can small details bring big success? Construal levels as academic goal strategies" (2015). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019. 93.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/93
