The Professor Who Taught Yale’s Most Popular Class Explains How to Achieve Your Goals
Use the “WOOP” technique to learn whatever you want.
I often find myself wishing to learn something great. I fantasize about it and how my life would change for good. But then, I forget about it, and that thought occasionally crosses my mind just to make me suffer in my fantasies. It is a vicious cycle that repeats itself day in, day out. I never learn that skill.
If that sounds familiar, maybe “WOOP” is what you’re looking for. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Objective, and Plan. WOOP is also known as Mental Contrasting with Implementational Intentions (MCII). This technique was created by the social psychologist Gabrielle Oettingen.
Laurie Santos, a psychology professor at Yale taught this technique in her course, “Psychology and the Good Life.” In 2018, 1,200 students attended this class. It is the highest number of students in Yale’s history to take a single class.
In a study, participants in romantic relationships were told to identify an insecurity-based behavior they wanted to reduce. To reduce this behavior, some participants learned the WOOP technique, some learned a reverse control strategy, and some went with no strategy.
