Planning how to manage a bad mood could help avoid failing your New Year’s Resolution

Bad moods could cause us to quit our New Year’s resolutions according to research by the University of Sheffield on how negative moods and high levels of emotion can lead to risky and impulse behaviour.


The research, which was published in the British Journal of Social Psychology in June 2012, investigated whether having a plan specifying how to deal with a bad mood could help break the link between moods and risky behaviour.

Experts from the University’s Department of Psychology found that people can strategically avoid the detrimental effects of a bad mood by forming a plan designed to control their actions.

Participants were asked to finish the sentence “If I am in a negative mood, then I will…” by selecting one of a series of different strategies, such as breathing deeply or thinking positive thoughts. Planning in this way helped to reduce the impact of bad moods on risky and impulsive behaviour.


"Considerable evidence now suggests that deciding when, where, and how to act in advance can help people to stick to their goals. This type of plan is called an 'implementation intention' and specifies both a good opportunity in which to act and a suitable response to that opportunity.

"In the research, we asked participants to form implementation intentions specifying how they would deal with a bad mood. Participants were asked to complete the sentence 'If I am in a negative mood, then I will…' with one of the following strategies; breathe deeply, think only positive thoughts, think 'it is only a mood' and I will not let it bother me, and think how I have successfully dealt with other situations.

"We found that planning in this way helped to reduce the impact of bad moods on risky and impulsive behaviour. The implication is that making this sort of plan might help people to stick to their New Year’s resolutions."

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Paul Mannion
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The University of Sheffield
0114 222 9851