Book contents
- Pillars of Social Psychology
- Pillars of Social Psychology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introducing the Pillars of Social Psychology
- 2 Seven Decades in Social Psychology
- 3 A Career Emerging from an Unnecessary Analysis
- 4 Once a Social Psychologist, Always a Social Psychologist
- 5 Abe and Leon and Me
- 6 My Contributions to Social Psychology Over Many Decades
- 7 Influences and Dissonances
- 8 From Ideomotor Theory to the IAT in Just 35 Years
- 9 Curiosity
- 10 The Emergence and Evolution of Social Realities
- 11 The Good Old Days
- 12 “What Ever Happened to that Blond Girl?”
- 13 A Quest for Social Psychology That Spans the Psychological and the Social
- 14 Reasoning
- 15 Chance and Choice
- 16 Looking Back on a Charmed Career
- 17 My Train Ride to Social Psychology
- 18 The Making and Remaking of a Cross-Cultural Psychologist in Six Acts
- 19 A Professional Past of Arranging to Be Compelled
- 20 A Social Psychological and Personality Approach to Human Motivation
- 21 Wandering into Psychology and Law
- 22 My Meandering Journey into Social Psychology
- 23 A Career in Ten Episodes
- 24 Getting Lucky
- 25 Mindsets
- 26 Social Psychology and Me
- 27 My Life as a Social Psychologist
- 28 You Can’t Be a Self by Yourself
- 29 Getting to Here from There
- 30 A Relational Life
- 31 Planning Is Overrated
- 32 Symptoms, Secrets, Writing, and Words
- 33 How Chance Encounters Can Foster a Career
- 34 A Multi-Decade Journey between the Lab and the Real World
- 35 A Long and Winding Road
- 36 Tales of a Devoted but Disillusioned Party Crasher
- 37 Social Cognition, Always the Great Beyond
- 38 The Accidental Social Psychologist
- 39 The Power of Firmly Held Beliefs
- 40 My Career in Social Psychology
- 41 Chasing Self-Esteem
- 42 The Basement Tapes
- 43 Evolutionary Social Psychology
- 44 One Man’s Search for (the Assignment of) Meaning
- 45 Meetings with Remarkable Men: A Fortunate Journey in Social Psychology
- 46 Dear Vera, Chuck, and Dave
- 47 Always Buy the Handbook of Social Psychology (1968) at a Railway Station in India
- 48 Empowering People to Break the Prejudice Habit
- 49 Seeking the Middle Way
- 50 The Pillars, Their Stories, Retrospectives, and Signals Loud and Clear
- Index
- References
31 - Planning Is Overrated
A Case Study
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 September 2022
Edited by
Book contents
- Pillars of Social Psychology
- Pillars of Social Psychology
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Introducing the Pillars of Social Psychology
- 2 Seven Decades in Social Psychology
- 3 A Career Emerging from an Unnecessary Analysis
- 4 Once a Social Psychologist, Always a Social Psychologist
- 5 Abe and Leon and Me
- 6 My Contributions to Social Psychology Over Many Decades
- 7 Influences and Dissonances
- 8 From Ideomotor Theory to the IAT in Just 35 Years
- 9 Curiosity
- 10 The Emergence and Evolution of Social Realities
- 11 The Good Old Days
- 12 “What Ever Happened to that Blond Girl?”
- 13 A Quest for Social Psychology That Spans the Psychological and the Social
- 14 Reasoning
- 15 Chance and Choice
- 16 Looking Back on a Charmed Career
- 17 My Train Ride to Social Psychology
- 18 The Making and Remaking of a Cross-Cultural Psychologist in Six Acts
- 19 A Professional Past of Arranging to Be Compelled
- 20 A Social Psychological and Personality Approach to Human Motivation
- 21 Wandering into Psychology and Law
- 22 My Meandering Journey into Social Psychology
- 23 A Career in Ten Episodes
- 24 Getting Lucky
- 25 Mindsets
- 26 Social Psychology and Me
- 27 My Life as a Social Psychologist
- 28 You Can’t Be a Self by Yourself
- 29 Getting to Here from There
- 30 A Relational Life
- 31 Planning Is Overrated
- 32 Symptoms, Secrets, Writing, and Words
- 33 How Chance Encounters Can Foster a Career
- 34 A Multi-Decade Journey between the Lab and the Real World
- 35 A Long and Winding Road
- 36 Tales of a Devoted but Disillusioned Party Crasher
- 37 Social Cognition, Always the Great Beyond
- 38 The Accidental Social Psychologist
- 39 The Power of Firmly Held Beliefs
- 40 My Career in Social Psychology
- 41 Chasing Self-Esteem
- 42 The Basement Tapes
- 43 Evolutionary Social Psychology
- 44 One Man’s Search for (the Assignment of) Meaning
- 45 Meetings with Remarkable Men: A Fortunate Journey in Social Psychology
- 46 Dear Vera, Chuck, and Dave
- 47 Always Buy the Handbook of Social Psychology (1968) at a Railway Station in India
- 48 Empowering People to Break the Prejudice Habit
- 49 Seeking the Middle Way
- 50 The Pillars, Their Stories, Retrospectives, and Signals Loud and Clear
- Index
- References
Summary
I was taught by my parents and teachers that having an explicit plan is essential to success. While I still agree that this is wise counsel, I also have come to believe that planning is overrated. One reason is that much in life is out of our control, which frustrates even the best of plans. Another reason, which both experience and research have informed me, is that we are guided in many thoughts, feelings, intuitions, and inclinations that are not specified steps in the formal logic within “the plan.” We may not even be aware of these influences: These are implicit processes. However, it is not an “either/or” to decide to be planful, deliberate, and explicit in your reasoning versus being oriented, directed, and pushed and pulled by implicit processes that you cannot fully articulate. While these two types of influences can operate independently and move us in different directions, they also can function in a complementary fashion that guides us along a chosen path but alerts us to new, even more rewarding opportunities. Recognition and acceptance of implicit influences have been core themes in my research and, as I illustrate through personal experiences, my life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Pillars of Social PsychologyStories and Retrospectives, pp. 266 - 273Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022
References
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