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Procrastination as a self-regulation failure: The role of inhibition, negative affect, and gender
Abstract
Procrastination is a widespread phenomenon described as the quintessence of self-regulatory failure. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of inhibition capacities (prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference), negative affect, and gender in this self-regulatory failure. One hundred thirteen participants completed two tasks assessing prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference, as well as questionnaires measuring procrastination and trait negative affect. Three profiles of inhibitors were identified through cluster analysis: the first had good capacities in both prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference, the second had good capacities in resisting proactive interference but lower capacities in inhibiting prepotent response, and the third had good capacities in inhibiting prepotent response but lower capacities in resisting proactive interference. Procrastination was higher in this last cluster, but only under particular conditions (relatively higher level of negative affect) and in some participants (women). These results shed new light on the role of inhibition-related functions, negative affect, and gender in procrastination.
... As a common and widespread phenomenon, procrastination refers to the intentional delay of action despite knowing that one will be worse off due to the delay [1,2]. For example, even if some junior students know that they must do a good job of preparation before the exam, they will still put off the preparation work until it cannot be put off [3]. ...
... Therefore, previous studies have also investigated the influencing factors of procrastination. Previous studies showed that negative affect and inhibition [2], high impulsivity [7] and lack of self-control [4] were all associated with individuals' procrastination. Our study focused on exploring the relationship between negative life events and adolescents' procrastination and revealing the psychological mechanisms and conditions underlying this relationship. ...
... First, adolescence is a time when sex differences develop rapidly, and the establishment of specific gender role is an important social development task for adolescents-namely, they have to acquire appropriate gender behavior patterns and values [46,47]. Following this, previous studies have found that there exist significant gender differences regarding negative life events, negative emotions, rumination and procrastination [2,25,47]. Specifically, females usually report slightly more stressful life events and perceive more negative emotions including depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and stress symptoms than males, and this difference is particularly significant in adolescents [48,49]. At the same time, prior studies also have suggested that females ruminate more than males, and adolescent girls are more likely to be engaged into rumination and suffer from it [47]. ...
Procrastination (the intentional delay of action despite knowing that one will be worse off due to the delay) is a widespread phenomenon with various negative consequences, especially among adolescents. Based on relevant evidence, this study examined the relation between negative life events and adolescents’ procrastination, as well as the underlying mechanisms—specifically, the effects of negative emotions and rumination, as well as the potential gender differences. A total of 780 adolescents (Mage = 12.92 years old; 52.2% females) were recruited to complete a set of questionnaires assessing negative life events, procrastination, depression-anxiety-stress symptoms and rumination. Results showed that negative life events were positively associated with procrastination, and negative emotions significantly mediated the relation; rumination played a moderating role in this mediation model, specifically, both the direct and indirect effects in this mediation model were stronger for adolescents with higher rumination. Besides this, gender differences in this moderated mediation model were also found—the indirect effect of negative emotions was stronger for girls, and this mediating effect could be moderated by rumination only for boys. These results expanded our understanding of how negative life events influence procrastination and when (or for whom) negative life events influence procrastination the most. The findings also have significant implications for the prevention and intervention of adolescents’ procrastination.
... Research has shown that the lack of planning and task monitoring and ineffective organizational strategies are common self-regulation problems experienced by procrastinators (Visser et al., 2018). In contrast, research that correlates self-regulation or self-efficacy with procrastination has shown that individuals who procrastinate less have strategies to control and organize events in their lives (Balkis & Duru, 2016;Job, Walton, Bernecker, & Dweck, 2015;Kadzikowska-Wrzosek, 2018;Rebetez, Rochat, Barsics, & Van Der Linden, 2016;Vohs & Baumeister, 2004). By analogy, it is believed that selfleadership can influence procrastinating behavior, since, based on the theory of self-regulation, it consists of one's confidence in his/her personal ability to organize and execute certain actions, producing motivation, cognitive processing and courses of action necessary to exercise control over events in life (Bandura, 1977). ...
... Behavior-focused self-leadership strategies identify and expand the quality and quantity of desirable behaviors, while identifying and decreasing the incidence and/ or severity of undesirable behaviors, in order to build, maintain and/or improve individual performance as well as performance levels (Manz et al., 2016). Studies have shown that a natural focus on rewards or on activity aspects is more motivating, as it encourages individuals to develop tasks with more excellence, even those that are less desirable (Rebetez et al., 2016). ...
... The findings in this study have confirmed previous studies showing that individuals who have strategies for controlling and organizing events in their lives are able to reduce procrastinating behavior (Balkis & Duru, 2016;Grunschel et al., 2018;Job et al., 2015;Kadzikowska-Wrzosek, 2018;Rebetez et al., 2016;Ribeiro et al., 2014). In this study, it was possible to understand that behavior-focused self-leadership strategies enable individuals themselves to evaluate when, why and in what conditions certain behaviors occur and, from that, analyze the cause of the wasted or underused time so as to, then, change and act in desirable manner in relation to academic tasks (Manz et al., 2016). ...
Procrastination is the behavior related to voluntary delays at the beginning or end of tasks and in decision making. The aim of this study was to evaluate the mediational effect of self-leadership strategies on the relationship between academic procrastination and support from the environment. A cross-sectional correlational study was carried out with the participation of 1,436 students. Three instruments were used: Learning Support Scale, Academic Procrastination Scale - Short Form and Revised Self-Leadership Questionnaire. The findings confirmed the hypotheses by demonstrating that the more students use self-leadership strategies, the less they procrastinate and the lesser the influence of support from the environment. The full mediation model has been confirmed. The study stands out for its understanding of procrastination and the influence of support from the environment and self-leadership. It is suggested that further longitudinal studies be conducted, assessing differences in these behaviors between groups of students, programs, levels of higher education or shifts.
... On the behavioral level, procrastination has been found to be correlated with executive dysfunctions in the domain of inhibition in anti-saccade, Stroop, and stop-signal tasks 21 . Interestingly, no relation between procrastination and stop-signal reaction time in the stop-signal task was found by Rebetez and colleagures 22 . In the same study, however, a relationship between procrastination and poorer inhibition was revealed in a different, more complex task measuring resistance to proactive interference in working memory, however only in women with higher level of negative affect. ...
... Taking into account procrastinators' deficits in inhibition 21,22 one might expect lower brain activity during inhibition, similar to what has been found in studies on impulsivity 41,42 and substance dependence (review in 43 ). On the other hand, in behavioral addictions (gambling and binge eating, review in 43 ; or internet gaming disorder 44,45 ) the opposite has been found -increased inhibitory brain activity which has been interpreted as the compensatory mechanism. ...
... Additionally, we wanted to examine the influence of negative emotions (risk of financial punishment) on the neural mechanisms of behavioral control in procrastinators. As procrastination was shown to be correlated with executive dysfunctions in the domain of inhibition 21,22 , we decided to use one of the most robust inhibitory tasks: Go/No-go. Additionally, taking into account emotion regulation difficulties and higher sensitivity to punishment, we introduced additional manipulations to the task in the form of monetary punishments and rewards. ...
Procrastination is a self-regulatory failure in which people voluntarily but irrationally delay important tasks. Trait procrastination is estimated to affect 15-20% of the total population and leads to a significant decrease in performance, satisfaction with achievements, and quality of life. Procrastination is related to impulsivity and reduced executive control, especially in the domain of inhibition. Moreover, procrastinatory tendencies seem to increase with negative affect, suggesting impaired emotion regulation. The aim of this study was to investigate the neuronal mechanisms of inhibition, error processing, and behavioral control under pressure of punishment in procrastinators. Non-student subjects recruited to low (LP) and high procrastination (HP) groups performed an fMRI monetary Go/ No-go task. HP showed significantly lower error-related activity in ACC than LP. There was also a significant group by condition interaction in the ACC and right DLPFC suggesting increase of control during the punishment condition in LP but not HP group. These results suggest that procrastinators have impaired error processing mechanisms which may add to the persistence of procrastination through difficulties in correction of faulty behaviors. Procrastination also seems to be related to a decreased ability to intensify self-control in more demanding situations and/or impaired coping in the context of negative situations.
... Based on this definition, Steel and Klingsieck (2016) described AP as "to voluntarily delay an intended course of study-related action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay". As a result of procrastination, which is characterized by a lack of self-control in the literature, individuals may turn to activities that they think are more enjoyable for them (Rebetez et al. 2016). When the task to be completed is perceived to be less enjoyable, the individual will be more likely to procrastinate and will turn to online activities that are experienced as fun (spending time on social media, playing games, etc.) (Geng et al. 2018). ...
... In the model established in the study, the paths drawn from motivation and self-regulation-attention to AP were found to be significant (H6, H9). Procrastination is the most well-known consequence of self-regulation failure (Rebetez et al. 2016;Steel 2007a). Procrastination behavior is seen as a problematic behavior both in daily life and academic life (Steel 2007a). ...
Psychological factors have a significant role in better understanding mechanisms that affect students' academic performance. The intense and long-term stress of the pandemic process has made it necessary to rethink the components which effect the academic achievement of pupils. The purpose of this study is to examine the variables that predict the academic achievement of university students during the pandemic process and to present a model on these variables. The study group has 241 students who continue their undergraduate education in Turkey. The data were collected with a self-description form and 6 scales. The partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Model was used to analyses the developed research model. In consequence of the study, a relationship was obtained between academic procrastination (AP) and multi-screen addiction (MSA). Covid-19 burnout has a crucial effect on AP, multiscreen addiction, and psychological well-being variables. Motivation and self regulation-attention variables are explanatory of AP. This study contributes to expanding the nomological network regarding the effects of Covid-19 on the psychological well-being and behavior of individuals.
... In the general context, self-control do higher explain 20,2% of the procrastination variance (see Table 3). Some study indicates that gender has an influence on procrastination (Steel & Ferrari, 2012;Rebetez, Rochat, Barsics, & Van Der Linden, 2016)and self-control (Candeias et al., 2017;Duckworth & Seligman, 2006;Jo & Bouffard, 2014). Data analysis revealed that of three variables, only self-control having a difference between male and female, which female (M=44.49, ...
... It has a negative correlation with procrastination and reasonably as a predictor of procrastination, in academic and general areas. This finding underlines the previous study which has linked between the self-control and procrastination (Rebetez, Rochat, Barsics, & Van der Linden, 2016;Steel, 2007;Steel & Klingsieck, 2016;Ursia, Siaputra, & Sutanto, 2013). ...
Procrastination is widespread across the nation and setting. Its occur commonly in an academic setting which has many demands and deadline. One of the variable construct which reported has a high association with procrastination is self-control. It is why we would like to find out the role of self-control on student procrastination. There were 100 undergraduate students enrolled this study, from religious education faculty of a private university in Yogyakarta. Pure Procrastination Scale, Procrastination Academic Scale for Student, and Brief Self-Control Scale were administered to obtain student procrastination and self-control. Results showed that self-control correlates moderately negative with both of general and academic procrastination. Also, self-control could predict procrastination both in an academic and general setting. As an additional, there were significantly different between the lowest and highest procrastination group based on student self-control, with big size-effect reported. For further analysis, the prevalence of six areas of academic procrastination also discuss.
... Célja az volt, hogy feltárja a halogatás jellemzôit, összefüggéseit a személyiség jellemzôivel, a viselkedéssel, valamint a teljesítménnyel (34). Eredményei alapján, a nemek vonatkozásban elmondható, hogy a férfiak nagyobb arányban minôsülnek krónikus halogatónak, ugyanakkor számos újabb kutatás mutat rá ezzel ellentétesen arra, hogy a halogatás gyakrabban jelenik meg a nôk esetében (16,27). Az életkor, valamint a halogatás között egy fordított U alakú összefüggés figyelhetô meg: a halogatás gyakorisága a serdülôkorig kismértékben, serdülôkortól a fiatal felnôtt korig intenzívebben nô, ezt követôen pedig csökken (34,16). ...
... Mindezek mellett számos kutatás összefüggésbe hozza az érzelemszabályozási képességet a halogató magatartás valószínûségével. Rebetez és mtsai szerint azokra a személyekre jellemzô inkább a halogatás, akik nem képesek megküzdeni a negatív érzelmeikkel, ezért elhárítják (elfojtják, vagy tagadják) azokat (27). Eckert és mtsai vizsgálati eredményei pedig rámutattak, hogy az érzelemszabályozás képességének fejlesztése csökkentheti a halogatás mértékét (5). ...
Introduction: The purpose of the study is to investigate dispositional procrastination, procrastination types, and an operative measurement of this behavior in academic environment. Procrastination is a common and problematic phenomenon that explains the need for a comprehensive and complex approach of this behavior. The
main focus of the study was to investigate the incidence and incidence of the different types of procrastination. Furthermore, we aimed to test the correspondence between dispositional procrastination and the operative measurement. Methods: The sample consisted of 131 participants. Lay’s Procrastination Scale was used to measure dispositional procrastination and the Types of procrastination questionnaire was applied to assess the frequency of its different types. Furthermore an operative measurement was gained by assigning a deadline for returning the paper and pensil form of the questionnaire. Participants received a message informing them that the deadline had been extended by three more days on the last night before the deadline.
Results: Based on the empirical results 63% of the participants can be classified as procrastinator. In regards of the different types of procrastination, „perfectionist” and „crisis-maker” types were the most frequent. A positive correlation was found between dispositional procrastination and the operative measurement of procrastination.
Conclusions: The results proved the common presence of procrastination, as well as the close connection between its dispositional and operative measure. Besides, they raise attention to the perfectionist and crisis-maker types of procrastination.
Bevezetés: A vizsgálat célja a diszpozicionális halogatás és a halogatási típusok kutatása, valamint a halogató magatartás operatív mérése akadémiai környezetben. A halogatás gyakori és problematikus jelenség, ami indokolttá teszi ezen szokás minél átfogóbb, több aspektust lefedô tanulmányozását. A vizsgálat fô iránya a halogatás elterjedtségének és azon belül típusainak vizsgálata, illetve a diszpozicionális halogatásra vonatkozó, valamint a halogató magatartás operatív mérésébôl származó eredmények egybehangzóságának vizsgálata. Módszerek: A vizsgálatban 131 fô vett részt. A diszpozicionális halogatás vizsgálata a Lay-féle halogatás kérdôívvel zajlott; a Típusok a halogatásban kérdôívvel a különbözô típusok elterjedtségének felmérése történt meg; továbbá operatív mérésre is sor került, melyet a papír alapú kérdôívek leadási határidejének megszabása tett lehetôvé. A le-adási határidô elôtti estén, a határidôt további három nappal meghosszabbító üzenetet kaptak a résztvevôk. Eredmények: Az empirikus vizsgálat alapján a minta 63%-áról mondható el, hogy súlyosabb halogatók. A halogatási típusokat tekintve a perfekcionista és a kríziskeltô halogatók voltak a leggyakoribbak. Pozitív összefüggés mutatko-zott a diszpozicionális halogatás, valamint a halasztás operatív megnyilvánulása között. Következtetések: Az eredmények demonstrálják a halogatás gyakori elôfordulását, valamint a diszpozicionális és az operatív megnyilvánulások közötti kapcsolatot. Ezen túl a perfekcionista és a kríziskeltô halogatási típusokra hívják fel a figyelmet.
... For procrastinators, deficits in executive function may lead to difficulties in task initiation, attentional distractions, and an inability to effectively manage time and resources, thereby exacerbating procrastination (Zhou et al., 2022). Research has shown that procrastinators exhibit deficiencies in inhibition function (Gustavson et al., 2015;Rabin et al., 2011;Rebetez et al., 2016), and both switching function and updating function can predict procrastination levels in college students (Rabin et al., 2011). Studies by Wang Xuxiang and others have found that both active and passive procrastinators exhibit executive function deficits, with switching function deficits possibly being a key difference between active and passive procrastinators (Wang et al., 2018). ...
Objective: This study aims to explore the effects of an aerobic exercise intervention on the executive functions of active, passive, and non-procrastinating college students. Methods: A total of 190 college students (36 male, 154 female, 19.56 ± 1.11 years old) with different types of procrastination were recruited from the first and second years of a university using the General Procrastination Scale and the Active Procrastination Scale. A 3 (procrastination type: active procrastination, passive procrastination, non-procrastination) × 2 (group: exercise group, control group) × 2 (measurement time: pre-test, post-test) mixed experimental design was employed. All participants attended regular physical education classes as usual, while the exercise group participated in an 8 week aerobic exercise program. Before and after the intervention, the inhibition, updating, and switching sub-functions of executive function were assessed. Results: (1) Active procrastinators and passive procrastinators showed significant differences in their inhibition scores, inhibition accuracy, updating scores, and updating accuracy (p < 0.05). Non-procrastinators exhibited a significantly higher inhibition accuracy than passive procrastinators (p < 0.05), while active procrastinators had a significantly higher updating accuracy than non-procrastinators (p < 0.05). As can be seen, there were significant differences in inhibition and updating functions between active procrastinators and passive procrastinators, with passive procrastinators showing obvious deficiencies in their inhibition accuracy. (2) After the intervention, the aerobic exercise group of non-procrastinators showed a significant reduction in their inhibition reaction time and updating reaction time (p < 0.05). The passive procrastination in the exercise group showed significant improvements in switching accuracy and inhibition accuracy (p < 0.05). The active procrastination in the exercise group showed a significant reduction in updating reaction time (p < 0.05). From the above findings, it is clear that the eight-week aerobic exercise intervention has shown improvement effects on the executive function of college students with different procrastination types, and the extent of the improvement in each sub-function of executive function varies depending on the type of procrastination. Conclusion: This study reveals the relationship between exercise and the development of the sub-functions of executive function in college students with procrastination, further validating the effectiveness and feasibility of implementing exercise interventions in real-world school settings.
... Procrastination, despite its varied definitions, can be described as the voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay [72]. It is generally regarded as a failure of self-regulation [55], often attributed to lack of self-control [61] or poor time management skills [83]. Traditional interventions aim to improve self-regulation by bridging the gap between intentions and actions [80]. ...
Procrastination, the voluntary delay of tasks despite potential negative consequences, has prompted numerous time and task management interventions in the HCI community. While these interventions have shown promise in addressing specific behaviors, psychological theories suggest that learning about procrastination itself may help individuals develop their own coping strategies and build mental resilience. However, little research has explored how to support this learning process through HCI approaches. We present ProcrastiMate, a text adventure game where players learn about procrastination's causes and experiment with coping strategies by guiding in-game characters in managing relatable scenarios. Our field study with 27 participants revealed that ProcrastiMate facilitated learning and self-reflection while maintaining psychological distance, motivating players to integrate newly acquired knowledge in daily life. This paper contributes empirical insights on leveraging serious games to facilitate learning about procrastination and offers design implications for addressing psychological challenges through HCI approaches.
... The tendency towards escapism through procrastination is one such behaviour whose study can have interesting inferences for the use of social media, especially in the workplace. Procrastination (Ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Haghbin et al., 2012;Klingsieck, 2013;Steel, 2007;Steel & Ferrari, 2012) refers to quintessence of self-regulatory failure (Rebetez et al., 2016) and voluntarily or habitually delaying unpleasant tasks for later (Unda-Lopez et al., 2022). According to Zhang et al. (2019), procrastination refers to voluntary and irrational delay of an intended course of action, Procrastination at work can be defined as putting off work related action by engaging in nonwork-related actions during work hours (Metin et al., 2016). ...
This research investigates the intricate interplay between escapism, procrastination, and social media engagement among the Generation Z population in India. The primary aim was to examine the potential mediating role of procrastination in the association between escapist tendencies and excessive social media consumption. A sample of 621 participants aged 18-25 completed self-report measures assessing these constructs. Mediation analysis revealed a significant full mediation effect, indicating that procrastination serves as a critical intermediary in the relationship between escapism and excessive social media usage. The Generation Z commonly known as the Gen Z population consists of people born after 1995 who are just entering the workforce. These findings therefore offer valuable implications for the next generation in the workforce specially from an organizational psychology and human resource management perspective, underscoring the potential consequences of escapist tendencies and procrastination on employee productivity and well-being in the workplace.
... What undermines self-esteem often is the comparative attitude, leading to lower motivation and poorer academic performance. In addition, social media distractions tend to resonate with diffuse attention, thus locking out the time needed by students to concentrate on academic activities (Rebetez et al., 2016). Emotional Effects of Ed Tech Developing concerns have been discovered in the emotional effects of technology in learning. ...
... Selain itu, hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan adanya perbedaan gender dalam hubungan antara kontrol diri dan prokrastinasi akademik, di mana tenaga pendidik laki-laki menunjukkan pengaruh yang lebih kuat antara kontrol diri dan pengurangan prokrastinasi. Temuan ini sejalan dengan penelitian yang dilakukan oleh Rebetez et al., (2016) dan Lu et al., (2022), yang menemukan bahwa laki-laki cenderung memiliki tingkat kontrol diri yang lebih rendah dibandingkan perempuan, sehingga lebih rentan terhadap perilaku prokrastinasi. Hal ini mengindikasikan bahwa strategi peningkatan kontrol diri mungkin perlu memperhitungkan karakteristik gender agar lebih efektif dalam mengatasi prokrastinasi akademik. ...
Peran akademisi dalam mencapai tujuan mencerdaskan kehidupan bangsa sangatlah penting, seperti yang ditunjukkan oleh para dosen dan staf akademik. Manajemen waktu yang efektif sangat penting, namun prokrastinasi masih sering terjadi, sering kali menunda tugas-tugas seperti menyiapkan bahan ajar, menilai, dan menyelesaikan penelitian. Prokrastinasi, masalah kompleks yang melibatkan kontrol diri, berdampak negatif pada kualitas kerja dan produktivitas akademik. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh kontrol diri terhadap prokrastinasi akademik di kalangan dosen dan staf akademik di Institut Teknologi Kalimantan, dengan fokus pada pola berbasis gender. Dengan menggunakan purposive sampling, data dikumpulkan melalui kuesioner kepada dosen dan staf akademik di Institut Teknologi Kalimantan dan dianalisis menggunakan Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-PLS). Temuan menunjukkan adanya hubungan negatif yang signifikan antara kontrol diri dan prokrastinasi, dengan efek yang lebih kuat di kalangan akademisi pria. Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa kontrol diri yang lebih tinggi berkorelasi dengan kecenderungan prokrastinasi yang lebih rendah. Hasil ini menggarisbawahi pentingnya kontrol diri dalam mengelola tanggung jawab akademik dan menyoroti perlunya intervensi yang ditargetkan untuk meningkatkan manajemen waktu dan pengaturan diri. Disarankan agar institusi pendidikan mengembangkan program pelatihan yang berfokus pada peningkatan kontrol diri, terutama yang disesuaikan dengan akademisi pria, untuk mengurangi prokrastinasi dan meningkatkan produktivitas secara keseluruhan.
... Furthermore, procrastination often results in lower academic performance, increased distress, and decreased physical and mental health [4][5][6]. Various studies have investigated the factors that contribute to procrastination, including individual characteristics such as personality traits [7], emotions [1,8], and cognitive beliefs [9,10], and environmental factors such as social support [11,12], parenting styles [13,14], and environmental unpredictability [15]. However, few studies have examined both environmental and personal factors, or the underlying mechanisms informed by theoretical frameworks. ...
Background
Previous research has revealed a negative association between social support and procrastination. However, few studies have investigated the mechanism underlying this relationship among vocational college students.
Objective
Based on the social cognitive theory, this study was intended to investigate the multiple mediating effects of self-efficacy and resilience on the relationship between social support and procrastination among vocational college students.
Methods
This study employed a cross-sectional design involving a sample of 1,379 students from a vocational college in China. Data were collected using the General Procrastination Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Resilience Scale-14. The PROCESS macro for SPSS was used to examine the multiple mediation model.
Results
Our findings indicate significant negative correlations between social support, self-efficacy, resilience, and procrastination. The multiple mediation analysis showed that social support did not have a significant direct impact on procrastination. Instead, the relationship between social support and procrastination was fully mediated by self-efficacy (indirect effect: -0.017; 95% CI: -0.032, -0.004) and resilience (indirect effect: -0.047; 95% CI: -0.072, -0.025), and sequentially mediated by both factors (indirect effect: -0.013; 95% CI: -0.020, -0.007).
Conclusions
The results emphasise the importance of enhancing self-efficacy and resilience in initiatives aimed at preventing and intervening in case of procrastination among vocational college students. Additionally, strengthening social support may also be crucial to preventing or reducing procrastination among this population.
... A student may procrastinate due to poor time management (Wolters et al., 2017) and self-regulation skills such as selfcontrol (Rebetez et al., 2016;Ziesat et al., 1978), fear of negative evaluation, task complexity (Kim et al., 2016), task aversiveness (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984), depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem (Senécal et al., 1995), irrational beliefs, and perfectionism (Ferrari et al., 1995). Based on studies on the heritability of procrastination, it is possible to say that procrastination has hereditary origins, although not very strong and is a stable behavior (Arvey et al., 2003;Gustavson et al., 2014). ...
Academic procrastination is the failure to perform academic tasks on time or not doing at all. It can cause undesirable consequences for students' academic development and mental health. It has a complex structure that includes cognitive and emotional components in addition to its behavioral dimension. This study seeks to answer whether social media addiction mediates the relationship between satisfaction of basic psychological needs and academic procrastination. The participants were 647 university students (70.6% female and 29.4% male) representative of all the programs in the College of Education at a public university in Turkey. We used two analytic approaches to test the mediation effect (regression with bootstrap and structural equation modeling) and arrived the same conclusion. Results showed that social media addiction partially mediated the relationship between university students' basic psychological needs and academic procrastination. While greater satisfaction of basic psychological needs was directly related to a reduction in academic procrastination, indirectly, it was associated with a further decrease in academic procrastination through social media addiction. Thus, we suggest that preventive and curative psychological services should focus on enhancing the satisfaction of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) to help mitigate the development of social media addiction, which further reduces academic procrastination.
... Given the prevalence and consequences of procrastination, researchers have examined the underlying mechanisms of procrastinatory behaviors. A widely accepted consensus was that procrastination reflected a failure of self-regulation (Gagnon, 2016;Rebetez et al., 2016;Schouwenburg & Groenewoud, 2001;Steel, 2007). Although individuals had goals and intentions, they voluntarily chose procrastination reflecting a breakdown in their self-regulation (Rebetez Procrastination has long been a worldwide concern. ...
Objectives Procrastination is a common behavior in our daily life that can lead to detrimental consequences, and previous studies have shown that female college students are more vulnerable to procrastination. Mindfulness-based interventions have been used to reduce procrastination; however, little is known about how mindfulness and procrastination interplay in everyday contexts. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to explore the dynamic and bidirectional relation between mindfulness and procrastination from a multidimensional perspective.
Methods A total of 252 female college students participated in a 34-day diary study, during which they completed daily measures of procrastination and three dimensions of state mindfulness (i.e., acting with awareness, nonjudgmental acceptance, and present-moment attention). Dynamic structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.
Results We found a bidirectional association of daily procrastination with one dimension of state mindfulness (i.e., acting with awareness), but not with the other two dimensions (i.e., nonjudgmental acceptance, and present-moment attention). Specifically, higher levels of acting with awareness predicted individuals’ lower levels of procrastination the next day (β = -0.042, 95% CI [-0.070, -0.019]), which enhanced their subsequent levels of acting with awareness (β = -0.087, 95% CI [-0.113, -0.058]). This indicated a self-perpetuating virtuous cycle between acting with awareness and daily procrastination.
Conclusions Our findings provided valuable insights into mindfulness-based preventions and interventions. This study not only supported the role of mindfulness in reducing procrastination, but more importantly, highlighted the importance of targeting particular dimensions of mindfulness, rather than considering it as a whole, to enhance the effectiveness of mindfulness practices.
... Pese a ello, la mayoría de las explicaciones ofrecidas incluyen la mención a que la procrastinación supone un aplazamiento de las tareas que se tenían planificadas dentro de un plazo más o menos concreto. Según diferentes autores, tales como Rebetez et al. (2016), esta dilación de obligaciones se presenta incluso en aquellos casos en los que el protagonista es consciente de que está actuando en contra de su bienestar o interés propio. En esta línea, Klingsieck (2013b) definió la procrastinación como el retraso voluntario de una actividad necesaria y/o importante, a pesar de la anticipación de consecuencias negativas a causa de la realización de esta conducta. ...
La procrastinación es una conducta habitual entre los estudiantes de diferentes niveles académicos que se relaciona con numerosas consecuencias negativas. El objetivo del presente trabajo es estimar la fiabilidad de la Academic Procrastination Scale-Short Form (APS-SF) mediante un meta-análisis de generalización de la fiabilidad. Se realizó una búsqueda sistemática en cinco bases de datos y se revisaron las referencias del artículo original de validación de la APS-SF. La estimación combinada de la fiabilidad de la prueba se realizó mediante un metanálisis de efectos aleatorios sobre 25 muestras independientes pertenecientes a 22 publicaciones. Los alfas de Cronbach se utilizaron como tamaño del efecto y se normalizaron sus distribuciones mediante la transformación de Bonett. La heterogeneidad fue evaluada a través de la Q de Cochran y el estadístico I2. El riesgo de sesgo de publicación se valoró mediante el gráfico de embudo y el test de regresión de Egger. La fiabilidad combinada estimada es de .89 (IC 95% = .87, .90). Los análisis de meta-regresión y ANOVA muestran que la edad es un moderador estadísticamente significativo. No se observa riesgo de sesgo de publicación. Este trabajo muestra como la APS-SF es una herramienta fiable para la medición de la procrastinación académica.
... [10] However, it is ineffective in the long run and linked with increased negative affect. [11,12] Thus, negative mood may result in task delays, further prolonging negative affect, therefore not only resulting from procrastination but also leading to it. ...
Background and Aim: Literature on procrastination suggests that it is related to varied negative outcomes in the nonclinical population; however, there is a paucity of studies examining procrastination in the clinical population. We examined procrastination and self-compassion in persons with anxiety disorders.
Methods: Forty-nine individuals diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, between 18 and 50 years of age, were recruited from a tertiary care center. Participants were assessed using the Decisional Procrastination Scale, the Adult Inventory of Procrastination, the Self-Compassion Scale, the Overall Anxiety Severity and Impairment Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory-II.
Results: Results indicated that individuals with anxiety disorders reported elevated procrastination and low self-compassion. Self-compassion and decisional procrastination were significantly negatively correlated. The subjective distress due to procrastination reported by the participants was significantly positively correlated with decisional procrastination. Self-compassion and anxiety severity were found to be negatively correlated. Self-compassion was a significant predictor of decisional procrastination and anxiety severity.
Conclusion: The findings of the present study highlight the significance of assessing procrastination in anxiety disorders and indicate that self-compassion-based interventions may be helpful in alleviating anxiety symptoms and in reducing decisional procrastination.
... En los últimos años, se han planteado diferentes definiciones en cuanto al concepto de la procrastinación. Si bien la mayoría de las mismas comparten la idea de que se trata de la dilación de diferentes tareas que estaban previstas, incluso cuando es conocido que por ello se actúa en contra de los intereses de uno mismo (Rebetez et al., 2016;Steel, 2011), este acuerdo no es tan claro en cuanto a las causas de este proceso y la relación que presenta con otros factores personales. Cada vez hay un mayor interés por este asunto, tal y como ponen de manifiesto los trabajos que se están realizando, dado que la procrastinación es una problemática muy extendida en la sociedad actual, en diversas culturas y en los diferentes ámbitos de la vida de la persona, considerándose como una conducta inadecuada y aversiva que dificulta la inserción efectiva de la persona en su cultura (Sirois y Pychyl, 2013). ...
La procrastinación es un comportamiento común en el ámbito académico asociado a diversas consecuencias negativas. La autoestima, entendida como una actitud global hacia uno mismo, es una de las variables que se ha asociado con la procrastinación académica. El objetivo del presente trabajo es examinar mediante técnicas meta-analíticas la relación entre la autoestima y la procrastinación en estudiantes. Se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica en las bases de datos PsycInfo, Scopus y PubMed de la investigación sobre las variables de interés publicada desde el año 2000. Se analizaron un total de 35 estudios independientes pertenecientes a 33 artículos que cumplían los criterios de inclusión. La muestra total estaba compuesta por 13,233 participantes. Los resultados muestran una relación negativa de intensidad media entre la autoestima y la procrastinación en estudiantes, por lo que aquellos estudiantes que muestran una menor autoestima presentan una mayor procrastinación. Los análisis de meta-regresión mostraron que la edad media y el sexo no son variables moderadoras estadísticamente significativas; mientras que el análisis de subgrupos tampoco muestra que el nivel educativo modere el tamaño del efecto. No se aprecia la presencia de sesgo de publicación. Se comentan las implicaciones y las limitaciones del trabajo. Se señala la pertenencia de implementar programas para aumentar la autoestima de los estudiantes.
... As indicated earlier, procrastination refers to the deliberate postponement of a future task despite the likelihood of being harmed as a result of the delay (Steel, 2007). Procrastination could be characterized by a lack of self-control (Rebetez et al., 2016). Individuals with low self-control tend to procrastinate because they have few resources (energy) to devote to work or study (Zhao et al., 2019). ...
Self-control is always crucial in many areas of life. Therefore, self-control failure is the source of many of the difficulties people face in their lives and also at the center of several problems, especially among adolescents. In this regard, the purpose of the study was to examine the mediating role of multi-screen addiction (MSA) in the relationship between self-control and procrastination among adolescents by using structural equation modeling (SEM). A cross-sectional design and an online questionnaire was used in this study. The study group composed of 390 adolescents studying at various high schools in Turkey. The results of correlation analysis showed that self-control was negatively correlated with MSA and procrastination. MSA also positively correlated with procrastination. Furthermore, the findings showed that MSA mediated the relationship between self-control and procrastination. The fit index of the SEM was found to be satisfactory. The results of the study were addressed in the context of the existing literature, and then suggestions were presented.
Supplementary information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-021-02472-2.
... Moreover, procrastination has been shown to be related to difficulties in emotion regulation (reviews in Pychyl & Sirois, 2016;Sirois & Pychyl, 2013). Procrastination was also found to be related to executive dysfunctions, both self-reported (L. A. Rabin et al., 2011) and task-measured, in the domain of inhibition (Gustavson et al., 2015;Rebetez et al., 2016). Such characteristics (i.e. higher impulsivity, 4 impaired emotion regulation, and executive dysfunctions), similar to those found e.g. in addictions (exemplary reviews in: Berg et al., 2015;Wilcox et al., 2015;Verdejo-Garcia, 2017, respectively), make procrastination a good non-clinical example of a self-regulation disorder. ...
Procrastination is a self-regulation failure in which people irrationally delay intended actions which leads to lower performance, satisfaction from achievements, and quality of life. Trait procrastination is estimated to affect 15% to 20% of the total population, and previous studies have shown procrastination to be related to impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and executive dysfunctions, making it a good nonclinical example of a self-regulation disorder. Our previous fMRI results revealed impaired error processing (lower error-related activity of the anterior cingulate cortex) and lack of ability to intensify executive-control during the punishment context (no increase in activity in prefrontal regions) in procrastinators. This led us to the question of whether procrastination is related to impaired learning on errors and punishments. Low (LP) and high (HP) procrastinating students took part in a modified monetary probabilistic reversal learning task with separated reward and punishment conditions. Half of the participants started with reward and half with the punishment condition. Several learning models and model-free measures were applied to the collected behavioral data. Results suggest lower flexibility in the learning task in HP subjects, which can further decrease during the punishment condition. Moreover, HP subjects who began with the punishment condition tended to be less flexible throughout the rest of the task. These results suggest that impaired learning from errors and punishments may prevent highly procrastinating subjects from correcting their behaviors and add to the persistence of procrastination. We also conclude that impaired learning on errors and punishments might be a more general mechanism underpinning other self-regulation disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... Such resources include the ability to suppress their impulse to use their mobile phone, interpersonal communication, emotion regulation, and judgment and decision-making around online activities. The theory of self-regulation failure suggested that procrastination is the result of the exhaustion of self-control resources and the failure of selfregulation [50]. These theories hint that PMPU may be closely related to individual procrastination, which has been confirmed empirically in cross-sectional studies of nursing students [51]. ...
Background
Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have found that problematic mobile phone use, bedtime procrastination, sleep quality, and depressive symptoms are strongly associated. However, studies are inconsistent regarding whether problematic mobile phone use predicts depressive symptoms or vice versa, and sleep factors have been infrequently focused on in this regard. In addition, few studies have examined the longitudinal associations and directions of effects between these factors. Therefore, this study aims to explore the longitudinal relationship among problematic mobile phone use, bedtime procrastination, sleep quality, and depressive symptoms in college students.
Methods
Overall, 1181 college students completed questionnaires on problematic mobile phone use, bedtime procrastination, sleep quality, and depressive symptoms at two time points 12 months apart. A cross-lagged model was used to examine the longitudinal relationship between these factors.
Results
Cross-lagged analyses showed significant bidirectional relationships of problematic mobile phone use with bedtime procrastination and depressive symptoms. Additionally, there were also significant bidirectional relationships of sleep quality with bedtime procrastination and depressive symptoms. Problematic mobile phone use predicted subsequent sleep quality one-way, and bedtime procrastination predicted subsequent depressive symptoms one-way.
Conclusions
This study further expands our understanding of the longitudinal and bidirectional relationships among problematic mobile phone use, bedtime procrastination, sleep quality and depressive symptoms and helps school mental health educators design targeted interventions to reduce problematic mobile phone use, sleep problems, and depressive symptoms among college students.
... N2 reflects conflict detection, while P3a is an effect of conflict resolution and motor inhibition (Enriquez-Geppert et al., 2010;Groom & Cragg, 2015). Observed results are in line with previous studies that did not demonstrate deficits in inhibitory control among high procrastinating participants (Michałowski et al., 2017;Rebetez et al., 2016;Wypych et al., 2019). However, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility of the differences between groups in reactive control engagement. ...
Procrastination is a voluntary delay in completing an important task while being aware that this behavior may lead to negative outcomes. It has been shown that an increased tendency to procrastinate is associated with deficits in some aspects of cognitive control. However, none of the previous studies investigated these dysfunctions through the lenses of the Dual Mechanisms Framework, which differentiates proactive and reactive modes of control. The present study was designed to fill this gap, using behavioral and neurophysiological assessment during the completion of the AX-Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT) by high (HP) and low (LP) procrastinating students ( N = 139). Behavioral results indicated that HP (vs. LP) were characterized by increased attentional fluctuations (higher reaction time variability) and reduction in some indices of proactive cognitive control (lower d ’-context and A-cue bias, but similar PBIs). Furthermore, the neurophysiological data showed that HP, compared with LP, allocated less attentional resources (lower P3b) to cues that help to predict the correct responses to upcoming probes. They also responded with reduced preparatory activity (smaller CNV) after cues presentation. The two groups did not differ in neural responses linked to conflict detection and inhibition (similar N2 and P3a). Obtained findings indicate that HP might present deficits in some cognitive functions that are essential for effective proactive control engagement, along with preserved levels of reactive cognitive control. In the present paper, we discuss the potential neural and cognitive mechanisms responsible for the observed effects.
... A large number of literatures have explored the antecedents of procrastination. For example, internal factors such as personality traits (Lee et al., 2006), emotions (Rebetez et al., 2016;Tice et al., 2001), cognitive beliefs (Haghbin et al., 2012;Sadeghi et al., 2011) and external factors including parenting styles (Pychyl et al., 2002;Zakeri et al., 2013), environmental unpredictability (Chen & Qu, 2017) have been found to have impact on procrastination. Beyond that, some scholars suggested that procrastination may be related to social relationship factors (Ferrari et al., 1999). ...
Perceived social support was found to play an important role in reducing procrastination. However, little is known about the psychological mechanisms underlying this relation. Based on the integrated model of social support, the current study investigated the effect of the perceived social support on procrastination, and further explored the mediating role of self-compassion and negative emotions in this relation in a sample of 874 Chinese college students. Results showed: (a) perceived social support negatively predicted procrastination; (b) both self-compassion and negative emotions partially mediated the association between perceived social support and procrastination separately; (c) self-compassion and negative emotions sequentially mediated the relation between perceived social support and procrastination. This study provides new insights for the mechanisms between perceived social support and procrastination, which has important practical implications for the interventions of college students’ procrastination.
... At the same time, procrastinators also exhibit motivational problems, as these individuals usually have less achievement motivation and low-level intrinsic motivation (Rakes & Dunn, 2010;Senécal et al., 1995). Other characteristics of procrastination include disorganization, impulsiveness, poor emotional control, lack of meta-cognitive skills to monitor and control one's behavior during goal-striving processes, an intention-action gap, and self-handicapping (Gustavson et al., 2014;Howell & Watson, 2007;Rebetez et al., 2016;Steel, 2007;Tan et al., 2008;Wolters, 2003). ...
Procrastination has been recognized as the quintessence of self-regulatory failure. Self-leadership strategies operate within the broader theoretical context of self-regulation and represent a complementary set of strategies designed to improve the self-regulation process. This study is the first to investigate the association between self-leadership with academic procrastination in a sample of 533 Chinese college students. We included the three primary self-leadership strategies in multiple regression models as well as various demographic variables, self-efficacy, trait anxiety, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. All the three primary self-leadership strategies of behavior-focused strategies, natural reward strategies, and constructive thought pattern strategies significantly predicted the students' academic procrastination, in addition to increased neuroticism and lower conscientiousness. Further, the multivariate regression showed that the self-leadership sub-strategies of self-reward, self-goal setting, self-talk, task-based natural rewards, and task-relation-based observation significantly predicted the students' academic procrastination. The findings of this study suggest that practicing relative self-leadership strategies may reduce students' procrastination.
... Tingkah laku prokrastinasi akademik dikaitkan dengan kegagalan individu meregulasi diri (Janssen, 2015;Rebetez et al., 2016). Konsep regulasi kendiri bermula dengan arahan dalaman diri individu ditunjukkan dalam bentuk kemahiran regulasi diri seperti membuat perancangan, mengaorganisasi, mengarah diri, memantau dan menilai diri semasa dalam proses pembelajaran (Zimmerman, 2002). ...
This study aims to examine previous studies and theoretical studies related to English reading skills based on local wisdom assisted by audio-visual for deaf students. This research is a literature study by examining previous studies and theoretical studies. The results of the literature review will be used to identify the English language needs of special senior high school for deaf students (SMALB-B) as preliminary study in Pekanbaru. Two parts explained in literature review, namely theoretical review and previous research. Each parts contained sub part that consist of each theoretical review and previous research. The results of this study are the teaching materials developed for deaf students’ needs that should be suitable for literature review and previous research.
... Given these consequential outcomes, research on understanding the causes and correlates of procrastination has burgeoned in recent years. One well-established finding from this growing evidence base is that people who lack self-control, the capacity of regulating thoughts, emotions and actions to purse long-term goals (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007;Baumeister, Wright, & Carreon, 2019), are prone to procrastinate (Rebetez, Rochat, Barsics, & Van der Linden, 2016;Steel, 2007). For example, low levels of selfcontrol are consistently observed in people with a high tendency to procrastinate (Ferrari & Emmons, 1995;Kühnel, Syrek, & Dreher, 2018;Van Eerde & Venus, 2018). ...
Converging theory and evidence highlights procrastination as a form of self-control failure. However, the underlying neural correlates of how self-control is associated with procrastination remains unclear. As such we investigated the neural basis for self-control association with procrastination using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) approaches. The VBM results showed a positive correlation between self-control and the gray matter volume of left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC). Then the FC of left dlPFC to lateral orbital frontal cortex (lOFC) and right dorsal medial frontal cortex (dMFC) were all negatively correlated to procrastination and showed a mediating effect. This indicates that brain functional communication involves in emotion regulation and valuation processing may account for the association between self-control and procrastination.
... Selection of time windows and channels for ERPs analyses was based on visual inspection of grand averages from both conditions in all participants and were consistent with prior research 55,56 . ERN was averaged within the time window from 34 ms before to 84 ms after committing a false alarm at frontal electrodes cluster (channels: 4,5,6,7,11,12,13,19,20,106,112,118). P300 was averaged from the time window 260-380 ms after the stimulus onset at two parietal clusters (left: 53, 54, 60, 61, 67; and right: 77, 78, 79, 85, 86; see Fig. 2). ...
Procrastination is a self-regulatory problem of voluntarily and destructively delaying intended and necessary or personally important tasks. Previous studies showed that procrastination is associated with executive dysfunctions that seem to be particularly strong in punishing contexts. In the present event-related potential (ERP) study a monetary version of the parametric Go/No-Go task was performed by high and low academic procrastinators to verify the influence of motivational context (reward vs. punishment expectation) and task difficulty (easy vs. hard) on procrastination-related executive dysfunctions. The results revealed increased post-error slowing along with reduced P300 and error-related negativity (ERN) amplitudes in high (vs. low) procrastination participants—effects that indicate impaired attention and error-related processing in this group. This pattern of results did not differ as a function of task difficulty and motivation condition. However, when the task got more difficult executive attention deficits became even more apparent at the behavioral level in high procrastinators, as indexed by increased reaction time variability. The findings substantiate prior preliminary evidence that procrastinators show difficulties in certain aspects of executive functioning (in attention and error processing) during execution of task-relevant behavior, which may be more apparent in highly demanding situations.
... Badania nie odpowiadają natomiast jednoznacznie na pytanie dotyczące istnienia związku między skłonnością do prokrastynacji a płcią -wyniki są w tym zakresie zróżnicowane (Markiewicz, 2018). Część analiz ukazała istotny związek między prokrastynacją a płcią (Steel, 2007;Gröpel, Steel, 2008;Rebetez, Rochat, Barsics, Van der Linden, 2016). Większość badań nie potwierdziła istnienia różnic międzypłciowych pod względem nasilenia prokrastynacji (Ferrari, O'Callaghan, Newbegin, 2005;Ferrari, Diaz-Morales, O'Callaghan, Diaz, Argumendo, 2007;Jaworska-Gruszczyńska, 2016;Paszkowska-Rogacz, Poraj, 2017;van Eerde, Klingsieck, 2018). ...
p>Celem podjętej analizy było określenie związku między regulacją nastroju oraz typowymi sposobami reagowania i odczuwania w sytuacjach doświadczania silnego stresu a prokrastynacją. Przebadano 96 osób w okresie wczesnej dorosłości. W badaniach zastosowano następujące metody badawcze: do pomiaru prokrastynacji – kwestionariusz Pure Procrastination Scale; do analizy regulacji nastroju – Skale Regulacji Nastroju Bogdana Wojciszke; do oceny strategii radzenia sobie ze stresem – kwestionariusz Mini-COPE. Przeprowadzone analizy ujawniły istnienie związku między prokrastynacją a regulacją nastroju (osoby prokrastynujące częściej stosują strategie polegające na obniżaniu nastroju) oraz między prokrastynacją a ośmioma (spośród czternastu) strategiami radzenia sobie ze stresem. Wraz ze wzrostem prokrastynacji nasila się tendencja do stosowania nieadaptacyjnych stylów radzenia sobie ze stresem, w tym strategii polegającej na zaprzeczaniu istnieniu problemu oraz na zaprzestaniu działań i rezygnacji z prób osiągnięcia celu, a także strategii polegających na zajmowaniu się czymś innym i wykorzystywaniu poczucia humoru, zaabsorbowaniu pojawiającymi się nieprzyjemnymi emocjami poprzez ich wyładowanie oraz obwinianiu się. Odwrotnie proporcjonalny związek zaobserwowano między prokrastynacją a adaptacyjnymi strategiami radzenia sobie ze stresem, polegającymi na planowaniu postępowania i podejmowaniu działania w celu poprawy sytuacji. Przeprowadzona dodatkowa analiza nie ujawniła istotnych różnic między kobietami i mężczyznami w zakresie nasilenia prokrastynacji. Istotne różnice wystąpiły w zakresie dwóch wymiarów prokrastynacji: behawioralnego i decyzyjnego.</p
... [18] studied negative relationship between academic procrastination and goal achievement. [19] found out that students with higher procrastination tendencies fail to plan their academic goals. [20] investigated the relationship between academic procrastination and misconduct. ...
Academic procrastination has been reported affecting students’ performance in computer-supported learning environments. Studies have shown that students who demonstrate higher procrastination tendencies achieve less than the students with lower procrastination tendencies. It is important for a teacher to be aware of the students’ behaviors especially their procrastination trends. EDM techniques can be used to analyze data collected through computer-supported learning environments and to predict students’ behaviors. In this paper, we present an algorithm called Students’ Academic Performance Enhancement through homework late/ non-submission detection (SAPE) for predicting students’ academic performance. This algorithm is designed to predict students with learning difficulties through their homework submission behaviors. First, students are labeled as procrastinators or non-procrastinators using k-means clustering algorithm. Then, different classification methods are used to classify students using homework submission feature vectors. We use ten classification methods, i.e., ZeroR, OneR, ID3, J48, random forest, decision stump, JRip, PART, NBTree and Prism. A detailed analysis is presented regarding performance of different classification methods for different number of classes. The analysis reveals that in general the prediction accuracy of all methods decreases with increase in number of classes. However, different methods perform best or worst for different number of classes.
... Irrational procrastination refers to the intentional delay of action despite knowing that one will be worse off due to the delay [20,21]. According to the standpoints of some research- ers, although irrational procrastination can be treated as a relatively stable personality trait caused by self-regulatory failure, it also could be predicted by factors such as low conscien- tiousness, high impulsivity, negative affect and the lack of self-control [20,22,23]. ...
With the popularity of social networking sites (SNSs), the problems of SNS addiction have been increasing. Research has revealed the association between SNS addiction and irrational procrastination. However, the mechanism underlying this relation is still unclear. The present study aimed to examine the mediating role of social networking site fatigue and the moderating role of effortful control in this link among Chinese undergraduate students. The Social Networking Site Addiction Scale, Social Networking Service Fatigue Scale, Effortful Control Scale and Irrational Procrastination Scale were completed by 1,085 Chinese undergraduate students. Results indicated that SNS addiction, SNS fatigue and irrational procrastination were positively correlated with each other, and negatively correlated with effortful control. Further analyses revealed that, SNS addiction has a direct effect on irrational procrastination. SNS fatigue mediated the relationship between SNS addiction and irrational procrastination. Both direct and indirect effects of SNS addiction on irrational procrastination were moderated by effortful control. Specifically, this effect was stronger for people with lower effortful control. These findings help clarify the mechanism underlying the association between SNS addiction and irrational procrastination, which have potential implications for intervention.
... Questionnaire-based research shows a close relationship between these constructs (r = 0.41; meta-analysis in Steel, 2007). Within behavioral impulsivity-related measures, procrastinators show deficits in inhibition (Gustavson et al., 2015;Rebetez et al., 2016) and error processing Wypych et al., 2017). There is also a growing body of evidence showing biological connections between impulsivity and procrastination. ...
Procrastination – an irrational delay of intended actions despite expecting to be worse off – is a complex and non-homogenous phenomenon. Previous studies have found a number of correlates of procrastination, some of which seem to be particularly important. Impulsivity is closely connected to procrastination on behavioral, genetic, and neuronal levels. Difficulties in emotion regulation have also been shown to be strongly related to procrastination. Procrastination can also be considered as a motivation-based problem. To try to disentangle the connections of impulsivity, emotion regulation, and motivation to procrastination we collected data from over 600 subjects using multiple questionnaires (PPS – Pure Procrastination Scale; UPPSP – Impulsive Behavior Scale, ERQ – Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and MDT – Motivational Diagnostic Test). Structural equation modeling was performed to test several possible relationships between the measured variables. The effects of student status and age have also been investigated. The final path model was a directional model based on six explanatory variables and accounted for 70% of the variance in procrastination. Path analysis revealed that the strongest contributions to procrastination came from lack of value, delay discounting, and lack of perseverance, suggesting the involvement of motivation and impulsivity. The model also revealed the moderating role of expressive suppression between several aspects of impulsivity and procrastination. Close inspection of the paths’ weights suggests that there may be two partly competing strategies for dealing with impulsivity and negative emotions: either to suppress emotions and impulsive reactions or to react impulsively, discarding previous plans, and to procrastinate. Path invariance analysis showed the significant moderating roles of student status and age. Both in non-students and high-age groups, the path leading from suppression to procrastination was insignificant. This suggests that caution should be used in generalizing the results of studies carried out on students. These results support previous findings that procrastination may serve as a short-term mood regulation strategy. However, as the spectrum of the emotion regulation strategies included in the study was very limited, we conclude that future studies should seek more insight into the relationship between emotion regulation, self-control, and procrastination.
... 552). Finally, the item "When interacting with others at work, I am able to determine the motives for their requests and behaviors" follows discussions of self-regulation failure (Rebetez et al., 2016). Specifically, Baumeister and Heatherton (1996) contended that transcendence, in the form of the motive speculation benefitting the offending person, fosters positive emotional regulation. ...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how a cognitive process, transcendence, moderates the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and several work outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants across two studies (Study 1: 187 student-recruited working adults; Study 2: 158 information technology employees) provided a demographically diverse sample for the analyses. Key variables were transcendence, POPs, job satisfaction, job tension, emotional exhaustion, work effort, and frustration.
Findings
Results corroborated the hypotheses and supported the authors’ argument that POPs lacked influence on work outcomes when individuals possessed high levels of transcendence. Specifically, high levels of transcendence attenuated the decreases in job satisfaction and work effort associated with POPs. Additionally, transcendence acted as an antidote to several workplace ills by weakening the increases in job tension, emotional exhaustion, and frustration usually associated with POPs.
Research limitations/implications
This study found that transcendence, an individual-level cognitive style, can improve work outcomes for employees in workplaces where POPs exist. Future studies should use longitudinal data to study how changes in POPs over time affect individuals’ reported levels of transcendence.
Practical implications
Although it is impossible to eliminate politics in organizations, antidotes like transcendence can improve individuals’ responses to POPs.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to utilize an individual-level cognitive style to examine possible options for attenuating the effects of POPs on individuals’ work outcomes.
The present study investigated the relationships between self-efficacy, attentional control, and procrastination by examining whether and how the five dimensions of attentional control, including inhibitory control, attention shifting, task persistence, attention concentration, and attention distribution, would work as significant mediators to explain the association between self-efficacy and procrastination. A sample of 293 Chinese adults participated in the study. Mediation analyses suggested that task persistence, attention concentration, and attention distribution played a significant mediating role in the association between self-efficacy and procrastination. Specifically, we found that individuals with higher self-efficacy were more capable of directing their concentration to their tasks and persisting over time, making them less prone to procrastinate. On the other hand, individuals with higher self-efficacy were also more likely to distribute their attention across multiple tasks, which was related to an elevated likelihood of procrastination. The current study revealed a double-edged effect of self-efficacy on procrastination and emphasized the significance of attentional control in understanding the working mechanisms underlying the association between self-efficacy and procrastination, which can provide valuable insights for designing effective interventions to avoid procrastination.
Background
Poor sleep quality has become one of the most pressing public issues among Chinese college students, with an increasing incidence rate in recent years. Although some studies showed that anxiety is related to sleep quality, the relationship between time anxiety (which is a more concrete manifestation of anxiety in the temporal dimension) and sleep quality, as well as its potential mechanisms, still requires further investigation and analysis. This study aimed to explore the relationship between time anxiety and sleep quality among college students, and to examine the mediating role of irrational procrastination and the moderating effect of physical activity.
Methodology
A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,137 participants recruited from four universities in eastern, western, and central China. They completed a questionnaire survey on time anxiety, irrational procrastination, physical activity, and sleep quality. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 26.0 and PROCESS 3.3.
Results
Time anxiety had a significant positive impact on sleep quality (β = 0.28, t = 9.95, p < 0.001). Irrational procrastination played a mediating role between time anxiety and college students’ sleep quality, the effect value was 0.05, and the intermediary effect accounted for 19.26%. Physical activity moderated the direct effect of time anxiety on college students’ sleep quality (β = −0.08, t = −2.98, p < 0.01), and moderated the second half path of irrational procrastination mediation model (β = −0.06, t = −2.12, p < 0.05).
Conclusion
Higher levels of time anxiety are associated with poorer sleep quality among college students. Time anxiety not only directly affects college students’ sleep quality, but also indirectly affects it through irrational procrastination. Conducting physical activities can mitigate the impact of time anxiety and irrational procrastination on college students’ sleep quality.
This study aims to examine gender differences in the relationship between procrastination and subjective well-being in a sample of 1052 individuals. Including both students and non-students. The participants, 56.7% were women (Mean = 24.83, Standard Deviation = 6.01, range = 18–56) and 43.3% were men (Mean = 25.01, Standard Deviation = 6.91, range = 18–59), completed assessments covering procrastination, positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and structural equation modeling. The current findings suggest that men, compared with women, reported higher levels of procrastination, positive affect, and subjective well-being and lower levels of negative affect. The results suggest that procrastination has a greater impact on the subjective well-being of men, especially among non-student males. These findings contribute to the understanding of gender differences in the relationship between procrastination and subjective well-being, emphasizing the need for further research.
The purpose of this investigation was to study the relationship between sleep quality, problematic smartphone use (PSU) and bedtime procrastination, as well as to assess gender and age differences. A total of 313 participants, aged 18-60 (M = 30 ± 10.1; 53.2% males), completed an online survey between February and May 2023 in Spain. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version and Bedtime Procrastination Scale were used to measure sleep quality, PSU and bedtime procrastination, respectively. Additionally, smartphone use habits were evaluated through self-report questions. Pearson correlations, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Bonferroni's post hoc tests and mediation analysis were conducted. Correlation analysis showed positive associations between the three main variables. Independent sample t-tests indicated females were more prone to PSU along with higher overall smartphone use. Post hoc analysis of one-way ANOVA exposed age differences between young adults (18-25 years old), adults (26-44 years old) and middle-aged adults (45-60 years old) in PSU and bedtime procrastination. Finally, mediation analysis revealed that PSU had indirect effects on sleep quality through bedtime procrastination, but no direct effects on sleep quality. Therefore, PSU, and especially bedtime procrastination, should be considered as targets in future campaigns or intervention programs to improve sleep quality among the young Spanish population.
Self- disgust is an adverse self-conscious emotion that plays an important role in psychopathology and well-being. However, self-disgust has received little attention in the emotion literature, therefore our understanding of the processes underlying the experience of self-disgust is relatively scarce, although neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies support the idea that this emotion may heavily rely on frontal lobe-related cognition. To test this hypothesis, in two studies we investigated the relationship between state and trait levels of self-disgust, cognition and emotion regulation in healthy adults. Specifically, in Study 1 we tested the hypothesis that emotion regulation strategies (avoidance, suppression, and cognitive reappraisal) mediate the relationship between inhibition ability and state and trait levels of self-disgust. In Study 2, we followed a more comprehensive approach to test the hypothesis that frontal lobe-related cognitive processes (updating, Theory of Mind–ToM-, and self-attention) are closely related to the experience of self-disgust in healthy adults. Overall, across these studies, we found evidence to support the idea that inhibition ability and ToM may play a role in the experience of state and trait self-disgust, respectively. However, we did not find consistent evidence across the two studies to support the notion held in the literature that the experience of self- conscious emotions, in this case self-disgust, is heavily dependent on frontal lobe-related cognition.
Procrastination is an irrational delay of task completion. Previous studies have demonstrated that individuals who often procrastinate present deficits in attentional control and performance monitoring and that these dysfunctions might be differentially manifested depending on the motivational context. Building upon these results, the present event-related potential (ERP) study aimed to investigate the impact of norm-referenced feedback on executive functions among students with high (HP; N = 75) or low (LP; N = 77) procrastination levels. Participants completed the parametric Go/No-Go task, while receiving either positive or negative false feedback indicating how well they performed in comparison to others. The results indicated that positive (as opposed to negative) feedback led to higher self-reported arousal and increased post-error slowing in HP (vs. LP) participants. Moreover, neurophysiological measures indicated lower neural activation linked to attentional control (P300) and performance monitoring (ERN, CRN and Pe) in HP than LP participants, while the groups did not differ in these indices during the positive feedback condition. Obtained findings indicate that HP might be more sensitive to the motivating effects of success and more vulnerable to the detrimental influence of failure.
Introduction. The relevance of the problem is accounted for by the need to overcome the process of procrastination in connection with the growing tendency towards a person’s decreasing activity in solving educational and professional tasks, as well as fadeout of people’s social activity. The psychological science has sufficiently explored the emotional and motivational factors of procrastination, has established its connection with the components of conscious regulation of efforts reflecting the infringement of subject’s activity. At the same time, there are practically no scholarly studies revealing the significance of reflexive processes from the position of purposeful inhibition of activity. The aim of the study was to test the assumption of existence of positive interrelation between reflexivity and vocational guidance within the framework of the general hypothesis stating that procrastination can act as a mechanism protecting individual’s self-identity. Materials and methods. The following methods were used: “Procrastination Scale” by P. Steel adapted by I.N. Kormacheva, reflexivity questionnaire by A.V. Karpov, the authors’ questionnaire “Objective personal manifestations of the subject of activity”. The research involved 61 full-time and part-time students aged 18 to 46 (Me = 28 years) of the Humanitarian Institute of Vladimir State University (Russian Federation). Results. A significant positive correlation between one’s personal reflexivity and aptitude for procrastination was established (p < 0,01). Negative correlation was revealed between procrastination (p < 0,01), on the one part, and dutifulness, independence and initiative, on the other part, as objective manifestations of self-identity. Conclusion. The obtained results will be interesting for researchers working in the sphere of selfregulation of activity, including learning, as well as for specialists in individual’s psychology and personality development. They can be used in designing the educational space of a higher education institution, that would contribute to the development of students’ self-identity. Keywords: subject, procrastination, self-regulation, reflexion, reflexivity, personal meaning, subjectspecific approach
La procrastinación es una conducta negativa en la cual los estudiantes postergan la realización de sus actividades académicas, porque se sienten desmotivados o estresados, esta condición se puede deber a múltiples factores; como fue la pandemia del COVID-19, por el cambio de clases a distancia o virtuales, adaptarse a este nuevo sistema educativo afectó su rendimiento académico. Se formuló como objetivo demostrar la incidencia de la procrastinación en la autoeficacia académica en estudiantes de educación secundaria en tiempos de COVID-19. Se empleó como metodología el enfoque cuantitativo, con diseño explicativo descriptivo, a un amuestra de 169 estudiante del VII ciclo del nivel secundario en una institución privada. Los resultados obtenidos del procesamiento estadístico permitieron se concluyó que, existe incidencia significativa entre la procrastinación y la autoeficacia académica, el desgano y desmotivación estuvieron influenciados por el contexto de la pandemia originada por el COVID-19.
Meskipun mahasiswa dalam perkembangan psikologi berada dalam peralihan menuju dewasa, namun mereka dilaporkan sering melakukan prokrastinasi akademik. Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis dampak prokrastinasi akademik pada pola tidur mahasiswa. Metode yang digunakan ialah studi kuantitatif non-eksperimen dengan model cross-sectional. Bertindak sebagai subjek penelitian ialah 300 mahasiswa yang diambil melalui Teknik non probability sampling. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan terdapat pengaruh prokrastinasi akademik terhadap pola tidur yaitu pada jam bangun pagi dan jam tidur di hari libur (p<0.05). Kebiasaan prokrastinasi tertinggi pada mahasiswa yaitu pada kesenjangan waktu antara rencana dan kinerja aktual. Mengingat kebiasaan prokrastinasi berdampak buruk pada kesehatan, disarankan mahasiswa untuk melatih kedisiplinan untuk dapat mengerjakan tugas sesuai dengan rencana yang telah mereka buat dan mengerjakan sesuai prioritas.
Students using a Learning Management System (LMS) as a learning support have been observed to demonstrate different learning behaviours. Studies have reported students exhibiting different procrastination tendencies, distinct social behaviours and system usage patterns. Students can be clustered together based on similarity in their learning behaviours. The K-means clustering algorithm is a simple and effective way to group students with similar behaviours. The authors use this algorithm in a novel way. It is applied in two phases on an unlabelled dataset obtained from LMS course logs. In the first phase, distinct clusters are formed using K-means. In the second phase, K-means is again applied to clusters obtained in the first phase to obtain further insight into students’ interaction behaviours. The two-phase application of K-means clustering clearly revealed the most and least successful learning behaviours. The authors also establish a relationship between observed behaviours and course final scores.
Most research on the cognitive effects of subtle racial discrimination among racial and ethnic minorities focuses on direct experiences of it wherein stigmatized individuals are the targets of discriminatory treatment. However, it is not necessary for people to be the direct target of discriminatory behavior to experience the negative consequences associated with it. Although exposure to discriminatory behavior is increasingly common given the accessibility of smartphones and social media, we know relatively little about how this exposure affects people's executive functioning. Here, we provide a systematic, comparative review of the extant literature on the effects of (a) personally experiencing versus (b) observing instances of subtle racial discrimination toward others on three core executive functions: inhibition, shifting, and updating. We highlight where more work is needed to understand the cognitive consequences of observing discrimination and we provide initial evidence that observing subtle discrimination impairs updating—a previously unexplored relationship. Finally, we discuss the implications of executive function impairment due to observing and experiencing subtle discrimination for long‐term outcomes, such as academic achievement, employment, and mental health.
Se presentan los principales aportes de la psicología vinculados al uso más eficiente del tiempo por parte de los trabajadores al ejecutar sus funciones. Primero se incluye un marco teórico sobre aspectos como: clima y cultura, personalidad, cronotipo, procrastinación, cyberslacking. Una segunda parte está vinculada a algunas intervenciones psicológicas para favorecer un uso más racional del tiempo.
The main contributions of psychology within the context of a more efficient use of time by workers in the execution of their duties are hereby presented. First, a theoretical framework is included
touching upon: climate and culture, personality, chronotype, rocrastination, cyberslacking. The second part deals with certain psychological interventions aimed at fostering a more rational
use of time.
Instead of considering procrastination as a unitary construct we argue that it takes different forms and has multiple explanations and determinants. While it is fair to consider procrastination a cognitive focusing issue, we posit that the motivational sources for this vary depending on where someone can be located with regards to the “existential” developmental positions that have been explicated over many years by Object Relations clinical theorists: the autistic-contiguous, paranoid-schizoid, depressive, and transcendental. These positions generate different understandings of what motivates procrastination and in turn, effects the interventions we offer. We note both clinical and commonplace examples.
Affect intensity (AI) may reconcile 2 seemingly paradoxical findings: Women report more negative affect than men but equal happiness as men. AI describes people’s varying response intensity to identical emotional stimuli. A college sample of 66 women and 34 men was assessed on both positive and negative affect using 4 measurement methods: self-report, peer report, daily report, and memory performance. A principal-components analysis revealed an affect balance component and an AI component. Multimeasure affect balance and AI scores were created, and t tests were computed that showed women to be as happy as and more intense than men. Gender accounted for less than 1% of the variance in happiness but over 13% in AI. Thus, depression findings of more negative affect in women do not conflict with well-being findings of equal happiness across gender. Generally, women’s more intense positive emotions balance their higher negative affect.
Objective:
In two studies, we aimed at further elucidating the relationship between trait negative affectivity (NA) and habitual symptom reporting (HSR) by relating these variables to measures of executive function, trait questionnaires, and effects of emotion induction.
Methods:
Healthy female participants (N = 75) were selected on their scores for trait NA and for the Checklist for Symptoms in Daily Life. Three groups were compared: (1) low NA-low HSR; (2) high NA-low HSR; and (3) high NA-high HSR (low NA-high HSR did not occur). In study 1, participants underwent a Parametric Go/No-go Task and a Stroop Color-Word test, and trait questionnaires measured alexithymia and absorption. Forty-five participants (N = 15 in each group) were further engaged in study 2 to induce state NA using an affective picture paradigm.
Results:
Impaired inhibition on the Stroop and Go/No go Task characterized high trait NA, but not high HSR, whereas alexithymia and absorption were elevated in HSR, regardless of trait NA. Negative picture viewing induced elevated state NA in all groups, but only high HSR also reported more bodily symptoms. This effect was moderated, but not mediated by state NA.
Conclusion:
High trait NA is a vulnerability factor but not a sufficient condition to develop HSR. Deficient inhibition is related to the broad trait of NA, whereas the moderating effect of state NA on symptom reporting is specific for high HSR. Understanding processes related to alexithymia and absorption may specifically help to explain elevated HSR.
Procrastination is a widespread phenomenon that has been associated with a host of cognitive, emotional, and motivational factors but about which a clear and integrated picture is still lacking. The aim of this study was to use primary established psychological procrastination-related factors in the literature to examine whether reliable subgroups of procrastinators can be identified through cluster analysis. To this end, 180 French-speaking students were asked to complete a measure of procrastination and four questionnaires assessing impulsivity, cognitive emotion regulation, self-esteem, and global motivation. Four clusters were identified: two with the lowest scores of procrastination (“High regulated” and “Regulated/low motivated”), one with higher scores of procrastination (“Emotional”), and another with even higher scores (“Unregulated”). The findings provide insights into the dynamic relationships between key procrastination-related factors and the mechanisms linked to the self-regulation difficulties that characterize trait procrastination.
Procrastination is a common form of self-regulatory failure with substantive connections to lower levels of health, wealth and well-being. Conducting an epidemiological study, we determined the characteristics of prototypical procrastinators from a global sample based on several relevant self-reported demographic variables. Using an internet sampling strategy, we surveyed 16 413 English-speaking adults (58.3% women; 41.7% men: M age = 38.3 years, SD = 14), specifically on the variables of sex, age, marital status, family size, education, community location, and national origin. Almost all the results were statistically significant because of our large sample size. However, procrastination tendencies were most prominently associated with sex, age, marital status, education and nationality. Procrastinators tended to be young, single men with less education, residing in countries with lower levels of self-discipline. Notably, procrastination mediated the relationship between sex and education, providing further support that men are lagging behind women academically because of lower self-regulatory skills. Given procrastination's connection with a variety of societal ailments (e.g. excessive debt, delayed medical treatment), identifying risk factors and at risk populations should be helpful for directing preventative public policy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Emotions have recently been shown to interfere with the efficacy of inhibitory control. However, understanding their impact requires taking into account that inhibition is not a unitary construct, but consists of distinct functions underlain by specific mechanisms. In this study, 88 participants performed two emotional versions of classic laboratory tasks designed to assess (1) the ability to inhibit a prepotent response (a stop-signal task using faces with different emotional expressions) and (2) the capacity to resist the effect of proactive interference (PI; a recent negative task that included emotional words). Overall results showed that emotional stimuli interfered with inhibition capacities in both tasks. Although tending in the same direction, these results suggest that different underlying mechanisms (e.g., top-down vs. bottom-up processes) or consecutive differences in emotional processing (e.g., different interactions with stimulus/task properties, processing stages or motivational aspects) are at play in these two inhibition-related functions.
Acting in accord with long-term goals requires control of interfering impulses, the success of which depends on several different processes. Using a structural-equation modeling approach, we investigated 5 behavioral components of impulsivity: the control of stimulus interference, proactive interference, and response interference, as well as decisional and motivational impulsivity. Results support the existence of 5 correlated but separable components of impulsive behavior. The present study is the 1st to demonstrate the separability of stimulus and response interference. It also supports the notion that control of response-related interference is not a unitary construct: Response-selection demands were separable from those of withholding or stopping. Relations between behavioral impulsivity components and self-report measures of impulsivity were largely absent. We conclude that as the construct of impulsivity has been extended to describe an increasingly diverse set of phenomena and processes, it has become too broad to be helpful in guiding future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).
Previous research has revealed a moderate and positive correlation between procrastination and impulsivity. However, little is known about why these two constructs are related. In the present study, we used behavior-genetics methodology to test three predictions derived from an evolutionary account that postulates that procrastination arose as a by-product of impulsivity: (a) Procrastination is heritable, (b) the two traits share considerable genetic variation, and (c) goal-management ability is an important component of this shared variation. These predictions were confirmed. First, both procrastination and impulsivity were moderately heritable (46% and 49%, respectively). Second, although the two traits were separable at the phenotypic level (r = .65), they were not separable at the genetic level (rgenetic = 1.0). Finally, variation in goal-management ability accounted for much of this shared genetic variation. These results suggest that procrastination and impulsivity are linked primarily through genetic influences on the ability to use high-priority goals to effectively regulate actions.
The role of autonomous self-regulation as a predictor of academic procrastination was assessed. French-Canadian students from a junior college (N = 498) completed the Academic Motivation Scale as well as an academic procrastination scale and other measures (anxiety, self-esteem, and depression) that have been found to be related to fear of failure. Correlation results indicated that students with intrinsic reasons for pursuing academic tasks procrastinated less than those with less autonomous reasons (external regulation and amotivation). Regression results indicated that the measures of depression, self-esteem, and anxiety accounted for 14% of the variance in academic procrastination, whereas the self-regulation variables accounted for 25%. These results support the notion that procrastination is a motivational problem that involves more than poor time management skills or trait laziness.
This study investigated 3 broad classes of individual-differences variables (job-search motives, competencies, and constraints) as predictors of job-search intensity among 292 unemployed job seekers. Also assessed was the relationship between job-search intensity and reemployment success in a longitudinal context. Results show significant relationships between the predictors employment commitment, financial hardship, job-search self-efficacy, and motivation control and the outcome job-search intensity. Support was not found for a relationship between perceived job-search constraints and job-search intensity. Motivation control was highlighted as the only lagged predictor of job-search intensity over time for those who were continuously unemployed. Job-search intensity predicted Time 2 reemployment status for the sample as a whole, but not reemployment quality for those who found jobs over the study's duration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined self reported suscepibility to distraction and cognitive thoughts as possible determinants of indecision in 107 college students. The Ss completed inventories on indecision, distractibility, daydreaming, negative self-statements, and failure to use positive self-cognition. Both zero-order and partial correlates indicated that indecision was significantly related to distractibility, daydreaming, and self-critical cognitions. However, factor analyses (oblique rotations) indicated that indecision loaded with situational variables (distractibility and daydreaming), as opposed to neurotic, self-deprecating cognitions (negative self-processing, and failure in positive self-processing). These results suggest that delays in decision making may be related to a proneness toward easy distractibility and daydreaming, and not necessarily to tendencies toward self-critical thoughts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The objective of the present study was to compare alternative factorial structures of the French-Canadian version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) across samples of athletes at different stages of a sport competition. The first sample (N=305) was used to assess, compare, and improve the measurement model of the PANAS. The second sample (N=217) was used to cross-validate the model that provided the best fit with the calibration sample. Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a modified three-factor model with cross-loadings provided a better fit to the data than either the hypothesized or the modified two-factor models. This model was partially replicated on the second sample. Results of a multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis have shown that the model was partially invariant across the two samples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Background:
Impulsivity is a hallmark of addictive behaviors. Addicts' weakened inhibition of irrelevant prepotent responses is commonly thought to explain this association. However, inhibition is not a unitary mechanism. This study investigated the efficiency of overcoming competition due to irrelevant responses (i.e., inhibition of a prepotent response) and overcoming competition in memory (i.e., resistance to proactive interference) in sober and recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals.
Methods:
Three cognitive tasks assessing the inhibition of a prepotent response (Hayling task, anti-saccade task and Stroop task) and two tasks tapping into the capacity to resist proactive interference (cued recall, Brown-Peterson variant) were administered to 30 non-amnesic recently detoxified alcohol-dependent individuals and 30 matched healthy participants without alcohol dependency. In addition, possible confounds such as verbal updating in working memory was assessed.
Results:
Alcohol-dependent subjects performed worse than healthy participants on the three cognitive tasks assessing the inhibition of irrelevant prepotent responses but group performance was similar in the tasks assessing overcoming proactive interference in memory, updating of working memory and abstract reasoning.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that alcohol-dependence is mainly associated with impaired capacity to intentionally suppress irrelevant prepotent response information. Control of proactive interference from memory is preserved. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.
It has recently been shown that perseverance specifically relates to resisting proactive interference [Gay, P., Rochat, L., Billieux, J., d’Acremont, M., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Heterogeneous inhibition processes involved in different facets of self-reported impulsivity: Evidence from a community sample. Acta Psychologica, 129, 332–339]. The aim of this study was to replicate and extend this finding by investigating the relationships between unintentional control of interference (in a recent-negatives task), intentional control of interference (in a directed-forgetting task), and the four facets of impulsivity. The performance of 71 volunteers indicated that the relevant variables of the two tasks shared very little or no variance. In particular, regression analyses showed that lower perseverance (i.e., higher impulsivity on this facet) predicted more interference-related errors in both tasks and less time dedicated to resolving proactive interference; however, lower perseverance did not predict directed-forgetting cost. Higher urgency predicted higher interference time due to response-conflict.
The present project utilized the Five Factor Model of personality (FFM; McCrae & Costa, 1990) to clarify the multi-faceted nature of impulsivity. The NEO-PI-R and a number of commonly used impulsivity measures were administered to over 400 young adults. Exploratory factor analyses identified four distinct personality facets associated with impulsive-like behavior which were labeled urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, and sensation seeking. Each of these traits was marked by a different facet of the FFM. Following the initial factor identification, scales to measure each of the personality facets were created and combined to form the UPPS Impulsive Behavior scale. Implications for the understanding of impulsive behavior and the FFM are discussed, as are future applications of the UPPS impulsive behavior scale.
Procrastination, or the intentional delay of due tasks, is a widespread phenomenon in college settings. Because procrastination can negatively impact learning, achievement, academic self-efficacy, and quality of life, research has sought to understand the factors that produce and maintain this troublesome behavior. Procrastination is increasingly viewed as involving failures in self-regulation and volition, processes commonly regarded as executive functions. The present study was the first to investigate subcomponents of self-reported executive functioning associated with academic procrastination in a demographically diverse sample of college students aged 30 years and below (n = 212). We included each of nine aspects of executive functioning in multiple regression models that also included various demographic and medical/psychiatric characteristics, estimated IQ, depression, anxiety, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. The executive function domains of initiation, plan/organize, inhibit, self-monitor, working memory, task monitor, and organization of materials were significant predictors of academic procrastination in addition to increased age and lower conscientiousness. Results enhance understanding of the neuropsychological correlates of procrastination and may lead to practical suggestions or interventions to reduce its harmful effects on students' academic performance and well-being.
Whiteside and Lynam (Whiteside, S. P., & Lynam, D. R. (2001). The Five Factor Model and impulsivity: Using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 669-689) clarified the multifaceted nature of impulsivity by identifying four distinct facets of self-reported impulsive behaviors: urgency, (lack of) premeditation, (lack of) perseverance, and sensation seeking. Building on work by Bechara and Van der Linden (Bechara, A., & Van der Linden, M. (2005). Decision-making and impulse control after frontal lobe injuries. Current Opinion in Neurology, 18, 734-739), the main objective of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that perseverance and urgency map onto the two distinct inhibitory functions distinguished by Friedman and Miyake (Friedman, N. P., & Miyake, A. (2004). The relations among inhibition and interference control functions: A latent-variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 101-135): prepotent response inhibition and resistance to proactive interference. Participants (N=126) completed the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale and three tasks: a recent-negatives task to assess proactive interference in working memory, and two Go/No-Go tasks at different paces, the slower of which also assessed task-unrelated thoughts (TUTs). Consistent with the hypothesis, TUTs were positively correlated with lack of perseverance, and multiple regressions revealed that urgency was specifically related to errors in prepotent response inhibition, and lack of perseverance to errors due to difficulties overcoming proactive interference.
Why do people's impulse controls break down during emotional distress? Some theories propose that distress impairs one's motivation or one's ability to exert self-control, and some postulate self-destructive intentions arising from the moods. Contrary to those theories, Three experiments found that believing that one's bad mood was frozen (unchangeable) eliminated the tendency to eat fattening snacks (Experiment 1), seek immediate gratification (Experiment 2), and engage in frivolous procrastination (Experiment 3). The implication is that when people are upset, they indulge immediate impulses to make themselves feel better, which amounts to giving short-term affect regulation priority over other self-regulatory goals.
Cognitive control requires the resolution of interference among competing and potentially conflicting representations. Such conflict can emerge at different points between stimulus input and response generation, with the net effect being that of compromising performance. The goal of this article was to dissociate the neural mechanisms underlying different sources of conflict to elucidate the architecture of the neural systems that implement cognitive control. By using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a verbal working memory task (item recognition), we examined brain activity related to two kinds of conflict with comparable behavioral consequences. In a trial of our item-recognition task, participants saw four letters, followed by a retention interval, and a probe letter that did or did not match one of the letters held in working memory (positive probe and negative probe, respectively). On some trials, conflict arose solely because of the current negative probe having a high familiarity, due to its membership in the immediately preceding trial's target set. On other trials, additional conflict arose because of the current negative probe having also been a positive probe on the immediately preceding trial, producing response-level conflict. Consistent with previous work, conflict due to high familiarity was associated with left prefrontal activation, but not with anterior cingulate activation. The response-conflict condition, when compared with high-familiarity conflict trials, was associated with anterior cingulate cortex activation, but with no additional left prefrontal activation. This double dissociation points to differing contributions of specific cortical areas to cognitive control, which are based on the source of conflict.
This study used data from 220 adults to examine the relations among 3 inhibition-related functions. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that Prepotent Response Inhibition and Resistance to Distractor Interference were closely related, but both were unrelated to Resistance to Proactive Interference. Structural equation modeling, which combined Prepotent Response Inhibition and Resistance to Distractor Interference into a single latent variable, indicated that 1 aspect of random number generation performance, task-switching ability, and everyday cognitive failures were related to Response-Distractor Inhibition, whereas reading span recall and unwanted intrusive thoughts were related to Resistance to Proactive Interference. These results suggest that the term inhibition has been overextended and that researchers need to be more specific when discussing and measuring inhibition-related functions.
Procrastination is a prevalent and pernicious form of self-regulatory failure that is not entirely understood. Hence, the relevant conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work is reviewed, drawing upon correlational, experimental, and qualitative findings. A meta-analysis of procrastination's possible causes and effects, based on 691 correlations, reveals that neuroticism, rebelliousness, and sensation seeking show only a weak connection. Strong and consistent predictors of procrastination were task aversiveness, task delay, self-efficacy, and impulsiveness, as well as conscientiousness and its facets of self-control, distractibility, organization, and achievement motivation. These effects prove consistent with temporal motivation theory, an integrative hybrid of expectancy theory and hyperbolic discounting. Continued research into procrastination should not be delayed, especially because its prevalence appears to be growing.
Earlier research has implicated metacognitions and attentional control in procrastination and self-regulatory failure. This study tested several hypotheses: (1) that metacognitions would be positively correlated with decisional procrastination; (2) that attentional control would be negatively correlated with decisional procrastination; (3) that metacognitions would be negatively correlated with attentional control; and (4) that metacognitions and attentional control would predict decisional procrastination when controlling for negative affect. One hundred and twenty-nine participants completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21, the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire 30, the Attentional Control Scale, and the Decisional Procrastination Scale. Significant relationships were found between all three attentional control factors (focusing, shifting, and flexible control of thought) and two metacognitions factors (negative beliefs concerning thoughts about uncontrollability and danger, and cognitive confidence). Results also revealed that decisional procrastination was significantly associated with negative affect, all measured metacognitions factors, and all attentional control factors. In the final step of a hierarchical regression analysis only stress, cognitive confidence, and attention shifting were independent predictors of decisional procrastination. Overall these findings support the hypotheses and are consistent with the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model of psychological dysfunction. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Despite strong popular conceptions of gender differences in emotionality and striking gender differences in the prevalence of disorders thought to involve emotion dysregulation, the literature on the neural bases of emotion regulation is nearly silent regarding gender differences (Gross, 2007; Ochsner & Gross, in press). The purpose of the present study was to address this gap in the literature. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we asked male and female participants to use a cognitive emotion regulation strategy (reappraisal) to down-regulate their emotional responses to negatively valenced pictures. Behaviorally, men and women evidenced comparable decreases in negative emotion experience. Neurally, however, gender differences emerged. Compared with women, men showed (a) lesser increases in prefrontal regions that are associated with reappraisal, (b) greater decreases in the amygdala, which is associated with emotional responding, and (c) lesser engagement of ventral striatal regions, which are associated with reward processing. We consider two non-competing explanations for these differences. First, men may expend less effort when using cognitive regulation, perhaps due to greater use of automatic emotion regulation. Second, women may use positive emotions in the service of reappraising negative emotions to a greater degree. We then consider the implications of gender differences in emotion regulation for understanding gender differences in emotional processing in general, and gender differences in affective disorders.
Research from numerous corners of psychological inquiry suggests that self-assessments of skill and character are often flawed in substantive and systematic ways. We review empirical findings on the imperfect nature of self-assessment and discuss implications for three real-world domains: health, education, and the workplace.
In general, people's self-views hold only a tenuous to modest relationship with their actual behavior and performance. The correlation between self-ratings of skill and actual performance in many domains is moderate to meager—indeed, at times, other people's predictions of a person's outcomes prove more accurate than that person's self-predictions. In addition, people overrate themselves. On average, people say that they are “above average” in skill (a conclusion that defies statistical possibility), overestimate the likelihood that they will engage in desirable behaviors and achieve favorable outcomes, furnish overly optimistic estimates of when they will complete future projects, and reach judgments with too much confidence. Several psychological processes conspire to produce flawed self-assessments.
Research focusing on health echoes these findings. People are unrealistically optimistic about their own health risks compared with those of other people. They also overestimate how distinctive their opinions and preferences (e.g., discomfort with alcohol) are among their peers—a misperception that can have a deleterious impact on their health. Unable to anticipate how they would respond to emotion-laden situations, they mispredict the preferences of patients when asked to step in and make treatment decisions for them. Guided by mistaken but seemingly plausible theories of health and disease, people misdiagnose themselves—a phenomenon that can have severe consequences for their health and longevity.
Similarly, research in education finds that students' assessments of their performance tend to agree only moderately with those of their teachers and mentors. Students seem largely unable to assess how well or poorly they have comprehended material they have just read. They also tend to be overconfident in newly learned skills, at times because the common educational practice of massed training appears to promote rapid acquisition of skill—as well as self-confidence—but not necessarily the retention of skill. Several interventions, however, can be introduced to prompt students to evaluate their skill and learning more accurately.
In the workplace, flawed self-assessments arise all the way up the corporate ladder. Employees tend to overestimate their skill, making it difficult to give meaningful feedback. CEOs also display overconfidence in their judgments, particularly when stepping into new markets or novel projects—for example, proposing acquisitions that hurt, rather then help, the price of their company's stock. We discuss several interventions aimed at circumventing the consequences of such flawed assessments; these include training people to routinely make cognitive repairs correcting for biased self-assessments and requiring people to justify their decisions in front of their peers.
The act of self-assessment is an intrinsically difficult task, and we enumerate several obstacles that prevent people from reaching truthful self-impressions. We also propose that researchers and practitioners should recognize self-assessment as a coherent and unified area of study spanning many subdisciplines of psychology and beyond. Finally, we suggest that policymakers and other people who makes real-world assessments should be wary of self-assessments of skill, expertise, and knowledge, and should consider ways of repairing self-assessments that may be flawed.
Procrastination is a common and pervasive problem associated with a range of negative outcomes across a variety of life domains that often occurs when people are faced with tasks that are seen as aversive. In this paper, we argue that as a form of self-regulation failure, procrastination has a great deal to do with short-term mood repair and emotion regulation.
Moreover, we contend that a temporal understanding of self and the mood-regulating processes involved in goal pursuit is particularly important in understanding procrastination, because the consequences of procrastination are typically borne by the future self. After summarizing the research on the priority of short-term mood regulation in procrastination, we then draw the connection between the focus on short-term mood repair and the temporal disjunction between present and future selves. We present research that exemplifies these intra-personal processes in understanding temporal notions of self characterized by procrastination, and then link these processes to the negative consequences of procrastination for health and well-being. We conclude with a discussion of possible avenues for future research to provide further insights into how temporal views of the self are linked to the dynamics of mood regulation over time in the context of procrastination.
Two studies investigated the role of impulsivity in procrastinators' problems. In the first study, 147 freshmen completed questionnaires measuring the Big Five personality factors, a broad impulsivity scale, and Lay's general procrastination scale, and their perceptions concerning a compulsory course. The data revealed that procrastination was closely related to a lack of perseverance, that is, the inability to complete projects. This relation explained a large part of the well documented relation between conscientiousness and procrastination. In the second study, a subsample of these students was followed up during 11 weeks before their exams. They had to provide their study intentions and behaviour, the reasons why they failed to enact their intentions, and the perceived impact of studying on their final grade. The data revealed that all students tend to postpone the bulk of their study activities to the last week before an exam, and that this trend could nicely be described by a hyperbolic curve. The results also revealed that procrastinators postponed more of their intentions, mainly because of fun alternatives, but did not intend to study less or later. On the contrary, they even seemed to compensate for their vulnerability by formulating more intentions earlier. Procrastinators emerged as highly motivated students who lack the ability to ward off temptations and distractions during their studying activities. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The stop-signal paradigm is a useful tool for the investigation of response inhibition. In this paradigm, subjects are instructed to respond as fast as possible to a stimulus unless a stop signal is presented after a variable delay. However, programming the stop-signal task is typically considered to be difficult. To overcome this issue, we present software called STOP-IT, for running the stop-signal task, as well as an additional analyzing program called ANALYZE-IT. The main advantage of both programs is that they are a precompiled executable, and for basic use there is no need for additional programming. STOP-IT and ANALYZE-IT are completely based on free software, are distributed under the GNU General Public License, and are available at the personal Web sites of the first two authors or at expsy.ugent.be/tscope/stop.html.
This study explored whether a relatively poor ability to resist or inhibit interference from irrelevant information in working memory is associated with experiencing undesirable intrusive memories. Non-selected participants (N=91) completed a self-report measure of intrusive memories, and carried out experimental tasks intended to measure two different types of inhibition: resistance to proactive interference and response inhibition (i.e., the ability to prevent automatically triggered responses). The results showed a significant relationship between inhibition at the cognitive level (i.e., resistance to proactive interference) and the frequency of intrusive memories (especially in the group of female participants) whereas no such relationship with measures of response inhibition emerged. These findings are consistent with the idea that deficient inhibitory control reflects a vulnerability factor for experiencing intrusive memories. Implications for research investigating risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are discussed.
Affect intensity (AI) may reconcile 2 seemingly paradoxical findings: Women report more negative affect than men but equal happiness as men. AI describes people's varying response intensity to identical emotional stimuli. A college sample of 66 women and 34 men was assessed on both positive and negative affect using 4 measurement methods: self-report, peer report, daily report, and memory performance. A principal-components analysis revealed an affect balance component and an AI component. Multimeasure affect balance and AI scores were created, and t tests were computed that showed women to be as happy as and more intense than men. Gender accounted for less than 1% of the variance in happiness but over 13% in AI. Thus, depression findings of more negative affect in women do not conflict with well-being findings of equal happiness across gender. Generally, women's more intense positive emotions balance their higher negative affect.
Procrastination as self-regulatory failure: Habitual avoidance and inhibitory control moderate the intention-behaviour relation for unpleasant tasks
- J R Paulitzki
Paulitzki, J. R. (2010). Procrastination as self-regulatory failure: Habitual avoidance and
inhibitory control moderate the intention-behaviour relation for unpleasant tasks.
Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Waterloo, Canada.
Mindwandering: Phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method
- D Stawarczyk
- S Majerus
- M Maj
- M Van Der Linden
- A Argembeau
Stawarczyk, D., Majerus, S., Maj, M., Van der Linden, M., & D'Argembeau, A. (2011). Mindwandering: Phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method. Acta Psychologica, 136, 370-381.