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Comparing effects of active and passive procrastination: A field study of behavioral delay
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Abstract
Time is the one resource we cannot recoup. Nevertheless, as many as 20% of people problematically procras-tinate. Controversy exists as to the existence of two types of procrastination; the traditional maladaptive type where behavior is delayed unintentionally, despite known risks of disadvantage to performance and/or personal comfort (passive procrastination), and an adaptive type where behavior is intentionally delayed as a means of enhancing motivation, while not disadvantageous to valued outcomes (active procrastination). Few studies to date, however, have longitudinally observed delay in different types of procrastinators. We tracked progress on an undergraduate assignment over two weeks to determine the ability of the two theorized procrastination types to predict behavioral delay. We found scores on passive procrastination predicted markedly different assignment completion trajectories, with higher scorers delaying assignment completion. However, active procrastination did not predict delay. This study demonstrates a novel and robust method for measuring behavioral delay, adds to evidence that active procrastination does not contribute to behavioral delay, and thereby raises doubts as to the construct validity and/or measurement of active procrastination.
... When people work on a task, rather than distributing their effort equally across the time available, they often begin slowly, and gradually increase their effort as a deadline approaches. Thus, theory (Steel & König, 2006) suggests, and research (Wessel, Bradley, & Hood, 2019) shows, that progress over time tends to follow an accelerating, or hyperbolic, curve. Notwithstanding this, research has documented individual differences in pacing style, delay behavior, and in the shape of the curve in task performance (Gevers, Mohammed, & Baytalskaya, 2015;Wessel et al., 2019). ...
... Thus, theory (Steel & König, 2006) suggests, and research (Wessel, Bradley, & Hood, 2019) shows, that progress over time tends to follow an accelerating, or hyperbolic, curve. Notwithstanding this, research has documented individual differences in pacing style, delay behavior, and in the shape of the curve in task performance (Gevers, Mohammed, & Baytalskaya, 2015;Wessel et al., 2019). Indeed, the task-focused behavior of individuals who are high in trait procrastination has been shown to display a particularly steep curve over time, indicative of either a considerably delayed start and/or a prolonged initial period of limited activity before effort and output increase (Wessel et al., 2019; see also Svartdal, Klingsieck, Steel, & Gamst-Klaussen, 2020). ...
... Notwithstanding this, research has documented individual differences in pacing style, delay behavior, and in the shape of the curve in task performance (Gevers, Mohammed, & Baytalskaya, 2015;Wessel et al., 2019). Indeed, the task-focused behavior of individuals who are high in trait procrastination has been shown to display a particularly steep curve over time, indicative of either a considerably delayed start and/or a prolonged initial period of limited activity before effort and output increase (Wessel et al., 2019; see also Svartdal, Klingsieck, Steel, & Gamst-Klaussen, 2020). ...
Studies assessing the efficacy of interventions aimed at reducing procrastination have generally lacked robust longitudinal measurement tools. Recent developments in communication technology and applications of the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) have made observations of such dynamic phenomena possible. We leveraged recent advancements in smartphone technology and ESM to measure delay associated with procrastination, while testing a low‐intensity, high‐frequency intervention to reducing that delay. First‐year university students (N = 107) reported their progress on an assignment twice daily over 14 days prior to the required submission date. Half (n = 51) were randomly allocated to an intervention condition in which they were also asked open‐ended questions designed to prompt reflection on 4 domains proposed to reduce procrastination, namely expectancy, value, delay sensitivity, and metacognition. Multilevel mixed effect models revealed lower behavioral delay in the intervention condition compared to the control condition. This effect was strongest in those who at baseline scored below the median on trait procrastination. Behavioral delay over the 14‐day period was not associated with later assignment submission or lower assignment marks. These findings support a novel method for reducing delay and suggest procrastination can be alleviated in a wide range of contexts using relatively inexpensive and non‐intrusive strategies.
... Para estos autores el constructo de procrastinación activa es una conceptualización defectuosa tanto teórica como empírica, no está relacionado con un fallo de autorregulación, lo cual es esencial en la definición propia de la procrastinación. Desde esta perspectiva, se plantean dudas respecto a que "la capacidad consciente de posponer las tareas" sea un constructo absoluto y no un mero retraso activo (Corkin, Yu y Lindt, 2011;Chowdhury y Pychyl, 2018;Wessel, Bradley y Hood, 2019). Wessel et al. (2019) ponen en tela de juicio que exista una forma de retraso del comportamiento genuinamente adaptativa, es decir, que los estudiantes sean capaces de asumir una conducta de procrastinación activa y que ello, a largo plazo, sea beneficioso para el proceso de formación de los estudiantes. ...
... Desde esta perspectiva, se plantean dudas respecto a que "la capacidad consciente de posponer las tareas" sea un constructo absoluto y no un mero retraso activo (Corkin, Yu y Lindt, 2011;Chowdhury y Pychyl, 2018;Wessel, Bradley y Hood, 2019). Wessel et al. (2019) ponen en tela de juicio que exista una forma de retraso del comportamiento genuinamente adaptativa, es decir, que los estudiantes sean capaces de asumir una conducta de procrastinación activa y que ello, a largo plazo, sea beneficioso para el proceso de formación de los estudiantes. En su opinión, la "cultura de la postergación" es una estrategia autoengañosa para racionalizar demoras que serán perjudiciales para los estudiantes. ...
... En la línea de lo señalado por Choi y Moran (2009) y Kim et al. (2017), los resultados de esta investigación evidencian que, frente al alumnado que procrastina por un fallo de autorregulación, existe otro tipo de alumnado que toma la decisión de retrasar sus tareas para la consecución de un mayor rendimiento. Frente a las dudas planteadas por autores como Corkin et al. (2011), Chowdhury y Pychyl (2018) y Wessel et al. (2019, esta capacidad consciente de posponer las tareas académicas es más que un mero retraso activo, ya que implica un perfil de alumnado caracterizado por la gestión del tiempo y la capacidad para trabajar bajo presión para culminar las tareas en las fechas establecidas y sentirse autoeficaces. b) Relación entre perfiles de procrastinación y género y rendimiento académico. ...
INTRODUCCIÓN. La procrastinación pasiva es la tendencia a demorar la culminación de tareas o decisiones por un fallo de autorregulación. En el ámbito académico esta conducta se asocia al bajo rendimiento. En los últimos años se ha identificado un constructo diferente, la procrastinación activa, que implica la capacidad de retrasar las tareas de forma intencionada para realizarlas con más eficacia. Los objetivos de este estudio son: a) analizar los perfiles de postergación activa que presenta el alumnado de Ciencias de la Educación y b) examinar sus diferencias según género y rendimiento académico. MÉTODO. En la investigación participaron 330 estudiantes universitarios. Para obtener los perfiles del constructo se aplicó la Nueva Escala de Procrastinación Activa (New Active Procrastination Scale). Se realizó un análisis jerárquico de clúster con los factores de la escala, un análisis chi-cuadrado cruzando los clústeres y el género y un análisis univariante de varianzas ANOVA con el rendimiento académico. RESULTADOS. Los resultados mostraron que: a) existían cuatro perfiles entre el alumnado, denominados procrastinación activa, procrastinación pasiva, procrastinación activa moderada y no procrastinación; b) las mujeres presentaban un perfil no procrastinador en mayor medida que los hombres; c) el alumnado con procrastinación activa y no procrastinador presentaban un rendimiento académico significativamente superior al rendimiento del alumnado con un perfil de dilación pasiva. DISCUSIÓN. De acuerdo con el constructo analizado, el alumnado que presenta procrastinación activa tiene la capacidad de retrasar sus tareas académicas para conseguir un mayor rendimiento, está habituado a trabajar bajo presión y a gestionar el tiempo de trabajo. Por el contrario, quienes presentan una demora pasiva han de ser objeto de programas de intervención en la universidad con el fin de que aprendan a organizarse en sus estudios y superar sus fallos de autorregulación.
... This form of procrastination also manifests in putting off necessary tasks. However, as opposed to its passive counterpart, the delays are made intentionally and serve as a way to regulate own motivation (Wessel et al. 2019). In the case of active procrastinators, the preference to work under time pressure does not disturb the ability to finish tasks on time and achieve positive personal outcomes (Choi and Moran 2009;Chu and Choi 2005). ...
... Most studies referring to the differentiation between active and passive procrastination focus on the opposite effects of both forms of delay in the academic sphere (e.g., Wessel et al. 2019). While this perspective may bring interesting results in the field of educational psychology, the phenomenon of procrastination might be additionally explored in alternative contexts (Klingsieck 2013). ...
... Moreover, the use of the Active Procrastination Scale (APS) is questioned as in several studies this measure demonstrated an unstable factor structure (Choi and Moran 2009;Chowdhury and Pychyl 2018;Hensley 2014). Consequently, as recent findings proved that changes in the levels of procrastination might be studied in relation to behavioral delay longitudinally (Wessel et al. 2019), future investigations should apply complementary methods with regard to self-reports. In particular, behavioral or observational measures of procrastination might better capture different aspects and the processual nature of this phenomenon. ...
The present study examined the relationships between potentially adaptive and maladaptive aspects of psychopathy distinguished within the triarchic model (i.e., boldness, meanness and disinhibition) and two types of procrastination, reflecting its functional and dysfunctional aspects (i.e., active procrastination and passive procrastination). Additionally, the potential mediating mechanisms underlying these associations were investigated. The results revealed that the three components of the triarchic model of psychopathy were related to different forms of procrastination in distinct ways. In particular, active procrastination displayed a positive link to boldness and meanness, whereas passive procrastination was found to be positively related to disinhibition and negatively to boldness. Furthermore, two parallel multiple mediation analyses demonstrated the mediating effects of individual difference variables (i.e., impulsiveness, negative affectivity, general self-efficacy) on these relationships. As hypothesized, impulsiveness and negative affectivity partially mediated the association between disinhibition and passive procrastination, while self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between boldness and active procrastination. The paper concentrated on the theoretical implications of these findings for understanding how different psychopathy-related traits are related to different aspects of procrastination.
... In the present study, we focus on the first component, task delay, because "the intention-action gap is the core of the procrastination phenomenon" (Klingsieck, 2013, p. 26). Recently, psychological research has renewed its focus on task delay as the central behavioral component of procrastination (e.g., Krause & Freund, 2014;Shin & Grant, 2021) and observed task delay to be strongly related to more comprehensive trait measures of procrastination (e.g., Wessel et al., 2019). ...
... Our study cannot distinguish between irrational and rational task delay. However, prior research using task delay measures found that they correlate more strongly with irrational procrastination than rational delay (Wessel et al., 2019). Considering that during rational delay, not engaging in a task is what one ultimately intends to do (i.e., there is no intention-action gap), this finding is plausible. ...
There is a popular concern that adolescents’ social media use, especially via smartphones, leads to the delay of intended, potentially more important tasks. Automatic social media use and frequent phone checking may especially contribute to task delay. Prior research has investigated this hypothesis through between-person associations. We advance the literature by additionally examining within-person and person-specific associations of automatic social media use and mobile phone checking frequency with each other and task delay. Preregistered hypotheses were tested with multilevel modeling on data from 3 weeks of experience sampling among N = 312 adolescents (ages 13–15), including T = 22,809 assessments. More automatic social media use and more frequent phone checking were, on average, associated with more task delay at the within-person level. However, heterogeneity analyses found these positive associations to be significant for only a minority of adolescents. We discuss implications for the media habit concept and adolescents’ self-regulation.
... This view holds that active procrastination involves a purposeful intention to delay, as well as satisfaction and positive arousal due to working under pressure and completing things at the last minute (Choi & Moran, 2009;Chowdhury & Pychyl, 2018;Chun Chu & Choi, 2005). These two types of procrastination (i.e., passive/avoidant and active/arousal) seem to be distinct (Choi & Moran, 2009;Ferrari et al., 2005), but there is some evidence that they are negatively related (e.g., Chowdhury & Pychyl, 2018;Wessel et al., 2019). Further, Kim and Seo's (2015) meta-analysis revealed a positive relation between active procrastination and academic performance, and a negative relation between passive procrastination and academic performance. ...
... Our finding that trait passive procrastination and trait active procrastination are distinct is in line with past research, which found the two procrastination traits to be differentially related to other variables (see meta-analysis by Kim & Seo, 2015). On the other hand, we found that these two traits were positively related to each other, which is at odds with past studies that found a negative relation between them (e.g., Chowdhury & Pychyl, 2018;Wessel et al., 2019). Considering that not many studies of procrastination have included both procrastination traits, it is worthwhile for future research to continue looking at the relation between them. ...
This research explored procrastination in the context of career self‐management, a construct that we refer to as career advancement procrastination (CAP). Drawing on the career self‐management model extension of social cognitive career theory, we hypothesized that personality traits (i.e., trait passive procrastination and trait active procrastination) and contextual factors (i.e., career resources and career barriers) have effects on passive CAP and active CAP via career self‐efficacy. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of employed Canadians in a two‐wave study (N = 201). As predicted, we found that trait passive procrastination was positively related to passive CAP, trait active procrastination was positively related to active CAP, and career barriers were related to both passive CAP and active CAP. We also found positive indirect effects of trait passive procrastination and career barriers, and negative indirect effects of career resources, on both passive CAP and active CAP via career self‐efficacy. Taken together, these findings suggest that companies can decrease CAP by helping employees curb their dispositional procrastination tendencies, as well as by reducing career barriers and increasing career resources, all of which should also aid in increasing employees' career self‐efficacy.
... Procrastination, which is common in daily life, is defined as the postponement of intended activities that are prerequisites for attaining goals, despite the known risks of the adverse consequences of not completing these activities (Choi & Moran, 2009;Chu & Choi, 2005;Kühnel et al., 2016;Steel, 2007;Van Hooft et al., 2005;Wessel et al., 2019). Steel (2007), in his quantitative review, identified that approximately 20% of the general population procrastinate to some degree. ...
... A cognitive pathway: The mediating role of rumination We argue that employees will appraise the experience of procrastination during regular working hours as a goal failure and thus activate maladaptive cognitions such as rumination, which is characterized as a typical maladaptive cognitive processing style (Maltais et al., 2019;Massa et al., 2019;Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008). Specifically, when engaging in daily procrastination, employees delay important job tasks that are prerequisites for attaining goals (Choi & Moran, 2009;Chu & Choi, 2005;Wessel et al., 2019). As a result, it is difficult for them to accomplish present-day goals as expected, and they will likely regard themselves as incurable timewasters (Tuckman, 1991). ...
Despite the well-documented deleterious effects of poor sleep quality on procrastination, limited efforts have been devoted to examining whether procrastination can hurt sleep quality. To address this theoretical gap, this study aims to reveal how and when individuals’ procrastination at work influences their subsequent sleep quality. Building upon cognitive appraisal theory, the current research employs experience-sampling methodology to investigate mediators of rumination (as a cognitive pathway) and negative affect (as an affective pathway), explaining within-person fluctuations in sleep quality resulting from daily procrastination. Furthermore, job autonomy is proposed to be a cross-level moderator in the relationship between daily procrastination and rumination/negative affect. The results of 2,026 daily data records from 213 employees across 10 consecutive wordays supported the mediation effect of rumination and moderation effects of job autonomy but did not support the mediation effect of negative affect. Specifically, daily procrastination was negatively related to subsequent sleep quality through the cognitive pathway of rumination. Our results also reveal that the positive relationships between daily procrastination and rumination/negative affect were stronger for employees with higher levels of job autonomy. Finally, we discuss the implications and limitations of this paper as well as future directions.
... Procrastination, which is common in daily life, is defined as the postponement of intended activities that are prerequisites for attaining goals, despite the known risks of the adverse consequences of not completing these activities (Choi & Moran, 2009;Chu & Choi, 2005;Kühnel et al., 2016;Steel, 2007;Van Hooft et al., 2005;Wessel et al., 2019). Steel (2007), in his quantitative review, identified that approximately 20% of the general population procrastinate to some degree. ...
... A cognitive pathway: The mediating role of rumination We argue that employees will appraise the experience of procrastination during regular working hours as a goal failure and thus activate maladaptive cognitions such as rumination, which is characterized as a typical maladaptive cognitive processing style (Maltais et al., 2019;Massa et al., 2019;Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 2008). Specifically, when engaging in daily procrastination, employees delay important job tasks that are prerequisites for attaining goals (Choi & Moran, 2009;Chu & Choi, 2005;Wessel et al., 2019). As a result, it is difficult for them to accomplish present-day goals as expected, and they will likely regard themselves as incurable timewasters (Tuckman, 1991). ...
... Many authors question the utility of relying exclusively on trait-based self-report measures of procrastination, which sometimes have been found to be unrelated to actual procrastination behavior [4]. In this respect, our research strategy overrides the drawbacks of exclusively implementing self-report measures of task completion [52]. Nevertheless, since we consider procrastination as a behavioral strategy, we also employed the Pure Procrastination Scale [4]. ...
Procrastination may be seen as the outcome of a learning history of delaying the onset of task execution and its completion, both in terms of time and effort. In this study, we examined the performance of 55 university students who carried out two writing tasks consisting of summarizing two academic papers, each within a different time slot (i.e., five vs. three days to complete). The two assignments were part of the class activity and were perceived by participants as homogeneous in terms of text appreciation and difficulty, therefore making the two conditions comparable. The Pure Procrastination Scale was used to categorize subjects as high and low procrastinators, and to compare their performances. Results show that students who report more procrastination behaviors tend to increase their productivity as the deadline approaches, while low procrastinators are more productive throughout the time at their disposal, with peak activity during the intermediate day. Such a strategy was consistent across two deadlines (five vs. three days), and the difference between the two subgroups can be ascribed to the task-oriented coping style, which seems to be lacking in high-procrastinators.
... En segundo lugar, algunos investigadores que abordan la PAc desde un plano empírico indican, de forma contraria al punto anterior, que el grupo de procrastinadores activos presenta en mayor grado algunas características disfuncionales en comparación con los procrastinadores y noprocrastinadores (Cao, 2012). En tercer lugar, los estudios no muestran resultados consistentes sobre su asociación con el rendimiento académico (Pinxten, De Laet, Van Soom, Peeters, & Langie, 2019) por lo que sus beneficios para el estudiante no estarían completamente establecidos (Hensley, 2014;Wessel, Bradley, & Hood, 2019) pese a que se argumente que la procrastinación no es disfuncional (Abramowski, 2018;Choi & Moran, 2009). ...
El objetivo fue realizar un análisis psicométrico de la Nueva Escala de Procrastinación Activa (NEPA). La investigación instrumental contó con la participación de 472 estudiantes (66.1% mujeres; Medad = 20.138) de tres carreras profesionales de una universidad privada de Lima. Los resultados muestran que la estructura de cuatro dimensiones (preferencia por la presión, decisión intencional, habilidad para cumplir los plazos, y satisfacción con los resultados) presenta evidencia favorable (adecuados índices de ajuste, ítems con cargas factoriales moderadas y simplicidad factorial). Asimismo, la asociación bivariada entre las dimensiones del constructo y medidas de procrastinación pasiva, burnout académico, ansiedad y depresión fue significativa (r > .20), aunque una regresión jerárquica llevada a cabo posteriormente indicó que solo aporta varianza significativa al burnout académico (ΔR 2 > .10). Por último, todos los coeficientes de confiabilidad fueron aceptables (> .70). Se concluye que la NEPA cuenta con evidencia psicométrica favorable en estudiantes universitarios peruanos.
... However, an explanation for these results is that although primary school students believe that they will be able to complete the tasks even if they procrastinate, they face relative difficulties in handling multiple tasks at once, while finding themselves increasingly more sensitive to evaluations from others (Park and Lee, 2019). Furthermore, it was questioned whether active procrastination is indeed a positive behavior; some argue that active procrastination is not a form of procrastination, but rather a purposeful delay (Chowdhury and Pychyl, 2018;Pinxten et al., 2019), a selfdeceptive strategy associated with not engaging in behavioral delay (Wessel et al., 2019), or a form of J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f 페이지 23 / 50 self-handicapping (Cao, 2012). Therefore, primary school students with the "procrastination-approach" profile should be provided with short-term objectives that help them complete tasks at a given time, to ensure that they are actively participating in learning on time. ...
This study aimed to determine the relationship between self-determined motivation and time-related academic behavior (T-AB) of Korean primary school students, using a person-centered approach, and identified differences in the fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and level of achievement to explore the characteristics of each profile. This study is unique, as previous studies on this topic have used a variable-centered approach. To this end, the current study involved a latent profile analysis of 451 fifth and sixth graders (male: 48.3%, female: 51.7%) in three primary schools located in medium- and small-sized cities in the G province of Korea. First, the analysis resulted in four profiles of self-determined motivation: “low motivation” (3.3%), “controlled regulation” (43.5%), “external regulation dependent” (12.4%), and “autonomous” (40.9%). Second, three profiles were derived for T-AB: “low approach” (6.9%), “timely engagement-approach” (55.2%), and “procrastination-approach” (37.9%). Third, this study examined the relationship between the profiles of self-determined motivation and T-AB through a chi-squared test. “Low approach” represented the largest proportion in the “low motivation” profile of self-determined motivation; “procrastination-approach” represented the largest proportion in the “controlled regulation” and “external regulation dependent” profiles; and “timely engagement-approach” represented the largest proportion in the “autonomous” profile. Fourth, analysis of variance was performed (ANOVA) to understand the differences in the FNE and level of achievement of each derived type. Among the self-determined motivation profiles, “low motivation” was associated with the highest level of FNE, and “autonomous” had the highest level of achievement. Furthermore, among profiles of T-AB, “low approach” was associated with the highest level of FNE, and “timely engagement-approach” had the highest level of achievement. However, the interaction effect between self-determined motivation and T-AB profiles showed significant differences only for FNE that were highest in the “low motivation” profile of self-determined motivation and in the “low approach” profile of T-AB, and lowest in the “autonomous” and “timely engagement-approach” profiles. Lastly, the positive types of motivation and academic behavior in primary school students and some important educational implications are presented.
... These factors accounted for the majority (74%) of variance in procrastination (Steel et al., 2018, p. 13). Procrastinatory behaviour can be divided into two categories: controlled and uncontrolled procrastination, or as defined by Wessel et al. (2019), active (intentionally delayed) and passive or unintentionally delayed procrastination. Learners might be engaged in controlled procrastination purposefully. ...
The attractiveness of online games, social media, and mobile apps is frequently considered a challenge for online learners. Procrastinatory behaviour is often associated with a relative lack of self-regulatory skills that would otherwise help learners to resist distractions and to progress in learning. This paper reports a pilot study, conducted with 49 online learners, in which we describe the use of a virtual learning assistant as a tool for collecting online learners' web navigation behaviour. As this virtual learning assistant operates as an extension to the Chrome web browser, it is possible that data collection is achieved independently of, and beyond specific learning management systems. Furthermore, the study opens up the possibility of leveraging the collected dataset for visual learning analytics and pattern mining. To demonstrate the potential utility of the virtual learning assistant, we present an example for a detailed examination of a learner's web navigation behaviour. The results of the detailed examination of a single learner's web navigation behaviour over 333 days, presented as a case study, revealed the presence of seasonality in accessing certain web resources and stable sequential patterns in the learner's web navigation that can be associated with procrastinatory behaviour.
... While most studies mention that procrastination is harmful, as it leads to anxiety and adversely affects performance, our knowledge of procrastination outcomes remains limited. In addition, some studies have mentioned that procrastination could be a time management strategy, as employees procrastinate to stimulate their efficiency when facing work deadlines [71]. However, empirical research is still limited in this regard. ...
Procrastination is a prevalent phenomenon in organizations, yet limited knowledge is available on how situational antecedents influence it. Based on the conservation of resource theory, we explore how and when perceived red tape influences public sector employees’ procrastination behavior. Using survey data of 751 public sector employees from China, we revealed that perceived red tape is positively associated with procrastination behavior, and role overload partially mediates the relationship between perceived red tape and procrastination behavior. Employees’ perceived overqualification augments the relationship between role overload and procrastination. Further, the moderated mediation model test illuminates that the indirect effect of perceived red tape on procrastination through role overload depends on perceived overqualification, which means that higher perceived overqualification amplifies the indirect effect. Our research enriches the literature on public sector employees’ procrastination behavior.
... To understand the fluid and multifaceted phenomenon of procrastination, longitudinal research has been appearing. Wessel et al. (2019) observed behavioral delay longitudinally through tracking an undergraduate assignment over two weeks to reveal how passive and active procrastination each affected assignment completion. ...
Procrastination is generally perceived as a common behavioral tendency, and there are a growing number of literatures to discuss this complex phenomenon. To elucidate the overall perspective and keep abreast of emerging trends in procrastination research, this article presents a bibliometric analysis that investigates the panorama of overviews and intellectual structures of related research on procrastination. Using the Web of Science Database, we collected 1,635 articles published between 1990 and 2020 with a topic search on "procrastination" and created diverse research maps using CiteSpace and VOS viewer. Bibliometric analysis in our research consists of category distribution, keyword co-occurrence networks, main cluster analysis, betweenness centrality analysis, burst detection analysis, and structure variation analysis. We find that most research has focused on students' samples and has discussed the definition, classification, antecedents, consequences and interventions to procrastination, whereas procrastination in diverse contexts and groups remains to be investigated. Regarding the antecedents and consequences, research has mainly been about the relationship between procrastination and personality differences, such as the five-factor model, temperament, character, emotional intelligence, and impulsivity, but functions of external factors such as task characteristics and environmental conditions to procrastination have drawn scant attention. To identify the nature and characteristics of this behavior, randomized controlled trials are usually adopted in designing empirical research. However, the predominant use of self-reported data collection and for a certain point in time rather than longitudinal designs has limited the validation of some conclusions. Notably, there have been novel findings through burst detection analysis and structure variation analysis. Certain research themes have gained extraordinary attention in a short time period, have evolved progressively during the time span from 1990 to 2020, and involve the antecedents of procrastination in a temporal context, theoretical perspectives, research methods, and typical images of procrastinators. And emerging research themes that have been investigated include bedtime procrastination, failure of social media self-control, and clinical interventions. To our knowledge, this is almost the first time to conduct systematically bibliometric analysis on the topic of procrastination and findings can provide an in-depth view of the patterns and trends in procrastination research.
... The scale has previously shown a reliable internal consistency; Cronbach's α = .82 (Wessel et al., 2019). ...
The Dark Triad personality traits have previously been linked with dysfunctional types of procrastination (i.e., delaying certain tasks). From an evolutionary perspective, procrastination is recognized for facilitating a fast life history strategy. The present study investigated links between active and passive procrastination and the extended Dark Tetrad personality traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism, sadism). Participants (N = 357) were invited via Prolific data collection platform and Survey Circle research sites to participate in an online survey exploring personality and procrastination. Path analyses revealed that all Dark Tetrad traits positively predicted several aspects of active procrastination only. Narcissism emerged as the only negative predictor of passive procrastination. Rather than linking these traits with dysfunctional procrastination types only, our results highlight the importance of considering the Dark Tetrad about functional forms of procrastination, which may be more beneficial for facilitating a fast life history strategy.
... Studiile au identificat asocierea acestui tip de procrastinare cu stabilitatea emoțională, sentimentul de control al timpului și satisfacția cu viața Procrastinarea pasivă mai este numită și maladaptativă, fiind deseori asociată cu lipsa autonomiei, relații tensionate, un ideal în viață mai slab conturat. Ea prezice amânarea în comportament, pe când procrastinarea activă, nu (Wessel et al., 2019). ...
The article presents the relation between procrastination, considering the soldiering and cyberslacking dimensions and work satisfaction. Differences in procrastination are identified based on sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, and work seniority of the employees. The levels of procrastination of the employees do not differ based on the type of organisation (public or private sector).
... Overall results such as studies of examination results or employee's job performance and delivery are often the gauge of measuring procrastination. Studies had observed the relationship between active and passive procrastinators of which people who are delaying their work on the habits or routine (Wessel et al., 2019). Their findings suggested that there are some differences in terms of the behaviour of the people who are actively delaying their work as compared to others that do not delay work that will influence overall results and performance. ...
Internal control is a control mechanism that keeps in check the structure for it to operate within the intended parameters and target objectives. The paper offers an overview effectiveness of internal control on whether it achieves the purpose of control the organisation in reducing the laziness in public sector employees. The overall design approach is through the analysis of internal control systems from the Committee of Sponsoring Organisation (COSO) framework. Data was collected through the distribution of questionnaires towards 106 government organisations based on the contents of five components of internal control, which consist of the control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and monitoring activities. A total sample of 118 government employees returned the questionnaires. Through the analysis of the internal control system, the overview is then observed on whether it would improve overall organisational performance. The study indicated that only a single component of internal control systems (monitoring) is an effective mechanism towards reducing procrastination. The usefulness on whether having strong controls can improve overall organisation performance in the public sector provides a different perspective as government employees have different motivations from private sector employees. The paper contributes towards understanding human behaviour in terms of its reaction towards control systems. It is also from a public sector viewpoint of which internal control effectiveness must be strong in order to increase effectiveness.
... Second, the study relied on self-report measures, which may have produced socially desirable responses or other biases. To strengthen the present findings, behavioral measures of task postponement instead of self-report instruments should be used in future research (e.g., Wessel et al., 2019). Lastly, care should be taken in generalizing the present findings to Western (individualistic) cultures. ...
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.
... On the other hand passive procrastinators go for instant fulfillment of their needs, which can lessen stress in the short run but may lead to self-defeating behaviors. Wesel and Hood (2019) demonstrated that acitve procrastination does not contribute towards behavioral delay while comparing the effects of active and passive procrastination in a field study. With reference to personality traits Kim,Fernandez,and Terrier MENTAL HEALTH OF ACTIVE,PASSIVE AND NON PROCRASTINATORS 110 (2017) and Zhou (2018) observed different pattern of relationship for active and passive procrastinators for neuroticism and conscientiousness. ...
21 years). The preliminary analysis revealed a sound internal consistency in all the measures. The Findings highlighted that active and passive procrastination are distinct constructs with entirely different implications. There were significant negative correlations between active procrastination depression, anxiety and stress. However a positive relationship was found between passive procrastination and depression, anxiety and stress. Life satisfaction was found to be positively correlated with active procrastination whereas ngatively with passive procrastination. No significant differences were observed on demographic variables. One-way MANOVA revealed significant differences among non-procrastinators, active procrastinators, and passive procrastinators. Limitations and future directions for online data collection are also discussed.
... Prokrastinācijas rezultātā studenti kavē mācību satura apguvi, iegūst akadēmiskos parādus un nesasniedz savus karjeras mērķus. Tāpēc prokrastinācija arī mūsdienās arvien ir viena no aktuālajām pētījumu problēmām izglītības vidē, par ko liecina pēdējo gadu publikācijas (Bardach et al., 2019;Bäulke, Eckerlein, & Dresel, 2018;Cheung & Ng, 2019;Costa, Bispo, & Pereira, 2018;Dotya et al., 2020;Eisenbeck, Carreno, & Ucles-Juarez, 2019;Fernie et al., 2019;Gubbels, Put, & Assink, 2019;Kljajic & Gaudreau, 2018;Silkāne, 2018;Wessel, Bradley, & Hood, 2019;Wieland et al., 2018). ...
One of the problems that needs to be solved in the modern education is the students' procrastination phenomenon. Procrastination is one of the main studying influence factors which results in students delaying learning, obtaining academic debts and being exposed to dropout risk before reaching their career goals. There is a close correlation between students' procrastination and dropout phenomena because as a result of procrastination, students are unable to plan its own time and efficiently self-manage its activities in today's higher education environment. Therefore the aim of the study was to substantiate the phenomenon of academic procrastination in the higher education environment theoretically by outlining the problem solving perspective. The used research methods were theoretical analysis and evaluation of scientific literature as well as reflection of experience. The results of the study prove that academic procrastination is: 1) avoiding various types of study work that is often limited in time, postponing various types of activities to a later, often indefinite period; 2) avoiding decision-making and the consequences of one’s actions and 3) avoiding responsibility. Academic procrastination is a kind of defense mechanism that is triggered by different types of inner personality factors. In order to decrease the influence of procrastination that it leaves on studies and career goals, within career development guidance in university, students should be helped to cognize themselves by self-evaluating their level of procrastination using one of the scientific and recognized methods for evaluating the procrastination level. The academic and research experience of the authors allows to conclude that by providing career development guidance to students, it is possible not only to solve the procrastination problem, but at the same time to prevent the risk of dropping out as well.
... Procrastination relates to delays that are unjustified, that cannot be defended on grounds of more urgent or important commitments [20]. Procrastination is formally defined as "the voluntary delay of an intended and necessary and/or important activity, despite expecting potential negative consequences that outweigh the positive consequences of the delay" [21]. ...
Due to its multidisciplinary and dynamic nature, it is challenging to design Software Engineering (SE) educational material. To do so, universities must consider the complex working environments; recent technologies; and tools and skills, in order to prepare students to fulfill the expectations of the software industry. This study was carried out in a Brazilian private university, specifically in courses called Interdisciplinary Software Project (ISP) of the SE major. These courses are project-based, conducted by two professors at the same time in classroom, following a Scrum-like process. The objective of this study was to characterize how students work and collaborate in a group environment where agile development is used as well as how their behavior reflect on the use of Software Configuration Management (SCM) practices. In order to achieve this objective, the study analyzed 38 students’ code repositories. This study has found out that students procrastinate sprint work, since 51% of the commits are performed when less than 20% of the sprint time is left. We have also observed that in 87% of the groups just one member is a top contributor and would harm the projects’ outcomes if he/she left the project. In terms of SCM practices, we have identified that most commits comprised changes in up to three files. Moreover, most commit messages are less than 10 words long. This could mean that students do not commit many alterations at the same time but could make better use of messages in order to facilitate the comprehension of alterations by other members.
In this study, we explored whether there are different types of employee procrastination. A total of 2258 multinatinal corporation full-time employees (M = 40.32 years, 46.4% male) took part in the study. Latent class analysis was implemented using 15 categorical adult procrastination items to explore classes of employee procrastination. Multinomial logistic regression was conducted to ascertain whether employee procrastination classes could be differentiated by life satisfaction and demographic variables (i.e., income). The results showed three classes regarding the employee procrastination: lowest procrastination group, lower procrastination group, and high procrastination group. Life satisfaction, age, and whether or not one has kids were predictive of group membership in certain procrastination groups compared to high procrastination group. Preventative public policy and intervention strategies designed to overcome procrastination in multinational corporation employees should improve life satisfaction and should be tailored to the type-specific reasons (e.g. high procrastination group).
Bu araştırmanın amacı İstemsiz Erteleme Ölçeği’nin geçerlik ve güvenirlik analizlerinin yapılarak Türkçeye uyarlanmasının sağlanmasıdır. Bu amaçla yürütülen araştırmanın çalışma grubunu 2017-2018 öğretim yılında Bayburt Üniversitesi ve Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi’nde öğrenim gören 889 üniversite öğrencisi oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak Kişisel Bilgi Formu, Genel Erteleme Ölçeği, İstemsiz Erteleme Ölçeği ve Depresyon Anksiyete Stres Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırma kapsamında elde edilen verilen analizi aşamasında ise açımlayıcı faktör analizi, doğrulayıcı faktör analizi (DFA), korelasyon analizi ve bağımsız gruplar için t testi analizlerinden yararlanılmıştır. Yapılan AFA sonucunda İstemsiz Erteleme Ölçeği’nin tek faktörlü bir yapıya sahip olduğu bulunmuştur. DFA sonucunda ise belirlenen yapının doğrulandığı görülmüştür (χ2= 34.52, Sd= 8, CFI= .98, NFI= .97, SRMR= .041, RMSEA=.071). Araştırmada ölçüt bağıntılı geçerliğin tespit edilmesi amacıyla yapılan korelasyon analizi sonucunda istemsiz erteleme düzeyleri ile anksiyete, depresyon, stres ve genel erteleme düzeyleri arasında pozitif yönde anlamlı ilişkiler olduğu belirlenmiştir. İstemsiz Erteleme Ölçeği’nin güvenirlik analizleri kapsamında yürütülen çalışma sonucunda ise iç tutarlık katsayısı .77 olarak bulunmuştur. Bunun yanı sıra ölçeğin iki yarı test korelasyonu .73 olarak hesaplanmıştır.
Purpose
The present research was based on an online questionnaire. A total of 256 undergraduate psychology students aged 18–44 ( M = 23.61; SD = 0.57) from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina took part in the study (137 women; 53.3%). A sociodemographic and academic survey and the locally adapted versions of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI), the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and the Tuckman Procrastination Scale were used in this study. Participants were contacted by an email advertisement in which the main purpose of the study was explained, and the instruments remained open from September to November of 2021. Descriptive analyses – means, standard deviations and frequencies – were calculated using IBM SPSS v.25, and mediation and moderation analyses were conducted on PROCESS macro.
Design/methodology/approach
Academic achievement has always been a concern in the high undergraduate's community. Numerous studies have addressed psychological aspects of students' academic life; however, a past-positive (PP) time perspective, a warm and sentimental view of past events that took place in someone's life, has not been profoundly contemplated. The fact that students might organize their activities, employ different strategies to fulfill their tasks and motivate themselves to pursue their academic goals based primarily on their past experiences calls the attention on conducting research on this time perspective dimension and its relationship with procrastination and academic motivation. It was hypothesized that the PP time perspective would positively predict academic achievement via the mediation of academic motivation in a way that the potentiate effect of PP time perspective on academic achievement would be increased in highly motivated students, but this effect would be reduced in less motivated students. Also, it was hypothesized that the relationship between motivation and academic achievement would be negatively moderated by procrastination such that academic achievement would increase with academic motivation; however, that increase would be attenuated by procrastination.
Findings
Academic achievement was positively associated with PP time perspective ( r = 0.39; p < 0.01) and academic motivation (0.36; p < 0.01) and negatively associated with procrastination ( r = −0.15; p < 0.05). Results showed that academic motivation mediated the relationship between PP time perspective and academic achievement ( ß = 1.37; R ² = 0.21; p < 0.001). Additionally, procrastination moderated the relationship between academic motivation and academic achievement but only at the low ( ß = 0.76; p < 0.001) and medium ( ß = 0.44; p < 0.001) levels of procrastination, while at high levels of procrastination, that relationship was not statistically significant ( ß = 0.11; p > 0.05).
Originality/value
This is the first study that examined the mediated role of academic motivation in the relationship between PP time perspective and academic achievement and that included the moderating role of procrastination.
Academic procrastination in college students is a common phenomenon, although procrastination’s negative impacts were well known. This study aimed to examine the role of self-regulation in mediating the correlation between mindfulness and academic procrastination. Data were collected by distributing online questionnaires to college students from various universities in Indonesia (n = 305). The sampling technique used was convenience sampling. Instruments used in the research were the Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale, the Short form of Self-regulation Questionnaire, and the Academic Procrastination Scale. The regression and mediation analyses were held. Results showed that self-regulation partially mediated the correlation between mindfulness and academic procrastination. Increasing in dispositional mindfulness helps college students regulate themselves, thereby reducing the tendency to procrastinate. The implications and limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are discussed.Keywords: academic procrastination; college students; mindfulness; self-regulation.
AbstrakProkrastinasi akademik pada mahasiswa merupakan fenomena yang umum terjadi, meskipun dampak negatif prokrastinasi telah banyak diketahui. Penelitian ini bertujuan menguji peran regulasi diri dalam memediasi hubungan antara mindfulness dan prokrastinasi akademik. Pengambilan data dilakukan melalui penyebaran kuesioner secara daring kepada mahasiswa di berbagai perguruan tinggi di Indonesia (n=305). Teknik sampling yang digunakan adalah convenience sampling. Penelitian ini menggunakan alat ukur Mindfulness Attention and Awareness Scale, Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire, dan Academic Procrastination Scale. Hasil uji regresi dan uji mediasi menunjukkan regulasi diri memediasi korelasi antara mindfulness dan prokrastinasi akademik secara parsial. Peningkatan kondisi kesadaran pada mindfulness membantu mahasiswa meregulasi dirinya, sehingga mengurangi kecenderungan untuk melakukan prokrastinasi akademik. Implikasi dan keterbatasan penelitian serta saran untuk penelitian selanjutnya didiskusikan.Kata kunci: mahasiswa; mindfulness; prokrastinasi akademik; regulasi diri.
Delayed graduation among graduate students constitutes an educational issue that influences individual career development; however, the severity of this issue has increased over time. To understand the effect of delayed graduation from the student perspective, this study adapted the theory of belief–action–outcome to examine the correlations among personalities, overconfidence, academic procrastination, and frequency of seeking research advice—all of which influence graduate students’ study duration. Therefore, this study adopted convenience sampling to administer questionnaires, to which 236 valid responses were collected. After the reliability and validity test, confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling was performed. The results suggested that extraversion is positively related to overconfidence and procrastination, neuroticism is negatively related to overconfidence and procrastination, overconfidence and procrastination are negatively related to the frequency of advice seeking, and the frequency of advice seeking was negatively related to study duration. According to this study, professors guiding graduate students with their thesis should consider their different personalities and offer more frequent seminars for counseling.
Háttér és célkitűzések
A halogató viselkedés kutatásában egyre hangsúlyosabb szerepet kap a maladaptív passzív halogatás és a hatékony stratégiaként alkalmazható aktív halogatás elkülönítése. Tanulmányunk célja a Choi és Moran (2009) által kidolgozott Aktív-Passzív Halogatás Kérdőív magyar változatának (Szabó, 2012) pszichometriai tesztelése volt. Módszer: Magyar egyetemi hallgatókból álló mintán (N = 843) ellenőriztük a kérdőív struktúráját, reliabilitását és kapcsolatát más pszichológiai tényezőkkel.
Eredmények
A feltáró és megerősítő faktorelemzések alapján egy passzív és egy aktív halogatás alskála jelenik meg a korábbiakban használt ötfaktoros struktúrával szemben. Az alskálák belső megbízhatósága jónak tekinthető. Az aktív halogatás pozitív, míg a passzív halogatás negatív kapcsolatban áll az önértékeléssel és a tanulási énhatékonysággal. Az időperspektívát tekintve a passzív halogatás a múlt-negatív orientációval pozitív, míg a jövőorientációval negatív együtt járást mutat. A halogatásfaktorokon alapuló klaszterelemzés szerint kialakított csoportok között különbség van a tanulási eredmény tekintetében. A legeredményesebbek a nem halogatók csoportjába tartozók, őket követik az aktív és a passzív halogatók.
Következtetések
Az eredmények alapján kapott nyolcitemes kérdőív alkalmas a klasszikus passzív halogatás, illetve az időnyomás-preferencia kapcsán kialakuló aktív halogatás elkülönítésére. Azonban az eredeti modellben használt további aktívhalogatás-típusok feltárására más eszközök kidolgozása szükséges.
Purpose
Procrastination is regularly presented as a behavior to avoid, but this paper argues that individuals who strategically engage in procrastination may experience unique performance benefits that non-procrastinators do not. The purpose of this paper is to present a balanced framework from which procrastination, beginning with a review of the procrastination performance literature and historical stance on the behavior, can be understood.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents and reviews the use of procrastination in organizations.
Findings
Our findings indicate that while procrastination can be dysfunctional, it can prove to be strategically valuable. To summarize, this paper recommends a holistic conceptualization of procrastination that refrains from value judgment and calls for rethinking the stigma associated with the behavior.
Originality/value
This paper highlights both the theoretical and practical importance of exploring the benefits of procrastination in an organizational context.
Objective - Integrity violations can result in small or large financial losses for a community or organisation. These economic losses can be the result of small actions, such as laziness or no determination of work ethics, or large losses, such as corruption practices that can cause an organisation to lose large amounts of money and suffer damage to their reputation. The study will assess the levels of public sector integrity violations among Malaysian government employees. Methodology/Technique – Previous studies have shown that serious integrity violations, such as fraud, result in major economic loss to a country. This paper explores the perceptions of 616 Malaysian government civil servants who were surveyed regarding matters of integrity violations in their working environment. Surveys were distributed using mail and online distribution formats. The level of integrity violations within the respondent’s organisations were evaluated as weak, mild or strong. Finding - The results indicate that employees in Malaysia are focused on their personal and family relationships despite the fact that this is considered as integrity violations within their organisation. Novelty - This research provides an overview of the current stage of Malaysian integrity violations and demonstrates the need for improvement in this area. The research also provides valuable insight to managers to improve their control over the organisation. Type of Paper: Empirical
The results of three studies demonstrating reduction of procrastination in interventions groups were presented, along with implications for the field.
Today's constant availability of media content provides users with various recreational resources. It may also challenge self-control, however, once media exposure conflicts with other goals and obligations. How media users deal with these self-regulatory chances and risks in their daily lives is largely unknown. Our study addressed the predictors and consequences of recreational and procrastinatory media use using experience sampling methodology (N = 215; 1,094 media use episodes). Results suggest that trait (self-control, performance goal orientation) as well as state variables (exhaustion) are significant predictors of media use for recovery versus procrastination. Whereas recreational media use showed a positive effect on entertainment, which in turn enhanced subjective well-being, negative self-evaluation elicited by procrastinatory media use negatively affected well-being.
Procrastination affects many people and impacts overall effectiveness of individuals and organisations. While some studies have examined the correlates of procrastination in terms of impacts on well-being (including depression and anxiety) and on performance, few studies have examined procrastination as a dichotomous construct, with most seeing procrastination as unifactorial. One such study defining procrastination as dichotomous was that of Chu and Choi (2005). The current study examines how psychological well-being is related to the concepts of active procrastination and passive (traditional) procrastination. Active and passive procrastination are related insignificantly to each other (we are not dealing with one dimension); but what would be the relationships among psychological well-being, active procrastination and passive procrastination? The different forms of procrastination may have different relationships to well-being and research is scarce; and further, treatment processes for avoiding the negative effects of procrastination should be tailored to the different forms of procrastination. It was hypothesised that psychological well-being would be related positively to active procrastination and negatively to passive procrastination. To answer this question, 152 university students aged between 18 and 54, mean age of 23.3 (SD = 18) completed the Active Procrastination Scale, the Passive Procrastination Scale, and Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being. Standard multiple regression was used, linking psychological well-being, age, gender, active and passive procrastination. The findings show active and passive procrastination are in fact separate constructs and need to be treated differently. Being an active procrastinator can be a sign of healthy well-being.
Procrastination is a self-regulatory failure, whose costs are debated. Here, we establish its impact in the workplace. Using an Internet sample, we assessed 22,053 individuals in terms of their sex, employment status, employment duration, income, occupational attainment and level of procrastination. High levels of procrastination is associated with lower salaries, shorter durations of employment, and a greater likelihood of being unemployed or under employed rather than working full-time. Also, procrastination partially mediates sex's relationship with these work variables. Women tend to procrastinate less than men, evidently giving women an employment advantage. If women procrastinated the same as men, there should be 1.5 million fewer women in full-time employment in the US. alone. Determining the causes of procrastination in the workplace, we also examined it at an occupational level. The results strongly support the gravitational hypothesis: jobs that require higher levels of motivational skills are less likely to retain procrastinators. However, there was some support that jobs can foster procrastination. Procrastinators tend to have jobs that are lower in intrinsically rewarding qualities.
Explored the prevalence of avoidant, arousal, and decisional types of procrastination among 64 members of a public gathering, 54 professionals, 59 bank employees, and 34 university managers. At 4 public meetings, Ss (mean age 47.6 yrs) completed measures of demography and decisional, avoidant, and arousal procrastination. Results show that about 20% of the adult community population claimed to be chronic procrastinators, with the highest rates of all 3 procrastination types reported by members of the general public compared to other groups. Ss who were separated, divorced, or widowed reported higher rates of procrastination (independent of number of children) than Ss who were currently married or never married. Ss with high school education or less reported higher rates of decisional procrastination than Ss with college or postcollege educations. Occupational groups differed on decisional procrastination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigated the frequency of 342 college students' procrastination on academic tasks and the reasons for procrastination behavior. A high percentage of Ss reported problems with procrastination on several specific academic tasks. Self-reported procrastination was positively correlated with the number of self-paced quizzes Ss took late in the semester and with participation in an experimental session offered late in the semester. A factor analysis of the reasons for procrastination Ss listed in a procrastination assessment scale indicated that the factors Fear of Failure and Aversiveness of the Task accounted for most of the variance. A small but very homogeneous group of Ss endorsed items on the Fear of Failure factor that correlated significantly with self-report measures of depression, irrational cognitions, low self-esteem, delayed study behavior, anxiety, and lack of assertion. A larger and relatively heterogeneous group of Ss reported procrastinating as a result of aversiveness of the task. The Aversiveness of the Task factor correlated significantly with depression, irrational cognitions, low self-esteem, and delayed study behavior. Results indicate that procrastination is not solely a deficit in study habits or time management, but involves a complex interaction of behavioral, cognitive, and affective components. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Progress toward understanding human behavior has been hindered by discipline-bound theories, dividing our efforts. Fortunately, these separate endeavors are converging and can be effectively integrated. Focusing on the fundamental features of picoeconomics. expectancy theory, cumulative prospect theory, and need theory, we construct a temporal motivational theory (TMT). TMT appears consistent with the major findings from many other investigations, including psychobiology and behaviorism. The potential implications of TMT are numerous, affecting our understanding on a wide range of topics, including group behavior, job design, stock market behavior, and goal setting.
This meta-analysis contains the correlations of 121 studies examining the relation between procrastination and personality variables, motives, affect, and performance. The largest negative effect sizes were found in relation to conscientiousness and self-efficacy, and the largest positive relation was found with self-handicapping. Affect was moderately related, as well as performance outcomes, and motives were weakly correlated. Many of the effect size categories were heterogeneous, indicating that moderators may play a role. However, the majority of studies did not account for moderators. It is argued that this is a serious shortcoming and that a different type of research is needed to study procrastination in a meaningful way.
Procrastination is increasingly becoming a topic of interest across multiple fields, from finance (as people put off dealing with their money troubles) to health (as people delay seeing their doctors). Still, there is debate about what exactly procrastination is and how it should be operationalized. The fields of neuroscience and behavioral economics point to procrastination as an irrational delay, where we put off despite being worse off. A competing tripartite model has divided procrastination into avoidance, arousal, and decisional. The validity of the avoidance, arousal and decisional model is reviewed here, first meta-analytically and then factor analytically, using a large sample exceeding 4000 respondents. The evidence does not support the tripartite model, particularly the avoidant and arousal distinction, instead indicating that procrastination is indeed an irrational delay. A new scale consistent with this conceptualization, the Pure Procrastination Scale, is derived from the factor analysis, showing improved correlations with key constructs, such as SWB. This new scale provides the field of procrastination with an improved measurement base, likely increasing the usefulness of our future findings.
Researchers and practitioners have long regarded procrastination as a self-handicapping and dysfunctional behavior. In the present study, the authors proposed that not all procrastination behaviors either are harmful or lead to negative consequences. Specifically, the authors differentiated two types of procrastinators: passive procrastinators versus active procrastinators. Passive procrastinators are procrastinators in the traditional sense. They are paralyzed by their indecision to act and fail to complete tasks on time. In contrast, active procrastinators are a "positive" type of procrastinator. They prefer to work under pressure, and they make deliberate decisions to procrastinate. The present results showed that although active procrastinators procrastinate to the same degree as passive procrastinators, they are more similar to nonprocrastinators than to passive procrastinators in terms of purposive use of time, control of time, self-efficacy belief, coping styles, and outcomes including academic performance. The present findings offer a more sophisticated understanding of procrastination behavior and indicate a need to reevaluate its implications for outcomes of individuals.
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.
Although research demonstrates that procrastination is an instance of self-regulation failure with deleterious consequences, Chu and Choi (2005) have defined a new construct called active procrastination. Active procrastination is the deliberate deferral of tasks to the last minute resulting in positive outcomes despite the delay. The present study examined and challenged the construct validity of active procrastination. We used key defining characteristics of procrastination (e.g., self-regulation, intention-action gap), correlates (e.g., self-efficacy beliefs, conscientiousness) and related outcomes (e.g., stress, depression) as identified in the extant research literature to re-examine the relations that define the construct's nomological network. Results revealed that active procrastination is heterogeneous in nature consisting of two theoretically and empirically distinct constructs: purposeful and arousal delay. Correlations and a Principle Components Analysis failed to replicate the nomological network of active procrastination demonstrated in previous research, and we argue that it is more appropriately construed as a deliberate delay that is purposeful, not procrastination. Limitations associated with the active procrastination construct, empirical evidence and the corresponding inferences in developing the Active Procrastination Scale are discussed.
Perfectionistic concerns are putative risk factors for procrastination. Even so, rigorously tested models explaining why perfectionistic concerns result in procrastination are scarce. To address this our study proposed, tested, and supported a model explaining why perfectionistic concerns give rise to procrastination. This model posits perfectionistic concerns generate discrepancies (a subjective sense of falling short of one’s own standards), which in turn trigger procrastination. Undergraduates (N = 317) completed measures of perfectionism. The following day, participants completed online questionnaires measuring discrepancies and procrastination, twice a day, for seven consecutive days. Model predictions were supported. Perfectionistic concerns had a moderate positive association with procrastination. Tests of mediation suggested perfectionistic concerns contributed to procrastination through discrepancies. And results supported the incremental validity of our model beyond perfectionistic strivings. Findings lend credence to theoretical accounts suggesting perfectionistic concerns generate a persistent paralytic gap between the actual and the ideal self that contributes to procrastinatory behavior.
Available online xxxx Our study examines the nomological network of active procrastination in comparison with passive procrastination. In particular, we examine the effects of the five factor model with the aim to understand which personality traits predict academic procrastination. We also test the effect of passive and active procrastination on academic performance to study the unique contribution of each type of procrastination. In a sample of 178 university students in Switzerland, we find that extraversion and neuroticism are related to active procrastination. Furthermore , active procrastination predicts GPA to a much greater extent than the five factor model and passive procrastination.
In this chapter, we explore how procrastination functions as an emotion-regulation strategy that provides short-term mood repair. We begin by explaining the link between emotion regulation and procrastination, drawing on more general research on self-regulation that demonstrates how regulating moods and feeling states can lead to a failure of self-control. Here we explain how, when faced with aversive tasks, the priority of mood repair results in the task avoidance we label procrastination. Having established the link between emotion regulation and procrastination, we then turn to the rapidly expanding research literature on emotion regulation with a particular emphasis on the conceptual frameworks developed by Gross (2013, 2014) and Koole (2009). We summarize how both process and function perspectives allow us to understand why it is that the present self engages in self-defeating delay at the expense of the future self. Situating procrastination as a form of emotion regulation that provides a short-term hedonic shift helps us to understand the paradoxical conflict between the present self and the future self when we procrastinate. Based on this emotion-regulation perspective, we then discuss avenues for future research with a focus on well-being and health.
The potential bias in time estimation known as the planning fallacy was examined for 32 undergraduate students in relation to exam preparation. Students provided estimates of their study plans for the 8 days prior to two midterm exams. These estimates were compared to their study logs for the same period using Ordinal Pattern Analysis. The results indicate that overall students did not demonstrate optimistic biases as predicted by the planning fallacy. Moreover, a median split of the sample on measures of procrastination indicated that the students scoring high on procrastination were just as accurate in their study time predictions as low-scoring participants. Students scoring high on procrastination did commence studying later and studied significantly less than students in the low-procrastination group. No significant difference between these groups was found on exam performance. These results are discussed in relation to the nature of academic tasks, the significance of externally imposed deadlines and the effects of procrastination on task performance.
This is the first book to demonstrate how to use the multilevel and longitudinal modeling techniques available in IBM SPSS Version 18. The authors tap the power of SPSS's Mixed Models routine to provide an elegant and accessible approach to these models. Readers who have learned statistics using this software will no longer have to adapt to a new program to conduct quality multilevel and longitudinal analyses. Annotated screen shots with all of the key output provide readers with a step-by-step understanding of each technique as they are shown how to navigate through the program. Diagnostic tools, data management issues, and related graphics are introduced throughout. SPSS commands show the flow of the menu structure and how to facilitate model building. Annotated syntax is also available for those who prefer this approach. Most chapters feature an extended example illustrating the logic of model development. These examples show readers the context and rationale of the research questions and the steps around which the analyses are structured. The data used in the text and syntax examples are available at http://www.psypress.com/multilevel-modeling-techniques/.
Personality is an important epidemiological factor for understanding health outcomes. This study investigated the associations of trait procrastination with hypertension and cardiovascular disease (HT/CVD) and maladaptive coping by testing an extension of the procrastination-health model among individuals with and without HT/CVD. Individuals with self-reported HT/CVD (N = 182) and healthy controls (N = 564), from a community sample, completed an online survey including measures of personality, coping, and health outcomes. Logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic and higher order personality factors found that older age, lower education level and higher procrastination scores were associated with HT/CVD. Moderated mediation analyses with bootstrapping revealed that procrastination was more strongly associated with maladaptive coping behaviours in participants with HT/CVD than the healthy controls, and the indirect effects on stress through maladaptive coping were larger for the HT/CVD sample. Results suggest procrastination is a vulnerability factor for poor adjustment to and management of HT/CVD.
This study examined passive and active procrastination among undergraduate anatomy students in terms of background variables, motivational beliefs (i.e., belief about the speed of knowledge acquisition, self-efficacy, and task value), and grades. Factor analysis revealed three discrete factors of active procrastination, one of which was closely tied to passive procrastination and behavioral procrastination. Analyses indicated that the relations to motivational beliefs and grades were markedly different for, on the one hand, two factors of active procrastination (positive relations) and, on the other hand, passive procrastination and the third factor of active procrastination (negative relations). After controlling for academic ability, only passive procrastination was a statistically significant predictor of grades. Results imply that the dimensions of active procrastination that appear adaptive for learning may not reflect behavioral procrastination, whereas the dimension of active procrastination that involves behavioral procrastination lacks adaptive associations.
Using a series of computer-based assignments, we examined whether students’ submission patterns revealed a hyperbolic pattern of temporal discounting, such that few assignments are submitted far ahead of the deadline and submission of assignments accelerates at an increasing rate as the deadline becomes imminent. We further examined whether variables related to self-regulation – namely, self-reported procrastination, implementation intentions, say-do correspondence, and perceived academic control – correlated with behavioural postponement. Results revealed strong behavioural evidence of temporal discounting, especially among those who identified themselves as procrastinators. Among the self-regulation measures, only say-do correspondence consistently correlated with procrastination.
A growing body of research suggests that academic procrastination is a dynamic behavior that follows a curvilinear trajectory over time. In this research, we examined whether there are inter-individual differences in this trajectory, the extent to which these differences can be predicted by other variables, and the relationship between temporal changes in procrastination and academic outcomes. We collected multi-wave data from 303 students regarding their actual procrastination behavior and test performance during an academic semester, as well as single measurements of their self-reported levels of trait procrastination, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. Using latent growth curve modeling, we found that high and low procrastinators followed the same trajectory over time, that the self-report measures did not predict temporal changes in procrastination and test performance, and that procrastination behavior was negatively related to test performance throughout the semester. The implications of these findings for trait-based theories of procrastination, and the measurement of procrastination in general, are discussed.
Describes the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), a research procedure that consists of asking individuals to provide systematic self-reports at random occasions during the waking hours of a normal week. Files created from sets of these self-reports from a sample of individuals become an archival file of daily experience. The ESM obtains information about the private as well as the public aspects of individuals' lives, secures data about behavioral and intrapsychic aspects of daily activity, and obtains reports about people's experiences as they occur, thereby minimizing the effects of reliance on memory and reconstruction. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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.
Procrastination has been studied as a dysfunctional, self-effacing behavior that ultimately results in undesirable outcomes. However, A. H. C. Chu and J. N. Choi (2005) found a different form of procrastination (i.e., active procrastination) that leads to desirable outcomes. The construct of active procrastination has a high potential to expand the time management literature and is likely to be adopted by researchers in multiple areas of psychology. To facilitate the research on this new construct and its further integration into the literature, the authors developed and validated a new, expanded measure of active procrastination that reliably assesses its four dimensions. Using this new measure of active procrastination, they further examined its nomological network. The new 16-item measure is a critical step toward further empirical investigation of active procrastination.