Academic Procrastination: Psychological Antecedents Revisited

Abstract

Objective: Taking Beswick, Rothblum, and Mann's seminal paper on academic procrastination as a starting point, we provide an updated review of academic procrastination and consolidate this knowledge with a procrastination typology. The goal of our study was to show that while the degree of procrastination is largely contingent on the trait of conscientiousness, the other four major personality traits determine how procrastination manifests. According to implications of need theory, we operationalised these four traits by the reasons students gave and the activities students pursued while procrastinating. Method: Participants were 167 students of an undergraduate introductory psychology course. It was designed as a self-directed computerised course enabled considerable amounts of procrastination. Students filled out a Big Five Inventory and wrote a short essay detailing: (a) what reason they saw as causing them to procrastinate, and (b) what activities they pursued while procrastinating. The reasons and activities were coded according to their fit to the personality traits. Results: Conscientiousness and its facets were the strongest correlates with procrastination. Moreover, in regression analyses, the other personality traits did not incrementally predict procrastination. However, the reasons ascribed to procrastination and the off-task activities pursued reflected the other personality traits. Conclusion: While conscientiousness is the core for all procrastination types, the other personality traits determine its phenomenology. Thus, the prominent understanding of a neurotic procrastinator might be misleading for research and practice. In fact, counsellors need to first address the conscientiousness core of procrastination and then match the subsequent interventions to the specific procrastination type.

Loneliness and Problematic Internet Use (PIU) as Causes of Academic Procrastination

“…First antecedence is personality trait (Steel & Klingsieck, 2016), such as neuroticism is find as a source of procrastination because of anxious trait lead to procrastinate action (Steel, 2007), and procrastination become the way to avoid anxiety (Steel, Brothen, & Warmbach, 2001). Second antecedence is motivational aspects and volitional aspects including lack of self-control (Steel & Klingsieck, 2016;Tuckman, 1991). Third antecedence is clinical aspects such as depression, anxiety, and stress.…”

“…Third antecedence is clinical aspects such as depression, anxiety, and stress. And the fourth antecedence is situational aspect such as task characteristics and teacher characteristics (Steel & Klingsieck, 2016). It is understood that academic procrastination has complex antecedence.…”

Intervention to reduce procrastination in first-year students: Preliminary results from a Norwegian study

“…Students with moderate or low procrastination scores may feel little need to change, and smaller groups with specific needs would enable researchers to adapt course contents to such needs. Procrastinators differ (e.g., Rozental et al, 2015;Steel & Klingsieck, 2016), and interventions adapted to specific needs may be expected to work better than general interventions. For example, some students may procrastinate because of fear of failure and worries related to highperformance standards (perfectionism), whereas procrastination in others may be related to general withdrawal and avoidance.…”

Procrastinación académica, afrontamiento de la ansiedad pre-examen y rendimiento académico en estudiantes de psicología: análisis preliminar

“…La PA se define como la acción de retrasar voluntaria e innecesariamente la realización de tareas al punto de experimentar malestar subjetivo (Clariana, Cladellas, Badía, & Gotzens, 2011;Solomon & Rothblum, 1984;Steel, 2007;Steel & Klingsieck, 2016). Si bien la PA se asocia normalmente al componente ligado a la acción (Postergación de actividades), el núcleo de la conducta procrastinadora es la falla en los procesos de autorregulación que dificultan la organización y manejo del tiempo (Balkis & Duru, 2009;Knaus, 2002;Steel, 2007;Wolters, 2003).…”