Psychopathy and procrastination: Triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy and its relations to active and passive procrastination

Abstract

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.

Time Wasters?

“…Items were summed to create total indexes for each dimension. This scale has previously demonstrated reliable internal consistency; Cronbach’s α = .82 (Sanecka, 2020).…”

“…We explored active procrastination across four dimensions: intentional delay, outcome satisfaction, time pressure preference, and the ability to meet deadlines, devised by Choi and Moran (2009). In line with Sanecka (2020), we expected psychopathy to emerge as a positive predictor of intentional procrastination, and we further expected Machiavellianism and narcissism to emerge as positive predictors of intentional procrastination. As less is known about sadism in relation to life-history strategies and its lower-level characteristics, we kept more of an open mind about sadism and active procrastination.…”

“…Active procrastination is identified as being a form of intentional delay and is considered adaptive, often providing positive results, such as the ability to successfully meet deadlines, produce desired outcomes, with active procrastinators preferring to work under time pressure, whilst still producing satisfactory outcomes (Choi & Moran, 2009). Such intentional delaying of tasks is argued to function in ways that regulate individual motivations and the prioritising of workloads (Sanecka, 2020). Although research exists on the relations between psychopathy, Machiavellianism, narcissism and the traditional dysfunctional forms of procrastination (Lyons & Rice, 2014), the findings reveal weak links only.…”

“…It is therefore possible that stronger links may emerge between the Dark Tetrad traits and active procrastination, particularly amongst traits more strongly linked with a fast LHS. Apart from Sanecka (2020), who explored active procrastination in relation to psychopathy only, we are not aware of any research that has investigated this functional form of procrastination across the Dark Tetrad personality traits.…”

Análisis psicométrico de la nueva escala de procrastinación activa en estudiantes universitarios peruanos

“…En el plano personal, la PAc se asocia con un mejor uso del tiempo, así como con el uso de estrategias de afrontamiento más adaptativas en comparación a que quienes presentan PP (Choi & Moran, 2009). Asimismo, se relaciona directamente con la satisfacción con la vida (Choi & Moran, 2009;Chu & Choi, 2005), creatividad (Liu, Pan, Luo, Wang, & Pang, 2017), autoeficacia (Chowdhury & Pychyl, 2018;Chu & Choi, 2005;Sanecka, 2022) y el bienestar psicológico (Habelrih & Hicks, 2015), y se asocia a nivel general (es decir, usando la puntuación total) inversamente con el estrés y la depresión (Chowdhury & Pychyl, 2018;Chu & Choi, 2005), aunque cabe precisar que de forma específica, es decir, a nivel de dimensiones solo se encontraron resultados en un estudio que reportó una correlación nula entre ansiedad ante exámenes y DI (r = -.072; Kim & Seo, 2013), y negativa con PP (r = -.241; Kim & Seo, 2013).…”