Academic Procrastination, Self-Regulation, Anxiety and Personality (ASAP): 'Some' Day is not a Day of the Week

Abstract

Academic procrastination is analogous to a common cold: pervasive and with no established cure. Students experience repercussions that are not inclusive to academic performance, but rather, are experienced across mental, physical, social and emotional domains as well. While this necessitates treatment, much of the behaviour has yet to be explained. In the current study, a state approach was integrated to explore procrastination in terms of the Yerkes-Dodson paradigm. Procrastination was hypothesized to arise for one of two reasons: students are either too low or too high in anxiety. A sample of 847 Ontario undergraduate students completed measures of procrastination, state-anxiety, personality, and self-regulation. Results suggest 88% of students procrastinate regularly, and contrary to what was hypothesized, procrastination and anxiety were linearly related. Independent t-tests establish that relative to non-procrastinators, procrastinators are significantly more emotionally and biologically dysregulated and less socially integrated. Factor analysis demonstrated three central reasons contributing to procrastination, which were used as the basis to establish types of procrastination: social (n=61), self-doubt (n=70) and low-energy (n=76) procrastinators. Results indicate divergences across procrastination type with respect to personality as well as biological, affective and social domains. Findings also inform that the expression of procrastination, varies across student. Overall, findings suggest that academic interventions should acknowledge and address the variability among procrastinators.

Author Keywords: ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION, ANXIETY, PERSONALITY, SELF-REGULATION

    Item Description
    Type
    Contributors
    Creator (cre): Pyman, Daisy Mae
    Thesis advisor (ths): Smith-Chant, Brenda
    Degree committee member (dgc): Fournier, Neil
    Degree committee member (dgc): Keefer, Kateryna
    Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University
    Date Issued
    2020
    Date (Unspecified)
    2020
    Place Published
    Peterborough, ON
    Language
    Extent
    191 pages
    Rights
    Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.
    Subject (Topical)
    Local Identifier
    TC-OPET-10740
    Publisher
    Trent University
    Degree
    Master of Science (M.Sc.): Psychology