Academic Procrastination and Motivators

2101 Words5 Pages

Napoleon Hill said procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. A lot of people today will actually experience procrastination in their everyday life, and is not looked at as a problem until it interferes with peoples’ ability to work and if it creates psychological and physical discomfort. Students often procrastinate and most research is observing the college students likeliness to procrastinate. To look at only college students would be bias however since it affects everyone, almost every day. To find out why people procrastinate, looking at personality and motivation can be where the answer lies. One of the leading researchers in procrastination is Joseph Ferrari. He looks at the definition of procrastination, many reasons procrastinations occurs, and the personality types it occurs in.

The definition of procrastination according to Solomon & Rothblum is the determined delay of the start or completion of a task (1984). Procrastinators will also differ from those who do not procrastinate in numerous ways. An example would be that procrastinators often fear failure, strive for perfection, may be slightly pessimistic and more anxious, which may become worse when they realize they are procrastinating (McCown & Johnson, 1991) or when deadlines are approaching (Tice & Baumeister, 1997). The personal and realistic problems that result from dysfunctional procrastination are predominantly acute in academics, as the inclination to put off school-related tasks often result in challenging levels of stress (Solomon & Rothblum 1984), on the whole the end of the academic semester would be the peak (Tice & Baumeister, 1997).

Academic procrastinators mus...

... middle of paper ...

...y Bulletin, 7, 79-83.

Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic motivation. New York: Plenum Press.

Elliot, A., & Sheldon, K. (1997). Avoidance achievement motivation: A personal goals analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 171-185.

Ferrari, J. R. (2010). Still procrastinating: the no-regrets guide to getting it done. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

McCown, W., & Johnson, J. (1991). Personality and chronic procrastination by university students during an academic exam period. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 413-415.

Solomon, L., & Rothblum, E. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31, 503-509.

Tice, D., & Baumeister, R. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: The costs and benefits of dawdling. Psychological Science, 8, 454-458.

Open Document