Procrastination is a problem for many individuals - especially university students - who may struggle to keep up not only with the requirements of a demanding life domain (i.e., education), but also with the demands of their other life domains (e.g., health, family, finances, and community). Past research on procrastination has mainly focused on understanding why some individuals procrastinate more than others and the consequences of procrastination for those individuals (i.e., between-person level). However, given that almost all individuals procrastinate to a certain extent, there has been an increased interest over the last few years in studying procrastination as a phenomenon that fluctuates within each person, especially over time (i.e., within-person level). Inspired by these burgeoning multilevel perspectives, the purpose of my doctoral thesis was to propose three new multilevel studies to increase our understanding of the antecedents and outcomes of procrastination when comparing university students to one another (i.e., between-person level) and when comparing time points and contexts within each student (i.e., within-person level). In Article 1, I examined the influence of between-person procrastination on the within-person achievement trajectory of students from their last year of high school to their first year at university. A sample of 269 first-year undergraduate students completed a self-reported measure of trait procrastination and their objective grades were obtained at three time points, namely the last year of high school, the first semester at university, and the second semester at university. Using piecewise multilevel growth modeling, the results revealed that students who procrastinated more than their peers tended to have a larger grade decrease from high school to the first semester at university. Although procrastination did not influence the grade change from the first semester to the second semester at university, students who procrastinated more tended to maintain their achievement disadvantage compared to students who procrastinated less. In Article 2, I examined whether procrastination could act as a mediator in the associations between two dimensions of motivation and achievement and affective outcomes both when comparing students to one another (i.e., between-person level) and when comparing the courses taken by each student during a semester to each other (i.e., within-person level). A sample of 359 university students completed self-reported measures of autonomous/controlled motivation, procrastination, and positive/negative affect in each course and their final course grades were obtained at the end of the semester. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the results showed that procrastination was associated with worse achievement and affective outcomes at both levels of analysis. However, controlled motivation was significantly positively associated with procrastination only at the between-person level, whereas autonomous motivation was significantly negatively associated with procrastination only at the within-person level. This study highlights that, although procrastination tends to generally be detrimental to the success and emotional well-being of students, the motivational antecedent of procrastination differs depending on the level of analysis. In Article 3, I went beyond the academic domain by examining whether procrastination could act as a mediator in the associations between two dimensions of motivation and achievement and affective outcomes both when comparing students to one another (i.e., between-person level) and when comparing the life domains in which each student is invested to each other (i.e., within-person level). A sample of 330 undergraduate students completed self-reported measures of autonomous/controlled motivation, procrastination, self-actual-to-ideal proximity, goal progress, and positive/negative affect in each of their life domains. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, the results showed that autonomous and controlled motivation were associated with less and more procrastination, respectively, and in turn, procrastination was associated with worse achievement and affective outcomes but only at the within-person level. At the between-person level, only controlled motivation was positively related to procrastination, and in turn, procrastination was related to more negative affect and, surprisingly, more goal progress. Overall, all three articles contribute in complementary ways to the idea that proposing new multilevel perspectives can enrich our understanding of procrastination and its associations with antecedents and outcomes. Specifically, the studies in my thesis showed that the multilevel findings sometimes corroborate existing knowledge in the literature (e.g., the negative association between procrastination and academic achievement) and other times offer nuances and unexpected insights in our comprehension of the nomological network related to procrastination (e.g., the motivational antecedents of procrastination and the different relation between procrastination and goal progress depending on the level of analysis).

This study investigated the perceptions and actions of selected distance educators on academic procrastination in telecommunications-based distance education programs in higher education. Data were collected via mail survey from a sample of 276 telecommunications-based distance education programs identified by two national data sources. Specifically, subjects were asked to provide information on: the extent to which they perceived academic procrastination to be a problem in their program, the data they collected on academic procrastination, and the strategies they used to com.bat academic procrastination. Responses from 143 programs (135 program directors and 297 faculty) indicated that 95 percent of the distance educators believed student procrastination was a problem and 37.5 percent believed it was a serious problem. However, distance educators' data collecting efforts on academic procrastination were neither extensive nor systematic. The data that they reported collecting came from traditional sources and unsophisticated methods of data collection. The sources and unsophisticated methods of data collection. The distance educators did report using a variety of strategies to combat academic procrastination. These strategies had little relationship to the distance educators' perception of academic procrastination or the data they collected on procrastination. Distance educators tended to add more structure and control to reduce procrastination as opposed to rewarding students for early completion of assignments. This study indicated that distance educators were sufficiently concerned about academic procrastination to warrant further investigation. Focus should be placed on comparing programs with low procrastination against programs with high procrastination, perceptions and actions of distance learners on academic procrastination, and determining what data collecting techniques and strategies to reduce procrastination are most effective. / Ed. D.

Graduating CS students face well-documented difficulties upon entering the workforce, with reports of a gap between what they learn and what is expected of them in industry. Project management, software testing, and debugging have been repeatedly listed as common "knowledge deficiencies" among newly hired CS graduates. Similar difficulties manifest themselves on a smaller scale in upper-level CS courses, like the Data Structures and Algorithms course at Virginia Tech: students are required to develop large and complex projects over a three to four week lifecycle, and it is common to see close to a quarter of the students drop or fail the course, largely due to the difficult and time-consuming nature of the projects. My research is driven by the hypothesis that regular feedback about the software development process, delivered during development, will help ameliorate these difficulties. Assessment of software currently tends to focus on qualities like correctness, code coverage from test suites, and code style. Little attention or tooling has been developed for the assessment of the software development process. I use empirical software engineering methods like IDE-log analysis, software repository mining, and semi-structured interviews with students to identify effective and ineffective software practices to formulate. Using the results of these analyses, I have worked on assessing students' development in terms of time management, test writing, test quality, and other "self-checking" behaviours like running the program locally or submitting to an oracle of instructor-written test cases. The goal is to use this information to formulate formative feedback about the software development process. In addition to educators, this research is relevant to software engineering researchers and practitioners, since the results from these experiments are based on the work of upper-level students who grapple with issues of design and work-flow that are not far removed from those faced by professionals in industry. / Doctor of Philosophy / Graduating CS students face well-documented difficulties upon entering the workforce, with reports of a gap between what they learn and what is expected of them as professional soft-ware developers. Project management, software testing, and debugging have been repeatedly listed as common "knowledge deficiencies" among newly hired CS graduates. Similar difficulties manifest themselves on a smaller scale in upper-level CS courses, like the DataStructures and Algorithms course at Virginia Tech: students are required to develop large and complex software projects over a three to four week lifecycle, and it is common to see close to a quarter of the students drop or fail the course, largely due to the difficult and time-consuming nature of the projects. The development of these projects necessitates adherence to disciplined software process, i.e., incremental development, testing, and debugging of small pieces of functionality. My research is driven by the hypothesis that regular feedback about the software development process, delivered during development, will help ameliorate these difficulties. However, in educational contexts, assessment of software currently tends to focus on properties of the final product like correctness, quality of automated software tests, and adherence to code style requirements. Little attention or tooling has been developed for the assessment of the software development process. In this dissertation, I quantitatively characterise students' software development habits, using data from numerous sources: us-age logs from students' software development environments, detailed sequences of snapshots showing the project's evolution over time, and interviews with the students themselves. I analyse the relationships between students' development behaviours and their project out-comes, and use the results of these analyses to determine the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of students' software development processes. I have worked on assessing students' development in terms of time management, test writing, test quality, and other "self-checking"behaviours like running their programs locally or submitting them to an online system that uses instructor-written tests to generate a correctness score. The goal is to use this information to assess the quality of one's software development process in a way that is formative instead of summative, i.e., it can be done while students work toward project completion as opposed to after they are finished. For example, if we can identify procrastinating students early in the project timeline, we could intervene as needed and possibly help them to avoid the consequences of bad project management (e.g., unfinished or late project submissions).In addition to educators, this research is relevant to software engineering researchers and practitioners, since the results from these experiments are based on the work of upper-level students who grapple with issues of design and work-flow that are not far removed from those faced by professionals in industry.

Prokrastinering är ett utbrett fenomen över hela världen som innebär att frivilligt skjuta upp eller inte fullfölja uppgifter trots vetskapen om de negativa konsekvenserna till följd av det. Det kan ses som en irrationell försening av vissa åtaganden, ofta för att undvika negativa känslor, eller som ett tecken på bristande självreglering när man konfronteras med utmanande eller obekväma uppgifter. Forskning visar att prokrastinering är kopplad till depression, ångest, ökad stress och sämre akademiska prestationer. Det verkar dessutom som att antalet personer som uppvisar uppskjutarbeteende och graden av prokrastinering ökar. Denna studie ämnade att utforskaeventuella samband och förhållanden mellan självskattad prokrastinering, skam och känsloreglering. Den undersökte även om dessa förhållanden modereras av ålder. Studien genomfördes för att öka förståelsen kring prokrastinering och dess negativa effekter. Genom att identifiera mekanismer bakom prokrastinering kan interventioner anpassas för att minska beteendet och öka välbefinnandet. En enkät distribuerades till allmän befolkning där 200 individer svarade, varav 37 män och 163 kvinnor. Medelåldern för samtliga deltagare var 39,21, SD = 11,06. Resultaten visade att skam, känsloregleringssvårigheter och prokrastinering är signifikant korrelerade. Högre nivåer av skam och känsloregleringssvårigheter är associerade med ökad tendens till prokrastinering. Även om ålder inte visade sig vara en signifikant moderator visademedelvärden hur skam och känsloregleringssvårigheter samt prokrastinering minskar med ålder. / Procrastination is a global phenomenon, involves the voluntary delay or non-completion of tasks despite awareness of the negative consequences. Often percieved as an irrational postponement of certain commitments to avoid negative emotions, or as a sign of deficient selfregulation when confronted with challenging or uncomfortable tasks. Research indicates that procrastination is linked to depression, anxiety, increased stress, and poor academic performance. Moreover, it appears that the number of individuals exhibiting procrastinatory behavior and the degree of procrastination are on the rise. This study aimed to explore potential associations and relationships between self-reported procrastination, shame, and emotion regulation. The research also investigated whether these relationships were moderated by age. The study was conducted to enhance understanding of procrastination and its negative effects. By identifying mechanisms behind procrastination, interventions can be tailored to reduce the behavior and increase wellbeing. A survey was distributed to the general population, with 200 individuals responding of which 37 identified as men and 163 as women. The mean age of all participants was 39.21, SD = 11.06. The results showed that shame, difficulties in emotion regulation, and procrastination are significantly correlated. Higher levels of shame and emotion regulation difficulties are associated with an increased tendency to procrastinate. Although age did not prove to be a significant moderator, mean values demonstrated how shame, emotion regulation difficulties, and procrastination decrease with age.

Denna studie undersökte aktiv prokrastinering och tillfredsställelse med studieprocess. Prokrastinering kan definieras som ett uppskjutande av arbetsuppgifter med negativa konsekvenser som följd. Till skillnad från traditionell prokrastinering är aktiv prokrastinering adaptiv till sin natur och förknippad med fördelaktiga personliga egenskaper och konsekvenser, vilket lett till att kritiker inte anser att det kan kallas för prokrastinering. Syftet med studien var att undersöka aktiva prokrastinerares tillfredsställelse med sin studieprocess i syfte att nyansera bilden av aktiv prokrastinering samt att utröna huruvida aktiv prokrastinering går att definiera som en form av prokrastinering. Data samlades in genom självskattningsformulär som delades ut till studenter på Linnéuniversitetet. Grupperna aktiva, passiva och ickeprokrastinerare jämfördes på variabeln tillfredsställelse med studieprocess och korrelationer gjordes. Signifikanta skillnader mellan alla grupper hittades, där ickeprokrastinerare var mest tillfredsställda, och passiva prokrastinerare minst tillfredsställda. Resultatet indikerar att aktiva prokrastinerare upplever negativa aspekter av sitt beteende, trots dess adaptiva natur. Självskattningsformuläret för aktiv prokrastinering utvärderas och implikationer av studien diskuteras. / This study examined active procrastination in relation to satisfaction with the studying process. Procrastination can be defined as a delay of tasks that lead to negative consequences for the individual. In contrast to traditional procrastination, active procrastination is adaptive in nature and associated with positive characteristics and consequences, which has spawned criticism that active procrastination cannot properly be defined as procrastination. The purpose of this study was to examine active procrastinator’s satisfaction with their studying process in order to nuance the view of active procrastination as well as determining whether active procrastination can be defined as a form of procrastination. Data was collected through self-report questionnaires distributed to students at Linnaeus University. The groups active, passive and non-procrastinators were compared on the variable satisfaction with the studying process, and correlations were made. All groups were statistically different, with non-procrastinators being the most satisfied and passive procrastinators the least satisfied. The results indicate that active procrastinators experience negative aspects of their behaviour, despite its adaptive nature. The measure of active procrastination is evaluated and implications of the present study are discussed.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Current learner-centered trends, such as supplying students with content on demand (CoD), coupled with research findings that indicate distributed practice is superior to massed practice in terms of increased memory function and that the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) is superior to traditional instruction in terms of academic achievement, content retention, and student satisfaction, prompted an investigation merging these two lines of research. Although PSI is more feasible today based on advances in technology and students prefer its self-paced component, they often procrastinate. In fact, this problem is resurfacing in distance education courses and is reflected in low completion rates as well as in the number of nonstarters. Numerous researchers have used deadline contingencies to reduce procrastination without adversely affecting student achievement and satisfaction, but few have considered the benefit of enhanced memory. / ABSTRACT: It was hypothesized that, by providing students with CoD, a lesser form of self-pacing, and by using contingencies to regulate the pace of assignment submissions, procrastination would be reduced and content retention subsequently increased without detriment to immediate achievement and student satisfaction. To quantify differences in procrastination level, a comprehensive, sensitive, and reliable measure of procrastination, called the rate of relative digression from a target response (RDTR), was proposed. Undergraduate, preservice teachers in an instructional technology course were randomly assigned to one of three treatments. All groups were given the same deadlines. For one treatment, the deadlines were recommended (R) with one absolute deadline at the end of the treatment interval. For another they were conditional (C) with opportunities to earn bonus and penalty points for early and late work. / ABSTRACT: For a third, they were all absolute (A) with no assignment accepted for credit after its due date. Although many problems experienced by students in A made findings for this group inconclusive, analysis of differences between students in R and C indicated that C was superior in reducing procrastination and enhancing memory function without detriment to immediate achievement, pacing preference, and course satisfaction. Although more research is needed to replicate, extend, and clarify findings, these results support using conditional deadlines for assignments when learners are supplied CoD. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Étant pourtant un phénomène extrêmement répandu, la procrastination a très peu fait l’objet d’études philosophiques. Inversement, la faiblesse de la volonté et les différents phénomènes qu’on lui rattache sont encore aujourd’hui étudiés en profondeur comme des cas paradigmatiques de défaillance de la rationalité pratique. Or, la procrastination présente un cas de défaillance de la rationalité pratique particulier dans notre rapport avec le temps, rapport qui est très souvent laissé de côté dans l’étude de la faiblesse de la volonté. Après avoir présenté dans le premier chapitre les phénomènes majeurs associés à la faiblesse de la volonté et les problématiques qu’ils soulèvent, dans le deuxième chapitre, nous examinerons leurs liens avec la procrastination. Nous verrons comment la procrastination, avec son emphase sur le caractère temporel de notre agentivité, permet de mieux saisir et d'expliquer les problématiques soulevées par la faiblesse de la volonté en les insérant dans un cadre explicatif plus large. / Even if procrastination is extremely widespread, it is still rarely the subject of philosophical study. Conversely, weakness of the will and the various phenomena which are related to it are still extensively studied as paradigmatic cases of failure of our practical rationality. However, procrastination seems to be a failure of our practical rationality related to our relationship with time, a relationship that is often overlooked in the study of weakness of will. After presenting, in the first chapter, the major phenomena associated with weakness of will and the issues they raise, we will examine their relationship with procrastination in the second chapter. We'll see how procrastination, with its emphasis on the temporal nature of our agency helps us to better understand and explain the issues raised by weakness of will by inserting them in a broader explanatory framework.

Étant pourtant un phénomène extrêmement répandu, la procrastination a très peu fait l’objet d’études philosophiques. Inversement, la faiblesse de la volonté et les différents phénomènes qu’on lui rattache sont encore aujourd’hui étudiés en profondeur comme des cas paradigmatiques de défaillance de la rationalité pratique. Or, la procrastination présente un cas de défaillance de la rationalité pratique particulier dans notre rapport avec le temps, rapport qui est très souvent laissé de côté dans l’étude de la faiblesse de la volonté. Après avoir présenté dans le premier chapitre les phénomènes majeurs associés à la faiblesse de la volonté et les problématiques qu’ils soulèvent, dans le deuxième chapitre, nous examinerons leurs liens avec la procrastination. Nous verrons comment la procrastination, avec son emphase sur le caractère temporel de notre agentivité, permet de mieux saisir et d'expliquer les problématiques soulevées par la faiblesse de la volonté en les insérant dans un cadre explicatif plus large. / Even if procrastination is extremely widespread, it is still rarely the subject of philosophical study. Conversely, weakness of the will and the various phenomena which are related to it are still extensively studied as paradigmatic cases of failure of our practical rationality. However, procrastination seems to be a failure of our practical rationality related to our relationship with time, a relationship that is often overlooked in the study of weakness of will. After presenting, in the first chapter, the major phenomena associated with weakness of will and the issues they raise, we will examine their relationship with procrastination in the second chapter. We'll see how procrastination, with its emphasis on the temporal nature of our agency helps us to better understand and explain the issues raised by weakness of will by inserting them in a broader explanatory framework.

No description available.

Объектом исследования явилась академическая прокрастинация. Предметом исследования стала связь академической прокрастинации со смысложизненными ориентациями и экзистенциальной исполненностью у студентов-психологов. Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, двух глав, заключения, списка литературы (105 источников) и приложения. Объем магистерской диссертации 81 страница, на которых размещены 11 таблиц и 1 рисунок. Во введении раскрывается актуальность проблемы исследования, разработанность проблематики, ставятся цель и задачи исследования, определяются объект и предмет исследования, формулируются основная и дополнительные гипотезы, указываются методы и эмпирическая база, а также этапы проведения исследования, научная новизна, теоретическая и практическая значимость работы. Первая глава включает в себя обзор зарубежной и отечественной научной литературы по феномену прокрастинации, приведены различные трактовки данного термина, представлено изучение прокрастинации как в рамках различных психологических концепций, так и в современных исследованиях. Показана классификация прокрастинации и рассмотрена, одна из наиболее распространённых её форм, академическая прокрастинация. Выводы по первой главе представляют собой итоги по изучению теоретического материала. Во второй главе проанализированы и проинтерпретированы результаты эмпирического исследования связи академической прокрастинации со смысложизненными ориентациями у студентов-психологов. В главе представлен корреляционный, факторный и регрессионный анализ результатов исследования. Выводы по второй главе включают в себя основные результаты эмпирического исследования. В заключении в обобщенном виде изложены результаты теоретической и эмпирической частей работы, выводы по выдвинутым гипотезам, а также описаны возможные перспективы дальнейшей разработки данной проблематики. / The object of the research was academic procrastination. The subject of the study was the connection between academic procrastination and life-meaning orientations and existential fulfillment in psychology students. The master's thesis consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of references (105 sources) and an appendix. The volume of the master's thesis is 81 pages, which contain 11 tables and 1 figure. The introduction reveals the relevance of the research problem, the elaboration of the problematics, the goal and objectives of the research are set, the object and subject of the research are determined, the main and additional hypotheses are formulated, the methods and empirical base are indicated, as well as the stages of the research, scientific novelty, theoretical and practical significance of the work. The first chapter includes a review of foreign and domestic scientific literature on the phenomenon of procrastination, various interpretations of this term are given, the study of procrastination is presented both within the framework of various psychological concepts and in modern research. The classification of procrastination is shown and considered, one of its most common forms, academic procrastination. Conclusions for the first chapter represent the results of the study of theoretical material. The second chapter analyzes and interprets the results of an empirical study of the relationship between academic procrastination and life-meaning orientations in psychology students. The chapter presents the correlation, factorial and regression analysis of the research results. The conclusions of the second chapter include the main findings of the empirical study. In the conclusion, in a generalized form, the results of the theoretical and empirical parts of the work, conclusions on the hypotheses put forward, and possible prospects for the further development of this problem are described.