Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of South Florida, 2001. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-121). Online version available on World Wide Web.

This study examined the effects of time, gender, locus of control, and perceived controllability on the differential effectiveness of selected treatment approaches to the reduction of academic procrastination. A sample of 122 male and female college students was randomly assigned to one of three groups: behavioural, cognitive-behavioural, or study skills. Treatments were administered via self-instruction modules for five consecutive weeks. Three univariate analyses, one for each of the self-report measures of procrastination, examined the main effects and interactions of the independent variables. According to the findings the effects of gender, locus of control, and perceived controllability did not result in any differential effectiveness of treatment approaches. Male subjects reduced procrastination over time more than did female subjects. A significant portion of the between-subjects variance on measures of procrastination was accounted for by the pooled effects of locus of control and perceived controllability. Male subjects, depending upon their perceived locus of control and their level of perceived controllability, differentially reduced procrastination over time regardless of the treatment approach to which they were exposed. The need for counsellors to explore strategies to increase clients' beliefs that they can control and therefore change their own behaviour is addressed. Methodological concerns regarding aptitude-treatment interaction studies and recommendations for future research are discussed.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Com. (Human Resources Management)) - University of Pretoria, 2004. / Summary in Afrikaans and English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

This dissertation presents a literature review on procrastination and more specifically research involving the domain of academic procrastination, characteristics/traits academic procrastinators exhibit, and two different types of academic procrastinators. Even though a comprehensive theory has not been established, social cognitive theory, attribution theory, and motivation theories contribute to our understanding of academic procrastination. Studies that investigate prevalence of high school and college students who procrastinate in international settings, and more specifically in the United States, are reviewed, along with the literature on the relationship between academic procrastination and achievement. Research has demonstrated with relative consistency that academic procrastination has significant adverse effects on academic progress (Ferrari et al., 2005; Moon & Illingworth, 2005) and that high percentages of undergraduate college students self-report they engage in academic procrastination (Steel, 2007). The literature review is followed by an investigation that utilizes an adapted version of the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (Özer & Ferrari, 2011), a self-report instrument, to measure students’ academic procrastination. The purpose of this study was to investigate (a) the percentage of undergraduate college and high school students who self-report academic procrastination; (b) the frequency of academic procrastination among undergraduate college and high school students for the specific academic tasks of studying for exams, completing reading assignments, and writing papers; and (c) the relationship between academic procrastination and achievement of undergraduate college and high school students. Both on specific tasks and overall, significantly more college students report higher procrastination than high school students. Unexpectedly, this study did not find a significant relationship between academic procrastination and academic achievement, as measured by grade point average. This study highlights the importance of considering students’ age when examining academic procrastination.

The study examined the effectiveness of a motivational package developed based on the components of the temporal motivational theory on reducing the participants’ tendency to procrastinate. Characteristics of a sample of 308 junior secondary school students (formed 14 groups) were matched and randomly assigned (in group unit) into treatment and control conditions. Through watching a video in a workshop, the treatment group learned the skills to reduce procrastination while the control group learned relaxation skills. Participants then completed an assignment in 10 school days after the intervention workshop to apply the strategies they have learnt. Results indicated that participants who received the intervention package showed significantly less behavioral procrastination than those who did not. Implications of the findings were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The goal of the current research was to improve on previous studies by more directly examining the relationship between perfectionism and actual procrastination behaviour. In Study 1, participants (N = 167) were given five minutes to prepare for a verbal analogy test during which time they could complete practice materials or play a computer game. After the first test, participants were randomly assigned to receive positive feedback, negative feedback, or no feedback. They then had a second chance to study or play the computer game before they completed another verbal analogy test. Adaptive perfectionism was a significant predictor of less procrastination behaviour on the initial test although feedback on the first test did not change the subsequent behaviour of adaptive perfectionists. Maladaptive perfectionism was not a significant predictor of procrastination behaviour on the initial task. However, for women who were higher in maladaptive perfectionism, the more upset they were from receiving negative feedback on the first task, the more they increased their procrastination on the second task. The purpose of Study 2 was to examine two potential mechanisms, low performance expectations or mood repair, which may have been responsible for the increase in procrastination behaviour seen in women who were higher in maladaptive perfectionism and upset about receiving negative feedback. Participants (N = 138) all received negative feedback on the first test, which was followed by an optimism prime, positive mood prime, or neutral prime. Participants then were given a second chance to study or play the computer game before they completed another verbal analogy test. The positive mood prime did not have a significant effect on procrastination behaviour. Among women who were lower in adaptive perfectionism, the optimism prime resulted in a decrease in procrastination behaviour for women higher in maladaptive perfectionism and an increase in procrastination behaviour for women lower in maladaptive perfectionism. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the academic outcomes of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionists. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-27 17:57:45.647

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2008. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-206). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between procrastination and stress in a group of high school teachers. Research shows that teaching is one of the most stressful jobs. The researcher decided to examine whether procrastination could be blamed for the stress teachers experience. Procrastination was discussed with regard to its history, how it is defined, various theories of procrastination, a typical cycle that procrastinators follow and also the reasons why people tend to procrastinate. Stress and most importantly work-related stress and the teaching environment was investigated. The research group consisted of 70 teachers, 61 (87 %) female and 9 (13 %) male. The majority of the group was in the age group 21 – 29 years (43 %). Tuckman’s procrastination scale was administered to determine the teachers’ tendency to procrastinate and “The Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire” (WLQ), Van der Walt, H.S.&van Zyl, E.S. (1991) was used to determine teachers’ stress levels. The notion that increased levels of procrastination would result in increased levels of stress was assessed and clearly indicated that some measure of correlation between procrastination and stress does exist. Not surprisingly, the correlation tended to be higher for respondents with a high tendency to procrastinate and conversely proved to be weak for respondents with a low tendency to procrastinate. This led to the conclusion that stress experienced by respondents with low to moderate levels of procrastination was not necessarily entirely related to their tendency to procrastinate. However, it seems reasonable to expect the stress experienced by respondents to increase to some degree if their tendency to procrastinate increased. An important fact to remember, however, is that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. Two variables may be related to each other, but this does not mean that one variable causes the other; they are merely indicative of each other. / Dissertation (MCom (Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted