The present study investigated the relative efficacy of paradoxical, behavioral, and reflection-support treatments among college students who complained about procrastination of studying. Although there is much literature describing successful use of paradoxical treatment, there has been little substantive research. Paradoxical techniques offer more complex theoretical explanations than behavioral therapy even though in practice the procedure of each are often quite similar. Subjects were selected by their response to an ad in the school newspaper that offered free treatment for students who had problems with procrastination. Further screening of participants was done through clinical interviews. Thirty-three subjects were selected for treatment of procrastination with three clients randomly assigned to each of 11 advanced psychology graduate students who served as therapists. Each therapist provided all three types of treatment, one type of treatment to each of their three assigned clients.

A model of the person as a "community of selves" was used to investigate how adopting the perspective of different selves influenced anticipated compliance with therapy homework designed to decrease academic procrastination. A model of resistance to change derived from personal construct theory was used to predict which selves subjects would tend to see as more likely to take on the role of carrying out the homework. Focusing on different selves was found to influence anticipated compliance, and the model of resistance to change was partially successful in predicting which selves would be seen as more likely to carry out the homework. Implications for therapy and research are discussed within the framework of a model of first and second order change.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between academic procrastination, self-regulation and positive thinking. Five hundreds and sixty three college students from Taiwan were selected by stratified sampling. The participants completed the ¡§Questionnaire of College Students' Academic Procrastination (QCSAP),¡¨ ¡§The Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ)¡¨ and ¡§Positive Thinking Scale (PTS).¡¨ Descriptive statistics, t-tests, multivariate analysis of variance, pearson correlation, and path analysis were conducted on the quantitative data. In addition, content theme analysis was used to assess the motivation and disturbance of academic procrastination of college students. The findings from the study were summarized as follows: 1. Near 70% college students procrastinate their academic tasks and 57.4% students were bothered by academic procrastination. 2. Senior college students presented significantly higher score in "the ability to meet the deadline" than junior college students. 3. Students from National universities presented significantly lower score on ¡§active academic procrastination¡¨, ¡§ability to meet the deadline¡¨ and ¡§outcome satisfaction¡¨ than those from private universities and universities of technology. 4. Low GPA students had significantly higher scores on "fear of failure" and "task aversiveness" than those high GPA group counterparts. 5. Female college students had significantly higher score on "perfectionism" than their male counterparts. 6. Students from private universities of technology had significantly higher score on self-regulation and positive thinking than those from general universities. 7. Self-regulation was positively correlated with positive thinking. 8. Active academic procrastination can either directly predict college students¡¦ positive thinking or indirectly through self-regulation as a mediator. 9. Passive academic procrastination can significantly predict college students¡¦ self-regulation. 10. College students' academic procrastination motives were "task aversiveness," "laziness," "fear of failure" and "perfectionism." 11. The disturbance of academic procrastination of college students were categorized into three parts: "psychological," "physical," and "academic." Implications of these findings for higher education are discussed.

Prokrastinering innebär att individen trots medvetenhet om negativa konsekvenser skjuter upp en handling. Den bidrar till stress, färre hälsofrämjade beteenden och sämre prestation. Demografiska faktorer och pågående utbildning påverkar sannolikheten för prokrastinering. Relationen mellan stress och prokrastinering behöver utforskas, speciellt hur interventioner riktade mot stress påverkar fenomenet. En longitudinell interventionsstudie med upprepad mätning undersökte effekten av ett KBT-baserat stresshanteringsprogram (KBSP) på prokrastinering och interaktionseffekter med stress. Stickprovet togs ur populationen sjuksköterskestudenter vid ett högre lärosäte i en medelstor svensk stad. Interventionsgruppen var 28 deltagare, varav 3 män. De mättes två gånger med tio veckors intervall. Bortfallsgruppen (21 deltagare) uppföljdes. Kontrollgruppens 44 deltagare (varav 3 män) mättes en gång. Ingen signifikant skillnad fanns mellangruppernas prokrastinering före interventionen.Flera signifikanta resultat erhölls, följande avser interventionsgruppen. Ett beroende t-test visade på signifikant skillnad mellan prokrastinering före och efter interventionen. En stark positiv bivariat korrelation fanns mellan stress och prokrastinering vid T1. Prokrastinering predicerade stress vid T1 och T2. Resultatet indikerade att 26.1 % respektive 31.7 % av variansen i stress kunde förklaras utifrån prokrastinering. Resultatet talar för att prokrastinering kan förändras och att KBT-baserade metoder för stress skulle kunna ha komponenter som påverkar. Slutsatserna gäller främst studenter och begränsas av att de bygger på självskattningar. Vidare longitudinell forskning med fler mätmetoder behövs. / Procrastination isintentionally postponing an action, despite of the potentially negative consequences. It contributes to stress, fewer health promoting behaviors and poorer performance. Demographic factors and ongoing academic education affects the probability for procrastination. The relationship between stress and procrastination needs to be studied, especially how interventions aimed at stress affects the phenomenon. A longitudinal intervention study with repeated measurements investigated the effect of CBT-based stress management program (CBSM) on procrastination and interaction effects with stress. The sample was nursing students at a Swedish university. The intervention group was 28 participants including 3 men. They were measured twice with a ten week interval. A follow-up was conducted on the dropout (21 participants). The control group's 44 participants (including 3 men) were measured once. No significant difference was found between groups in procrastination before the intervention. Several significant results was obtained, the following refers to the intervention group. A dependent t-test showed significant difference between procrastination before and after the intervention. A strong positive bivariate correlation was found between stress and procrastination at T1. Procrastination predicted stress at T1 and T2. The results indicated that 26.1% and 31.7% of the variance in stress could be explained by procrastination. The results indicate that procrastination is susceptible to change and that CBT-based methods for stress management might have components that affects it. The conclusions apply mainly to students and is limited by self-assessments as reserch method. Further longitudinal research with more measurements are needed.

Procrastination as problematic delay is a widely occurring phenomenon in modern society. It is particularly prevalent in academic settings where some students avoid or postpone their work in numerous ways. Over the last three decades, a substantial body of quantitative and some qualitative studies have been conducted, however, to date researchers are still unclear about what causes this problem and how it can be effectively helped. Working with procrastination is therefore considered an important issue for counselling psychologists, many of whom work in university student counselling services. The aim of this research was to conduct an inductive qualitative study to explore how university counsellors understand and work with students who present for help with procrastination. Ten volunteer participants were interviewed who mainly identified themselves as working integratively. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was conducted and the results produced four master themes that highlighted firstly general challenges of working with students who procrastinate in university settings. Secondly, three distinct styles of procrastination were identified from these participants’ accounts as “de-skilled”, “anxious/fearful” and “conflictual”. These indicated a need for tailored therapeutic approaches that seemed to be enabled by an integrative therapeutic stance. Overall, it may be concluded that procrastination as a presenting problem in academia is a heterogeneous phenomenon that requires adaptable therapeutic approaches for individual students’ styles in relation to studying autonomously.

Procrastination has been a concept that has recently gained attention. Current research has provided data that suggests there is a positive relationship between committed action (goal setting) and procrastination (Gagnon, Dionne, & Pychyl, 2016). This study had collected data from self-report only using a procrastination scale that has been globally validated (Steel, 2010). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) interacts with a person’s psychological flexibility, which can be described as the ability to contact the present moment and then adapt to changes in that moment (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2011). Committed action is just part of the six components that make up ACT. Committed action as a concept is concerned with the goals we take on a daily basis that bring us closer to our values. It stands to reason, that the more a person commits to these actions, the less they might procrastinate. The current study extends the existing literature by exploring the possible effect committed action (goal setting) sessions may have on the relationship between procrastination and committed action by examining discussion question turn in across two groups. The outcomes of this analysis may lend to the literature concerning developing a more effective classroom setting (Bijou, 1970). The current study’s purpose is then to increase the level of understanding we have concerning procrastination through a committed action intervention.

In this dissertation, we experimentally examine individual preferences of effort, including time and risk preferences. In Chapter 3, we find that at least in certain settings and mindsets, individuals are very patient in their time preferences for effort, choosing to distribute effort evenly over time periods. However, they do not always live up to the stated plans, suggesting dynamic inconsistency or possibly two separate decision-making systems in the mind. This relates to our model in Chapter 2: a dual-self model of allocating effort between time periods in working toward a larger goal including incomplete information between different mindsets in the same person. Chapter 4 examines the risk preferences for effort, as a measurement of the utility function of effort, and finds that in this setting, subjects are very risk-averse over effort, compared to their preferences over money: they greatly avoid the possibility of having to complete a large number of tasks. These experiments and model help provide an understanding of how individuals allocate the scarce resource of time and energy to tasks they must complete.

This study sought to understand the relationships among locus of control, parenting style, academic procrastination, and financial independence with a population of undergraduate students. A sample of 61 students (39 females, 21 males, 1 other) completed measures of demographics, locus of control, parenting style, and academic procrastination. Participants were recruited within the last two weeks of the semester. Therefore, the sample probably contained a higher percentage of procrastinators than the general population. There were no significant correlations across the total sample. There was a significant positive correlation between higher scores on the Parental Authority Questionnaire authoritative scale and the Procrastination Assessment Scale Student Frequency scores for individuals who were financially dependent. There was also a significant negative correlation between the authoritarian and authoritative parenting style scores for those who were financially dependent.

In light of the specific challenges of assessing a thesis film—a project which contains artistic and academic components—the author examines his own short film For Want Of as a prototype for future work in film and as an opportunity for introspective investigation into the nature of filmmaking and personal artistic process. Reference is made to specific episodes during the film’s conception and production, as well as higher-level insight gained from following the film through an 18-month production cycle.

The aim of this thesis is to find a method how to test the tools for an intervention with procrastination on social networks. The thesis tests and according to a built scale evaluates if there are people who are addicted to social networks. Further, the thesis introduces tools suitable for the intervention of this addiction and states distinct suggestions on how to perform a wider research to explore the most suitable tools. The thesis compares both the software tools centered on measuring, blocking, hiding and aiming, and psychological tools centered on how to work with oneself through calming down and mindfulness or creating a personal vision. The research is aimed at the PC and smart phones Android platforms. The outcome is a suggestion to investigate both tools individually described and their variable combinations during the intervention of the addiction to social networks to closely understand the effect of their using and practical implementation.