G85 – Procrastination

United College Final Year Project

Ann Cheung

Bianca Hsu

Michelle Cheng

Nana Poon

Presentation Flow

Introduction to the project

Psychological view on procrastination

Survey and result

Case studies and result

Discussion

Introduction• Research Question

• Hypotheses

• Aims

Research question

How is procrastination, especially academic one, among CUHK undergraduates in four aspects:

i. the degree of procrastination

ii. the reasons

iii. the consequences

iv. the methods used to cope procrastination.

Hypothesis

1.Procrastination is a prevalent problem among CUHK undergraduates

2.Procrastination has negative outcomes and causes unpleasantness

3.Students tends to procrastinate on academic issues than on other issues

Aim• To show

• A scientific explanation for procrastination Literature review

• How serious procrastination affects current undergraduate students Survey

• Actual cases of procrastinationCase Studies• The common ways that students may use as to deal

with procrastination

Psychological View on Procrastination

Steel, P. (2007). The Nature Of Procrastination: A Meta-analytic And Theoretical Review Of

Quintessential Self-regulatory Failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65-94.

Wilson, B., & Nguyen, T. (2012). Belonging to Tomorrow: An Overview of

Procrastination.International Journal of Psychological Studies, 4(1).

What is Procrastination?• Irrational delay of behavior

• To voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay

Is Procrastination Bad?• Most strongly characterized as being bad, harmful,

and foolish (Briody, 1980)

• Studies have linked procrastination to individual performance

→ Procrastinator performing more poorly overall

• Over 95% of procrastinators wish to reduce it (O’Brien, 2002)

Prevalence of Procrastination?• 80-95% of college students engage in

procrastination

• ~75% consider themselves procrastinators

• Almost 50% procrastinate consistently and problematically

• Typically occupies over 1/3 of their daily activities

→ through sleeping, playing, or watching TV

Reasons for Procrastination?1.The characteristics of the taskso Timing of Rewards and Punishmentso Task Aversiveness

2.Irrational beliefs3.Sensation seeking4.Out of a fear of failure/ self handicapping 5.The nature of our brains: more interest in immediate tasks 6.Low self-efficacy & low self-esteem 7.Depression 8.Impulsiveness 9.Distractibility10.Genetic

Reasons for Procrastination?• Timing of Rewards and Punishments

– Temporally further away → Less impact upon people’s decisions

• Task Aversiveness– More aversive the situation

→ More likely to avoid

Reasons for Procrastination?• Irrational beliefs

– Fear of failure

– Perfectionism

– Worry about receiving harsh appraisal

Reasons for Procrastination?• Self handicapping– Feel their actions will not change their situation– Concentrate instead of managing their emotional

reactions to the situation– To protect one’s self-esteem

→ give oneself an external reason if one fails to do well

Reasons for Procrastination?• Impulsiveness

– Rapid decision making & shorter attention spans

– Thoughts of the future do not weigh heavily in their decisions

→ often pursue immediate gratification

→ neglect or ignore longer term responsibilities

Survey• Quantitative research

Quantitative research – Survey

Survey target:

• CUHK undergraduates

Aim:

• To study the prevalence of procrastination

Questionnaire format:

• Online survey – Google Spreadsheet

• Link distributed through Facebook

• From 24/8 to 29/9

• Hard copy version

Quantitative research – Survey

Questionnaire design:

Part I: Basic information• Gender, Year and Faculty

Part II: 2 existing procrastination scales

• PASS (Procrastination Assessment Scale – Students)• Analyse academic procrastination

• GP (General Procrastination Scale)• Analyse general procrastination

Reason of choosing existing scales:

• Widely used

• Enable comparison with previous studies

• Proven to be reliable

Survey – PASS

PASS(Procrastination Assessment Scale – Students)

• Developed by Laura J. Solomon in 1984

• Specifically designed for college students

• Divided to 2 parts:

• Areas of Procrastination

• Reasons of Procrastination

Only Areas of Procrastination was included in our survey

Survey – PASSArea of Procrastination• Include 6 areas

1. Writing a Term Paper

2. Studying for Exams

3. Keeping up weekly reading assignments

4. Academic Administrative Tasks

5. Attendance Tasks

6. School Activities in General

Survey – PASSArea of Procrastination• Each area, 3 questions on an “a to e” scale

1. To what degree do you procrastinate on this task?

2. To what degree is procrastination on this task a problem for you?

3. To what extent do you want to decrease your tendency to procrastinate on this task?

Never Procrastinate

Almost never Sometimes Nearly always Always procrastinate

a b c d e

Not at all a problem

Almost never Sometimes Nearly always Always a problem

a b c d e

Do not want to decrease

SomewhatDefinitely want

to decrease

a b c d e

Survey – PASSData interpretationA. Scoring

• Sum up of Q1 and 2 in each area

• a:1; b:2; c:3; d:4; e:5

• Possible range: 12 to 60

B. % of heavy procrastinators

• % of interviewees choosing “d” and “e” in each area

Survey – GP

GP (General Procrastination Scale)• Developed by Clarry H. Lay in 1986

• Evaluate degree of procrastination

• in everyday tasks other than academic affairs

• Example: Paying bills, Buying tickets, Preparing trips

• 20 statements, 5-point scale

• Extremely uncharacteristic (1) to Extremely characteristic (5)

• Example question:1. I often find myself performing tasks that I had intended to do days before.

Survey – GP Data interpretation• Scoring

• Sum up of the choices

• 10 statements are reversed-key items

• Count 1 point if choice 5 (Extremely characteristic) is chosen

• 4 points if choice 2 is chosen

• Possible range: 20 to 100

Survey – Result

•Responses:

• 102 in 133 responses were CUHK undergraduates

• Basic information:

1.GenderMale: 39; Female: 63

2.Year(in 2013/14)Year1: 2; Year2: 72: Year3: 28

Fe-mal

e

58%

Male 42%

Year 12%

Year 2

66%

Year 3 or abov

e32%

Survey – Result •Basic information: (con’t)

3.Faculty

Faculty CountArts 5

Business 27Education 3

Engineering 13Law 1

Medicine 4Science 47Social

Science 2

Arts5%

Business26%

Education3%

Engineering13%Law

1%Medicine

4%

Science46%

Social Science2%

Survey – PASS Result

• Scoring (Range 12-60)

• Mean: 36 Median: 36 SD: 8

12-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60

Count 1 8 11 30 28 8 11 3 2

2.5

7.5

12.5

17.5

22.5

27.5

32.5 PASS

Survey – GP Result

• Scoring (Range: 20-100)

• Mean: 59 Median:60 SD:11

20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99

Count 1 1 17 29 39 12 3 0

2.5

7.5

12.5

17.5

22.5

27.5

32.5

37.5

42.5 GP

12 17 22 27 32 37 42 47 52 5720

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

R² = 0.340848409866432

Survey – Finding G

P

PASS

Survey – Finding• Scatter Plot of PASS and GP score

• Coefficient of determination R² = 0.3408

• Low positive correlation between PASS and GP score

• A procrastinator on academic affairs might not be a procrastinator in other affairs

Survey – Finding• % of choosing choice “d” and “e”

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Q1. Nearly always or always procrastinate

Q2. Nearly always or always a problem

Q3. Want or definitely want to decrease procrastination

Survey – Finding

• More than half of the respondents always procrastinate on writing paper, studying for exams and doing reading assignments

• Much less respondents procrastinate on the remaining 3 tasks

• 75% of respondents strongly hope to decrease procrastination in studying for exams

• Highest among all six tasks

• Although many (58%) always procrastinate on reading assignments, only 33% think this is a problem to them

Survey Finding• Faculties with Top 3 Numbers of Interviewees

• Engineering students tend to procrastinate more

Survey – Finding

CUHK under-graduates

American Turkish African-american0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Writing a paper

Study for exam

Reading assignment

% o

f nearl

y a

lways

or

alw

ays

pro

crast

inate

• Comparison with previous studies in different population:

• Much more heavy procrastinators in CUHK

Case Studies• Qualitative Research

Who did we ask?• 5 students from 5 different

faculties • Business

• Engineering

• Medicine

• Science

• Social Science

What did we ask?1. Please state the assignments/tasks you had to complete

in the previous academic year and their details.

2. Please state some of reasons for procrastination that describe your situation.

3. What happens with familiar/non-familiar work respectively? Does the situation improve as you become more familiarized with the task?

4. Why do you think others procrastinate/not procrastinate?

5. Is there any relationship between your grade (for that task) and your procrastination (if any)?

6. How to cope with procrastination?

7. Do you feel regret for it?

8. Do you plan/try/want not to procrastinate?

9. Do you have any particular methods to make yourself start working earlier?

10.What are your study plans?

Case• Programme: Computer Engineering

• Faculty: Engineering

• Gender: Female

1. Please state the assignments/tasks you had to complete in the previous academic year and their details.

• Programming assignment

• 1 every 2-3 weeks

• Start 1 week before deadline

• Finish 1 day before deadline

• Maths HW

• 1 every 1-2 weeks

• Start 1 day before

• Finish 1 day before

Case

2. Please state some of reasons for procrastination that describe your situation.

• Assignment first released Thinks that there is much time left

Do not have to start early

• Others have not started doing the assignment start later can discuss with classmates

• Too lazy to start early

Case

3. What happens with familiar/non-familiar work respectively? Does the situation improve as you become more familiarized with the task?

• If not familiar with work:

• Procrastinate till last week before due date(programming assignment) or last day before due date(other written assignments)

• If familiar with work:

• Estimate time needed to spend in completing the assignment is short procrastinate till one day before deadline

Case

4. Why do you think others procrastinate?

• Workload too heavy

Why do you think others not procrastinate?

• Too hard-working

5. Is there any relationship between your grade (for that task) and your procrastination (if any)?

• No, grade won’t be affected

• Once started will devote most of the time to do assignment

• Seldom fail to complete the assignment

6. Do you feel regret for it?

• No regret

Case

7. What are your study plans?

• Start revision for test/exam 3 days before

• If workload is heavy start revision 1 day before the test/exam but may revise overnight

• If large period between exams play/watch movie/drama & start revision 3 days before

Deadline Schedules:

• Programming asgn: 90% Doing Asgn, 10% FB, mobile games

• Other HW: 10% Doing Asgn, 90% FB, Watch Movie/Drama/mobile games

• Exam/Test: 50% Play, 50% Study

Case

Overall findings

• Reasons for procrastination

• Think there is much time left when homework is first released

• Other classmates not yet started pointless to start early cannot discuss with them

• Do not like the task

• Think the task is too hard

Overall findings•Why do you think some people do not

procrastinate?

• Self-disciplined

• Sacrifice time with friends

• Too hard-working

• Heavy workload

• No part-time job

Overall findings• Does procrastinating affect your

grades?

• (Engineering student)Devote most of the time to do the assignments once started doing Mostly complete the task will not affect grade

• (Social science student)Start earlier can make the essay-typed assignment more perfect better grade

Overall findings• Familiarity with the work and

procrastination?

• Not familiar with work: may procrastinate

• Familiar with work:confident that they can finish on time arrange to work on it closer to deadline

Overall findings

• How to cope with procrastination?

• 2 students think there is no way to cope with it

• Some think peer pressure can help

Overall findings

• How can peers help cope with procrastination?

• Start revising soon when a friend started

• Pointless to start early when everyone else is procrastinating, esp. with group projects

• Will not start their homework when others have not started, because they will want to discuss with them

Discussion• Conclusions

• Limitations

Discussion• Referring to our hypotheses:

1.Procrastination is a prevalent problem among CUHK undergraduates

• Over 50% of respondents nearly always or always procrastinate on certain tasksProve

n!

Discussion• Referring to our hypotheses:

2.Procrastination has negative outcomes and causes unpleasantness

• Around 50% of respondents think procrastination is a problem to them and want to reduce it

• Case studies: Degree of affect depends on nature of the tasks

• HW with absolute answer (Math, Programming) Less conq.

• No absolute answer (Paper, presentation) Heavier conq.

• Revision Heavier conq.

Not alway

s!

Discussion• Referring to our hypotheses:

3.Students tends to procrastinate on academic issues than on other issues

• Low positive correlation between degree of academic and general procrastination

• Degree of procrastination in academic affairs like writing paper, preparing for exams > >"less academic” tasks like administrative tasks, attendance tasks, general school activities

• Case studies: Only procrastinate on writing paper or revisions

Proven!

Limitations

• Gender of Interviewees in all case studies

• Sample size of Survey

• Uneven distribution of Gender, Year and Faculty

• Personal Questions

• Self-Report Problems - Subjectivity• Deviation

• Understanding

• Culture

Take Home Message

• More than half of CUHK undergraduates procrastinate on academic issues

• Faculties and format of assessments somehow affect the tendency to procrastinate

• Peer pressure can help reduce procrastination

Feedback and Criticism

Open Discussion