For us students, the temptations to procrastinate are high given the alternative of a stressful assignment. Procrastinating could represent our way to avoid adverse effects of stress and high emotions, which in turn affects our health and mental states. This is one of the ways that we self regulate our impulses, emotions, and desires. But the inability and deficiency to do so effectively would create a very intense and disadvantageous situation for us. Chronic procrastination, therefore, causes emotional distress and regulatory failures. In a study by the Case Western Reverse University, self-control was found to break down under emotional distress. Much like how a person will overeat in order to reverse the effects of a bad mood, procrastination is a destruction of our resistance to short term gratification. The mechanism between regulation and distress aren't exactly clear, but there are neuropsychological theories to explain the correlation.
Laura Rabin of Brooklyn College recognized and ascribed the frontal systems of the brain to be related to self regulation, which comprises itself of executive functional behaviors. These behaviors include planning, self-control, and problem solving. Rabin and her colleagues examined 212 students and observed first their level of procrastination, and then the correlation to nine clinical subdivisions of executive functioning: impulsivity, self-monitoring, planning and organization, activity shifting, task initiation, task monitoring, emotional control, general orderliness, and working memory. What she found was that procrastinators assigned themselves to all of the nine subscales according to a BRIEF-A (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning - Adult version) self report, indicating that many dysfunctional behaviors of executive functioning leads itself to procrastination. Of course, all of this is correlational rather than causational, and done relied itself on self reports. Still, this study might indicate that procrastination is an expression of subtle executive dysfunction.
References:
Rabin, L., Fogel, J., Nutter-Upham, K. 2011. Academic procrastination in college students: The role of self-reported executive function. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 33(3): 344-357.
Tice, D., Bratslavsky, E., Baumeister, R. 2001. Emotional Distress Regulation Takes Precedence Over Impulse Control: If You Feel Bad, Do It!. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 80(1): 53-67.
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ReplyDeleteAs I often find myself fighting procrastination urges, I wanted to review any recent literature on procrastination. A study published earlier this year was conducted to determine if procrastination is specific to one or more of the following life domains: academic and work, everyday routines and obligations, health, leisure, family and partnership, and social contacts. The study included 260 students who rated their likeliness to procrastinate in the domains listed above via an online survey. As most would suspect, the academic and work domain had the highest frequency for procrastination. However, due to the limitations of the study, future research should include additional subjects and expand outside of the student base. Also, although academic and work responsibilities are often characterized by deadlines, separating the two categories into separate domains could provide some additional insight. Beyond these investigative surveys, there doesn't appear to be any current literature regarding the neurological or chemical mechanisms behind procrastination behaviors. Though there are decades of research on procrastination, it’s evident there is still much to be learned.
ReplyDeleteREFERENCE:
Klingsieck, K. 2013 Jun. Procrastination in different life-domains: is procrastination domain specific?. Current Psychology. 32(2):175-185.
I actually would like to know if there are differential levels or mechanisms of procrastination in separate domains; certainly, one could surmise that different motivations for finishing a project can range between the work and academic field. I would tend to think that most procrastination done in the working domain are more heavily influenced by time constraints rather than motivational causes, because in the work domain, rewards are met out with monetary incentive, whereas in the academic domain, no equivalent rewards can be found except for the gratification of acquiring knowledge. Put in the factor of different occupations too, and procrastination within the work domain would certainly vary.
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