g85 – procrastination united college final year project ann cheung bianca hsu michelle cheng nana...
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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
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
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
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?
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• 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