TITLE:
Understanding and Treating Procrastination: A Review of a Common Self-Regulatory Failure
AUTHORS:
Alexander Rozental, Per Carlbring
KEYWORDS:
Procrastination, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Review
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.5 No.13,
September
17,
2014
ABSTRACT: Procrastination
is a pervasive self-regulatory failure affecting approximately one-fifth of the
adult population and half of the student population. It is defined as one’s
voluntarily delay of an intended course of action despite being worse off as a
result of that delay. Procrastination has a negative impact on performance and
is associated with poorer mental health. Stress, worry, and feelings of guilt
are common among those who procrastinate recurrently. In addition,
procrastination is associated with fewer mental health-seeking behaviors and
increased treatment delay, leading to greater distress and the exacerbation of
illness. The current paper seeks to provide a theoretical and clinical
understanding of procrastination by reviewing prior research. Procrastination
can be understood using different motivational theories, learning theory,
self-efficacy theory, as well as biases and heuristics. Temporal motivational
theory is proposed as an integrated explanation for procrastination, consisting
of the interaction of four different variables: expectancy, value,
impulsiveness, and time, each of which affects the tendency to procrastinate. A
general implication is that procrastination should be regarded as an
idiosyncratic behavioral problem that requires a cognitive case
conceptualization or a functional analysis in order to guide therapists in
their work. A number of treatment interventions might be used in relation to
procrastination—for example, efficacy performance spirals, automaticity,
stimulus control, stimulus cues, learned industriousness, and cognitive
restructuring. Furthermore, the current paper explores the evidence on using
cognitive behavior therapy for procrastination, discussing the scarcity of
randomized controlled trials and the lack of validated outcome measures, and highlighting
the need for further research.