Procrastination, Performance, Stress, and Health

¶ … Procrastination, Performance, Stress, and Health" (1997) was that procrastinating is a cause for factors that affected people's health, stress level, and overall academic performance. A group of researchers conducted a study on a group of 60 students who took a Health Psychology college course throughout the semester, and the researchers wanted to know if procrastinators were any different from non-procrastinators when it came to grades, stress, and health (Tice & Baumeister, 454). They measured the students' stress levels by using self-reported symptoms and trips to a health center throughout the semester. The researchers also used grades as a measurement of performance. They concluded that overall, non-procrastinators performed significantly better overall than procrastinators, but procrastinators were in much better health with less illness, and reported less overall stress than non-procrastinators. However, two trials were conducted that showed that procrastinators show little stress in the beginning of a semester, but toward the end of the semester, when assignments are actually due to be handed in, the stress is so much higher that it negates any possible overall health benefits of procrastination (Tice & Baumeister, 456). Overall, the researchers and authors of the article made it clear that procrastinating is a set of harmful, self-indulgent, and self-defeating behaviors (Tice & Baumeister, 457).

Dejection was the first word that I encountered that was unfamiliar. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, dejection means, "lowness of spirits." Another word, tangential, was also unfamiliar, and it is defined as, "of, relating to, or of the nature of a tangent" (merriam-webster.com). Converging, another unacquainted word, is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, "to come together and unite in a common interest or focus." A final word that was unfamiliar was corroborate, which is defined as, "to support with evidence or authority; make more certain" (merriam-webster.com).

Key words are important to the main idea of the article at hand. In the case of this article, procrastination is a major key word. It is defined as "to put off intentionally and habitually the doing of something that should be done" (merriam-webster.com). This key word was exactly what the researchers intended on finding results about. Their results were then based on other key words such as performance, which is defined as, "the execution of an action; something accomplished" (merriam-webster.com) and motivation which is defined as, "the condition of being motivated" (merriam-webster.com). Stress and health were also major key words in the article, as these were aspects that were being measured by the researchers. Stress is defined as "a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation" (merriam-webster.com) while health is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, "the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit; the general condition of the body." All of the words mentioned make it clear what the article intends to focus on.

The most important passages are those that explain the limitations in the study. As was clearly stated by the authors, "Without random assignment and experimental control, we cannot assert that procrastination causes the stress and health effects" (Tice & Baumeister, 457). Another important passage, also a limitation acknowledgment is, "there is no way to differentiate among people who might have planned all along to do the work at the last minute & #8230;who may have ended up working at the last minute for other reasons [although they meant to]" (Tice & Baumeister, 457). These passages are essential because it allows for the reader to realize that there is always room for error, and that studies are meant to just provide proof to a researcher's hypothesis, although many other factors that could have influenced that outcome could have occurred.