Procrastination and self esteem

Procrastination appears to be a common problem in western worlds, specifically with college students in relation to academic-specific tasks in comparison to normal adults with everyday tasks. Varied perspectives have been applied to the research of procrastination and some have come to their conclusions as to the nature of procrastination and the reasons behind it. Indirect evidence points to a correlation existing between self-esteem and procrastination. The evidence briefly displays that high levels of self-esteem tend to be coupled with lower rates of procrastination as well as lower levels of conflicting effects from procrastination.

Findings have pointed to achievement motivation having a part in the relationship between self-esteem and procrastination. Achievement motivation is a perceived trait associated with this correlation as well as almost a hundred other traits that all demonstrate the inherent closeness of the two elements in terms of activation and causation. Higher levels of motivation resulted in higher self-esteem and less procrastination.

Recent literature made it apparent that personality and behavior comprise the phenomenon of self-esteem and procrastination. The question is whether or not there exists a causal relationship between self-esteem and procrastination, much like the chicken that lays an egg. Does one cause the other or are they the effects of a mixture of behaviors and traits.

The aim for the paper and the study is to determine through observation and calculation any positive or negative complement between procrastination and self-esteem levels. The hypothesis asks the question if there would be a relationship between self-esteem levels and procrastination. The results seem to point that there is a correlation between the two ideas.

The study consists of 103 randomly selected males and females aged from 18-60 where the apparatus used is the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) as well as the Procrastination Scale (Lay, 1986). The procedure consists of a group of 3rd year Psychology Students randomly selected 103 subjects to survey. 13 cases were removed due to outliers and incomplete data. A one way ANOVA was conducted.

Results:

Young adults (103 randomly selected males and females aged from 18-60) completed questions on the measures of varying levels of procrastination, self-esteem, interpersonal dependency, and self-defeating behavior. A one way ANOVA displays data that aruges that procrastination types showed compelling relation to low self-esteem. Low self-esteem consisted of dependency on others, and other obstructing behaviors.

Among specific self-defeating behaviors, procrastination was described as the inability to complete and succeed at completeing important tasks as well as agitating anger in others. In the spectrum of procrastination there was also a relation to failing task completion and feeling contrite after a positive event and actively choosing situations that would place an obstacle in front of them. The young adults randomly selected also demonstrated failure to complete crucial opportunities that would lead to pleasure which can then be correlated with having low self-esteem as a result of such behavior.

Self-esteem seems to predict or result in behavioral procrastination and vice versa. These results suggest that procrastination may be predicted by similar personality factors. It is also implied that chronic procrastination is dysfunctional toward achieving life goals and perhaps decreasing even further one's self-esteem leading to a cylical negative impace on life and achievement.

Of the population sampled, the variance between the two populations, male and female, were roughly the same in relation to procrastination and self-esteem. Sum of squares and the mean square between groups were the same, but the sum of squares and the mean square within the groups were different. The ones who demonstrated high levels of procrastination showed low levels of self-esteem. The ones who demonstrated low levels of procrasintation showed high levels of self-esteem. The treatments had an effect in the sample. In this experimental context, the finding of different variances is as important as the finding of different means. If the variances are truly different, which they have shown to be then the populations are different regardless of what ANOVA concludes about differences among the means resulting in a truly random sample.

Discussion

Through the process of the study and the paper, it has been revealed that when people with low self-esteem fail, they feel a sense of humiliation and a preoccupation with themselves that leads to even further decreased levels of self-esteem. In particular with college students who might base their self-worth on academics may become more emotionally hurt by failure then those who do not.

How does procrastination lead to low self-esteem? Procrastination is a behavior that often leads to stress due to the lack of fufillment and satisfication attributed to the inability to succeed at crucial moments in life. Though procrastination is often thought of as a trivial and unimportant behavior in people, procrastinators suffer when their goals are not met and opportunities are missed. When they fail to reach their potential, they feel a deep sense of sadness. This sadness diminishes a person's self-worth and stability of self leading to issues with self-esteem and in essence the behaviors and results become cyclical. In the long run, constant procrastination can become a threat not just to a person's self-esteem but to their overall health because procrastination can lead to depression and illness.