Social psychology concepts and applications

Sirois, Fuscia M.; Melia-Gordon, Michelle L.; and Pychyl, Timothy A. 2003. "I'll look after my health, later'": and investigation of procrastination and health." Personality and Individual Differences 35, pp. 1167-1184.

Is the problem clearly stated?

The authors examined the mediational role of stress and health behaviors in the procrastination - illness relationship. This was an exploratory study looking for correlations that might indicate areas for further study. They hypothesized that stress mediates the procrastination-illness relationship. In addition they explored possible other factors that might affect any relationship between procrastination and health.

Does the problem have a theoretical rationale?

The theoretical rationale for the study was covered extensively in the review of the literature. Since there was little previous research connecting the behavioral trait of procrastination to physical health, the researchers included detailed study of the theoretical literature as well.

3) How significant is the problem?

The authors did not talk about the significance of the problem. They might have considered relating it to individuals who delay seeking health care because they lack health insurance. Alternatively they could have demonstrated some relationship between delay of treatment and medical outcome. There are many such examples including the outcome of those with myocardial infarction who delay seeking help as compared to those who immediately get to an emergency room. This may not have been practical because of the young age of the participants.

4) Is there a review of the literature? If so, is it relevant?

The introduction includes previous research showing that procrastination correlates with mental health problems. It includes an overview of personality-health models used by other researchers. The researchers note that there is little research connecting the trait of procrastination to physical health, so they research connecting stress to immune system problems, but possible explanations had not been pursued. Other research they evaluated suggested that stress might not be the only factor involved in the mediation process. The authors noted theory regarding how mental health might interact with physical health.

5) How clearly are the hypotheses stated?

Authors noted that procrastination is a behavior that could impact healthcare choices by delaying needed action, and found theoretical support for that view. They noted that multiple actions affect poor lifestyle and health care choices and that procrastination could affect multiple behavioral choices. The discussion of the ways procrastination might affect healthcare choices was extensive and multi-faceted.

6) Are operational definitions provided?

Researchers used an established scale for measuring procrastination behavior. This scale looked at procrastination across a number of daily tasks. Procrastination was defined as it was reflected on the procrastination questionnaire.

7) Is the procedure (or method) used to attack and answer the problem fully and completely described?

Researchers noted the demographic characteristics of their participant-pool. Demographic information was included in the statistical analysis. Another scale was used to evaluate stresses in the participants' lives. No reliability information was given for that scale. The "Wellness Behavior Checklist was used to measure health-related lifestyle, with reliability data provided. They used the "Brief Medical and Treatment History" questionnaire in an adopted form, invalidating any reliability statistics on that form for their use.

They used the Treatment Delay Index to determine if the participants delayed needed treatment. In their formula they excluded both severe illnesses such as cancer and mild conditions such as headache or cold.

8) Are there any probable sources of error that might influence the results of the study? If so, have they been controlled?

The scale used had established internal consistency measures and a test-retest reliability of.80. Combined with a sample of 122 students it suggests that good statistical analysis can be accomplished. However, all the participants were college students. They were college students given an incentive to enroll in the research (all were entered into a raffle for a $200 prize), and there were twice as many female as male college students.

9) Were statistical techniques used to analyze the data? If so, were they appropriate?

The researchers specified very clearly the circumstances they required in order to make the judgment that procrastination had had a mediational effect on that person's choice to get medical care. They generated descriptive statistics including overall health of the group, tendency to delay treatment, and perceived stress as a group measure. They then looked for statistical correlations between procrastination for seeking medical care and the various behavioral scales administered. A number of significant correlations were detected.