Speculating About Causes Using Comparison Contrast for the Human Behavior Procrastination

Procrastination

Introduction- For psychologist, procrastination is the uniquely human ability and desire to replace high-priority tasks with those of low-priority, or to avoid doing certain tasks on purpose. It is typically an avoidance behavior, a mechanism for coping with anxiety or fear about a certain task or decision. In general, it can be defined as being: a) counterproductive, needless, and delaying. It may also contribute to several other psychological issues: stress, a sense of guilt, a crisis situation, a loss of personal productivity, and a sense of social disapproval as a result of not meeting expectations, responsibilities, or commitments. It is a self-sabotaging behavior that ironically often produces additional procrastination. As a part of general human behavior, it is considered normal in some scenarios at some times. However, as procrastination impedes normal functioning or becomes chronic, it is likely the sign of an underlying psychological disorder (Schraw, Wadkins and Olafson). A more appropriate definition, with apologies to popular culture, might be to say; "Why do today what you can put off and do tomorrow?"

Theories of Procrastination -- There are four major theories of procrastination: Anxiety, Self-sabotage (self-handicapping), Rebelliousness, and Temporal Motivation Theory. Each person, in the course of their situational behavior ethics, may manifest a different reason for procrastination. Indeed, an individual may exhibit the behavior having one reason for something dealing with work, another for personal life, another for school or familiar responsibilities. The issue becomes serious on a sliding scale, however, when these behavior overlap or become so serious that they in fact do psychological, pyshcosocial, or other harm (fiscal, familial, etc.) to the individual (Burka).

Anxiety -- Fear of Failure -- Perfectionism -- This individual either takes on tasks simply because they are stressful or averside, or add stress to their lives so they can actually procrastinate more. There are a number of conditions that make people anxious -- most especially fear and irrational cognitive belief. One way this type avoids tasks is by saying to themselves, "I cannot do it right, or good enough, so why should I even try." This theory explains why humans avoid tasks, but not so much why we delay them. Fear of failure would mean never trying, not just delaying the task (Ariely and Wertenbroch).

Self-Sabotage or Self-Handicapping -- This part of procrastinating behavior occurs when individuals place obstacles that hinder their own ability to produce results. It often protects self-esteem by giving people an external reason for failing to do well. Self-sabotouers tend to think they are protecting themselves from shame and humiliation by just failiing to proform the task. This aspect has a motivational template to it as well; because all motivations are not the say, the end result of self-handicapping protects the individual on all fronts (Rosner and Hermes).

Rebelliousness -- According to some psychoanlyaists, rebelliousness, disagreeableness and hostiility are major motivations for procrastination. For individuals with these types of personality traits, externally imposed deadlines, schedules, due-dates, or even rubrics for projects are typically experienced as aversive, and thus completely avoided. In addition, by delaying work and starting it on one's own time schedule, a sense of autonomy and a reassertment of the individual is made. Then, if failure results, the individual can say, "It was not my fault, they made me do it this way" (Ferrari, Johnson and McCown).

Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) -- This theory represents the most recent thinking in the psychological community regarding procrastination. It represents the act of procrastination as a sliding scale of motivation, or Motivation = Expectancy X Value/Impulsiveness X Delay. This theory is called utility in other subjects -- the higher the utility, the greater the preference. In the contemporary world, we are constantly needing to make decisions based on various condequences of behavior and action. We therefore put off unpleasant tasks until the last moment, choosing instead to fulfill our primary, social needs. Modern individuals also want immediate and direct feedback; by procrastinating tasks that are unpleasant, we also delay any unpleasantness or potential for unpleasantness into the future where, ostensibly, we will be more equipped to deal with whatever issue we are avoiding (Pychyl).