Procrastination is an obstacle that anyone can experience with virtually any task one faces. Someone can experience procrastination towards something they simply don’t want to do, be intimidated to do, and so on. More specifically, for students, procrastination can be the demise of their academic ambitions. It is a common hurdle for students, but it can be more difficult for some than others. For some people it could be a passing difficulty, while others struggle with it consistently. There are a couple key factors that contribute to the development of procrastination, which are the lack of intrinsic motivation and social comparison.
Procrastination is a self-defeating strategy, and is defined as, “delaying the completion of a task or intended course of action, can be either an adaptive or maladaptive coping strategy depending on one’s reasons for engaging in it and the type of student that you are.” (Gruman, p. 226). Students frequently experience procrastination when they feel apathetic towards school. According to researchers, they have found “that procrastination is primarily a motivational issue, related to the self-regulation of behavior.” (Gruman, p. 227). A couple reasons why students procrastinate is because they feel they are not equipped to complete their assignments or they feel the assignment frankly is displeasing. Because of procrastination, students often turn in less than proficient work, submit assignments late, and in turn receive lower grades. Students fall into these effects of procrastination due to having a negative perspective on school, then believing it is pointless. If students do not become aware of the seriousness of this mindset, it is possible they can drop out of school as a result of their procrastinating tendencies.
In order for students to overcome this self hindrance so that they can succeed in reaching their academic goals, they need to realize the root of the problem. A root problem in procrastination in academics would be that education is externally rewarding. This encourages students to be motivated by external rewards, which then is depleted rather quickly. Regarding this, researchers claim “The unintended message conveyed to students is that working on academic tasks is not interesting or is of little value, and that rewards are needed to get people to learn.” (Gruman, p. 230). It is difficult for students to become or remain motivated to stay consistent with their studies because they are not interested in the tasks or they feel the tasks are not worth doing.
Another factor in procrastination for students is social comparison. An example, a student can have motivation for their entire academic career because they have been satisfied with their performance in grades. Problems can arise in their motivation if they get a lower score than expected and see another student excelling as they could have been. Simply, a student comparing their academics to another and seeing someone else doing better can cause them to feel less motivated. In other words, “Comparing your performance with that of your classmate, you may end up feeling bad even though the grade you received was a fairly good one.” (Gruman, p. 235). Of course, it seems almost innate to compare ourselves socially, however, it is important to make an effort towards using it in a healthy and helpful way instead of it becoming something negative.
Overall, procrastination is something that everyone experiences, however, students should carefully monitor their time so they don’t fall victim to their own self-defeating tendencies. They should be aware of what they need to stay motivated and what behaviors they should avoid to stay focused. The external structure of education is not ideal for students’ motivation because motivation is intrinsic. And social comparison can deplete motivation when a student is already lacking self confidence. Both intrinsic values and positive self-comparison are important to keep procrastination at bay so students can strive for success.
References
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology : Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
My roommate and I had a discussion last night that fall in line with the idea of procrastination. We were discussing our perspective futures where she has been applying to a multitude of Physician Assistant (PA) schools and has been denied by all of them. Apparently, PA colleges reject initial applications to determine the level of motivation from the individual to want to be a PA. She was discussing how she has not only a bachelor’s in health sciences, but experience working in the health system, shadowing PAs, completed certifications, and essentially is completely qualified, she was informed that getting a nursing degree, or going into a paramedic program will increase her chances. This will require up to two years of education to complete, only to have to apply for further education to become a PA. What was the most discouraging is the fact that her degree is not enough to have her even considered, and regardless of the amount of experience and qualifications, it all comes back to her GPA.
There are constant discussions of the lack of fulfillment of specific jobs and yet the standards have increased for those positions. Regardless of the amount of effort put into the work, the chances of advancing into the preferred career are limited, and alternative options are to be turned to. Prior to Penn State when I was finishing my AA online from my local community college, my procrastination was due to needed extra pressure to be placed on me to complete better quality work, all this while having a full-time job. Since coming to Penn State, my environmental situation has changed, as well as added stress of a full time as well as now having a mortgage, and even more bills, life expenses, worse pay for higher priced items, an increase in medical concerns, and the general stress of life within our society.
There is something to be said about low self-esteem and procrastination which has found a correlation with the two, being that a lower self-esteem leads to more procrastination (Al-mehsin & Al-Rbabaah, 2015, p. 200). There is also a negative correlation between procrastination and academic motivation, the less motivation the more procrastination (Al-mehsin & Al-Rbabaah, 2015, pp. 200-201). Al-mehsin and Al-Rbabaah (2015) also found that environment of one’s society influences cognitive motivation (p. 206). Therefore, when fulfillment is had in a multitude of realms within the individual’s life, and the free time can accomplish the academic needs, higher cognitive motivation is had, and less procrastination comes because of that (Al-mehsin & Al-Rbabaah, 2015, p. 206). When one’s environment creates a homogeneity among their educational life balance, a positive correlation can be seen with cognitive motivation (Al-mehsin & Al-Rbabaah, 2015, p. 206). What allows for the individual to bypass or respond to daily obstacles is optimism, which also contributes to lessening their physical and psychological influences (Al-mehsin & Al-Rbabaah, 2015, p. 207).
With all this in mind, I agree with your points, especially regarding the interest of tasks. With these factors at play, internal and external factors combined, there is a greater potential of someone procrastination. It is paramount, especially with individuals who have an entirely asynchronous online experience, that the courses provide ample amounts of informative and engaging material that keep the motivation of the student at a constant. Of course, lulls will occur, but I feel that when individuals are more often teaching themselves in these courses, less motivation will be had for them.
References
Al-mehsin, S. A., & Al-Rbabaah, J. K. (2015). The Predictive Ability of Cognitive Motivation, Optimism and Pessimism of Academic Procrastination. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(36), 2222-288X.