A Comparative Research On Different Locus Of Controls And Time Management Disposition Of Undergraduates’ Academic Procrastination

Academic procrastination is one of the hot issues studied in the field of educational psychology in recent years. Especially, there are many related research on the influence factors and measuring tools of academic procrastination. However, the comparative study on different types of academic procrastination are rarely seen. The methods of Chu and Choi’s(2005) are used to classify academic procrastination into active procrastination and passive procrastination in this thesis, from the angle of influence of procrastination and the individual subjective wishes. The active procrastinators are different from the passive ones, whoes behavior of procrastination is a kind of adaptive learning method to some extent.Based on the questionnaire and interviewing method, the following issues are discussed in this thesis:first, the differences in terms of locus of controls, time management disposition and the extent of academic procrastination between the two kinds of procrastinators; second, the relationship between the types of academic procrastination and locus of controls or time management disposition; third, the predicting effect of locus of controls and time management disposition on the two types of academic procrastination.The conclusions below are reached by means of quantitative statistic analysis and interview research:1. Nowadays, academic procrastination is a very common phenomenon among college students, and the proportions of active procrastination and passive procrastination in the procrastinators are different under different learning task situations.2. There are no significant differences between the active procrastinators and passive procrastinators in terms of the college students’genders, branches of knowledge and the extent of academic procrastination.3. In the circumstance of preparing for exams, there are significant differences between the active procrastinators and passive procrastinators in terms of locus of controls(including the dimensions of internality and powerful others), the total points of time management disposition (including the sense of time value, the sence of control, and the sense of efficacy). Nevertheless, the two types of procrastinators are almost the same in the sense of time value and the extent of academic procrastination.4. In the circumstance of finishing course assignments, there are significant differences between the active procrastinators and passive procrastinators in the respects of locus of control (including the dimensions of internality, chance and powerful others), the total points of time management disposition (including the sense of time value, the sence of control, and the sense of efficacy), and the extent of academic procrastination.5. Active procrastinators belong to the type of internal control in the sense of locus of control, who are good at time managing. On the contrary, passive procrastinators belong to the type of being controled by powerful others, who are poor in time managing.6. In the circumstance of preparing for exams, the active procrastination can be predicted by interality and the sense of time value, while the passive procrastination can be predicted by powerful others, the sense of time efficacy and the sense of time control. In the circumstance of finishing course assignments, the active procrastination can be predicted by interality, while the passive procrastination can be predicted by powerful others and the sense of time control.