A Study Of The Difference Between The Procrastinators And The Non-procrastinators Of The Time Estimation Of The Future Tasks

Procrastination is a complex psychological phenomenon,it involves cognitive,emotional and behavioral ingredients.This research defines procrastination as "individual voluntarily delay some tasks,they are characterized by putting off the task that should have begun or completed in time,and they have a subjective experience of discomfort."Studies have shown that procrastination generally exists in human life in all areas,and it brings a lot of negative effects.In the academic field,procrastination was significantly negative correlated with academic achievement;in the area of the work,procrastination not only affects the job performance and the salary level of the individual,but also leads to delay the organization's progress and suffer large losses;in daily life,long-term procrastination always cause anxiety,depression,guilt,self crime and other negative emotions,which affect the individual physical and mental health,frequent procrastination may also be a precursor to potential mental disorders(such as ADHD,neurosis,schizophrenia,etc.).Therefore,procrastination has attracted the attention of researchers in various fields.A large number of studies have shown that procrastination is related to variables such as personality,motivation and emotion,but lack of empirical studies to explore the internal psychological mechanism of procrastination.In recent years,with the time orientation model of procrastination,the study of the cause of procrastination from time orientation has become a hot spot,emphasis on "time factors" is an important cause of procrastination.Previous studies have shown that there are differences in time perception between procrastinators and non-procrastinators,mainly discussed the relationship between procrastination and time management,and there is no study directly discussed the procrastinators' time estimation.Does procrastinators have underestimated the completion time of future tasks,thus resulted in procrastination?Time distance and task type influence procrastination,whether the two variables affect the time estimation of procrastinators for future tasks?Previous study of the effect of time estimation on procrastination is not enough.On the basis of previous studies,this study aims to investigate the time estimation ability of procrastinators.Specifically,this study includes two experiments.In Experiment 1,the subjects were screened by the revised "general procrastination scale"(Chinese version),then two different types of time estimation tasks(academic and non academic tasks)are designed in combination with the reality of Chinese college students,the difference between procrastinators and non-procrastinators for future task time estimates is compared comprehensively.On the basis of experiment 1,Experiment 2 refer to the paradigm of western research,we further examine how do the two variables influence the time estimation of the procrastinators for the future tasks by manipulating time distance and task characteristic.The main conclusions of this study were as followed:(1)There is a significant difference between the procrastinators and the non-procrastinators of the time estimation of the future tasks.By comparison with non-procrastinators,procrastinators underestimate the completion time of future tasks.(2)Time distance affects the time estimation of procrastinators for future tasks.When the time distance is 1 week,there is no significant difference in the time estimate between procrastinators and non procrastinators for future tasks.When the time distance is 6 or 12 weeks,there is extremely significant difference in the time estimate between procrastinators and non procrastinators for future tasks.As the time distance increases,the procrastinators underestimate the time-needed to complete the task compared to the non procrastinators.(3)The task characteristic affects the time estimation of the procrastinators for the future tasks.Whether it is a simple task or a complex task,both procrastinators and non-procrastinators show a tendency to underestimate the time for future tasks to be completed.In complex tasks,procrastinator estimates much less time to accomplish future tasks than non-procrastinator.(4)The time estimation deviation of future tasks is an important factor leading to procrastination.