The Effect Of Imaging The Task Process And Task Outcome On Procrastination

Procrastinate is to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay(Steel,2007).Procrastination is a widely existing problem and has a negative effect on people's daily life and mental health.Understanding cognitive mechanisms of procrastination and how to mitigate this problem is important.The decision model for procrastination suggests that motivational competition between procrastination and timely engagement is the rooted process for determining to prolong a task or not.Furthermore,this motivational combat can be simplified as comparison between averseness of engaging in task and rewards(or punishments)from the task.Specifically,humans' tendency to procrastinate mainly stem from the task process the motivation to timely undertake a task usually stems from the task outcome.However,little is known about the relationship between task process,task outcome and procrastination.In addition,a large amount of research has shown that episodic future thinking can help people make more long-sighted choices.However little is known about the effect of episodic future thinking on procrastination decisions.Therefore,the present research attempted to investigate following two problems:(1)the relationship between focusing on task process or task outcome and procrastination under the natural state(Study 1);(2)the influence of imaging task process or task outcome on procrastination decision-making(Study 2).Through two interconnected studies,our research investigated the effect of imaging task process and task outcome on procrastination and possible mechanisms.In study I,we used free association to examine the extent of procrastination and the association between tasks and task processes and outcomes.Fifty-eight participants were required to list a total of 329 events(about 5-8 events each individual)that they are currently planning to do or doing.They also need to write the main course of action for these task events and the task results that they would like to receive(rewards)or avoid(punishment)before the experiment.Based on each participant's own real-life events,they need to complete a series of scoring tasks on the computer,including the degree of difficulty,emotions,the extent of processes associated with tasks,the degree of outcomes associated with tasks,procrastination and so on.All events are divided into procrastinated events and non-procrastinated events according to procrastination scores of each event.The results showed that:(1)the difficulty of procrastinated events was significantly higher than that of non-procrastinated events;(2)participants had more negative emotions on procrastinated events than on non-procrastinated events;(3)the degree of association to task processes was significantly lower on procrastinated events than on non-procrastinated events.Likewise,the degree of association to task outcomes was significantly lower on procrastinated events than on non-procrastinated events.These results indicate that the avoidance to the task process and the task outcome can lead to procrastination.Based on the results of Study I,in study 2,we used the episodic future thinking to examine the effect of imaging task processes and task outcomes on procrastination decision-making and possible mechanisms by manipulating participants imagining task processes or outcomes.Thirty-three participants were asked to list the procrastinated events and non-procrastinated events in their current lives.They also had to write the main course of action of these events and the results of these tasks they wanted(rewards)or avoided(punishment).After pretests including procrastination scores of each event,feelings to each task,and scores of procrastination decision-making(dependent variables)within 24 hours,participants were instructed to imagine the implementation process or the outcome of procrastinated events or non-procrastinated events respectively(approximately 7-10 events each individual).Then,the posttest the same as the pretest is completed.The results showed that:(1)For procrastinated events,compared to baseline conditions,the likelihood of action within 24 hours is expected to increase significantly after imagining task processes and outcomes;(2)For non-procrastinated events,compared with baseline conditions,It is expected that the imagination of task processes and outcomes had no significant effect on the possibility of action within 24 hours;(3)After imagining the task outcomes,the positive emotion of tasks is significantly higher than that of the pretest.By contrast,after imagining the task processes,emotions of tasks did not change significantly.These results indicate that both imaging task process and task outcomes can mitigate procrastination,but the mechanism for this change in these two cases may be different.it is expected that imaging task outcomes can reduce procrastination decisions because of generating positive emotions.At the same time,imaging task processes can reduce procrastination decisions due to the specification of tasks.Taken together,the results of this research show that:(1)the avoidance to the task process and the task outcome in natural situations leads to more procrastination behaviors;(2)imaging task process and task outcomes can mitigate the procrastination decision-making.These results show that,firstly,the two components of the task processes and outcomes have an important influence on the procrastination.The more the individual cannot think of the task's course of action and outcomes,the more procrastinating it will be on the task.Secondly,episodic future thinking is an effective way to change the individual's procrastination decisions.By manipulating the content of imagination(imaging task processes or task outcomes),individual's procrastination decisions can be changed.This study has a certain theoretical contribution to the explanation of the cognitive mechanism of procrastination.It also provides a theoretical basis for the probable intervention of procrastination behavior.