Students Perceptions of the Reasons behind Procrastination and the Outcomes
Topic 43- Procrastination
Procrastination is the act or habit of putting off or delaying, especially
something requiring immediate attention. Students have a tendency of
postponing their assignments may be due
to the distractions brought about by their fun life. While it may
improve their social life, it is highly detrimental to their academic life
and most of them may end up failing. Investigate students perceptions
of the reasons behind procrastination and the
outcomes of it.
the literature review has to be not more than 2 pages and using at least
3 resources.
Solution
Literature Review
Procrastination
The act or the habit of putting off errands that requires urgent attention can be termed as
procrastination. Students across the world especially the university going students are known to
procrastinate from doing their duties and especially the assignments which is detrimental to the
academic life of such students. In the school context, students delay in working out their
assignments and preparing for their examinations until the last minute leading to the
development of guilt feelings, depressions and even self-doubt as the work piles up towards the
last minute. Procrastination can be said to be a motivational or lack thereof factor and it can
affect the students’ achievements in school either positively or negatively.
Procrastination is said to be a sure bet of failure in life goals as it is a form of self-
sabotage whereby procrastinators put obstacles that prevents their success path thus hurting their
performance. It works against ones self-discipline which is measured by the productivity and
effectiveness of an individual. According to Tefula (2014), procrastination among students is as
a result of lack of self confidence and self-esteem whereby challenging assignments are put off
waiting for another day. Fear of failure is another aspect that has been described as another cause
of procrastination among students. For instance, students may fail to revise for their exams in the
fear that they will not understand a given topic.
Tefula (2014) further explains that one of the perceptions of the procrastination among
students is the fear of their work being judged negatively. In this case, students believe that it is
better they be judged as procrastinators rather than being criticized for their work that they think
they have put best efforts into. It is common for students who consider themselves as highly
performing to start and finish their school work on time for the fear of failing as opposed to
STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS OF THE REASONS BEHIND PROCRASTINATION AND THE
OUTCOMES 3
students who believe that they are low performing as they are easily distracted and are more
likely to procrastinate for the fear of failing. Another perception of procrastination among
students is that of perfectionism. In this case, perfectionists tend to indulge themselves in
excessive research and overindulgent in planning as they tend to worry of what others may think
of them. Such group of students takes failures and the mistakes they do personally leading to low
self-esteem.
According to Tani (2017), the outcomes of procrastination among students is always
characterized by low grades due to poor performance and at times such students are expelled
from their institutions of learning leading to life of frustration that may develop into mental
disorders. It is important to note that the ability to work to the deadlines is an important aspect of
time management and as such, procrastinators are poor time managers and this trait follows them
up to their adult life in their places of work. In most of the cases, procrastination is largely
associated with negative traits but as asserted by Chu and Choi (2005), not all behaviors of
procrastination leads to a negative phenomenon or to negative consequences. In this case,
passive and active procrastinators which categorize a group of students who prefers to work
under pressure thus deliberately procrastinates. The active procrastinators have a better control of
their time and lead to better academic performance as they work best under pressure.
In conclusion, procrastination, an act that has been regarded as a self-sabotage act has
both positive and negative outcomes with most of the practical outcomes being negative. It is
therefore imperative for the students to try and strive hard to avoid the habit of procrastination in
order to ensure better performance and competence in their areas of studies.
STUDENTS PERCEPTIONS OF THE REASONS BEHIND PROCRASTINATION AND THE
OUTCOMES 4
References
Chun Chu, A. H., & Choi, J. N. (2005). Rethinking Procrastination: Positive Effects of "Active"
Procrastination Behavior on Attitudes and Performance. The Journal of Social
Psychology, 145(3), 245-264. doi:10.3200/socp.145.3.245-264
Tefula, M. (2014). Student Procrastination: Seize the Day and Get More Work Done Palgrave
Student to Student. New York: Macmillan International Higher Education
https://books.google.com/books?id=QD8dBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12&dq=procrastination+
AMONG
+STUDENTS&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUzLXBocXnAhUQecAKHR5hBAoQ6A
EIKjAA#v=onepage &q=procrastination%20AMONG%20STUDENTS&f=false
Tani, K. (2017). Academic Procrastination and the Effect on Students' Results for ICT Students.
International Journal Of Cyber Behavior, Psychology And Learning, 7(2), 31-35. doi:
10.4018/ijcbpl.2017040103
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