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Procrastination

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Intended delay; Purposive and irrational avoidance; Negatively related to conscientiousness; Self-handicapping strategy; Self-regulation process

Definition

The purposive and frequent delay in beginning or completing a task to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort.

The intentional yet irrational postponement of a course of action despite knowing that this delay has negative effects.

Introduction

Scientists find that an estimated 20% of adult men and women, living around the world (as of 2016, in Austria, Australia, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Peru, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela), are chronic procrastinators – persons intentionally delaying as a self-sabotaging strategy decisions and tasks that need to be done. Only in the past 25 years has a large interest arisen in examining the cause, consequences, and (data-driven) cures of this widespread, maladaptive personality tendency (Ferrari 2010). This entry...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, De Paul University, 2219 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60614, USA

    Joseph R. Ferrari

  2. Department of Psychology, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, 77840, USA

    Thomas P. Tibbett

Authors
  1. Joseph R. Ferrari
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  2. Thomas P. Tibbett
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joseph R. Ferrari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Anna Czarna

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Ferrari, J.R., Tibbett, T.P. (2017). Procrastination. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2272-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2272-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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