Understanding Procrastination: A Narrative Review

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22303266

Roshni Singh¹ and Sonam Kumari Rawat² (Department of Psychology, University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh¹ and Department of Psychology, Feroze Gandhi College Raebareli, Associated with University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh²)

Procrastination is a prevalent, harmful, needless, and irrational delay of a task in preference for other more luring or rewarding tasks or activities. This study provides an integrative understanding of the predictors, major theoretical framework, and intervention strategies associated with Procrastination. Empirical findings indicate that personality traits such as Conscientiousness and Agreeableness are strongly negatively associated with procrastination. At the same time, Neuroticism is strongly positively correlated with procrastination, along with impulsivity, Boredom, and task aversiveness. Besides the predictors of procrastination, the psychological and behavioural outcomes are also discussed. The study further focuses on the different major theoretical frameworks, such as Temporal Discounting, Self-efficacy theory, Intention-Action Gap theory, and Temporal Motivation Theory, which offer valuable insights into motivational and cognitive underpinnings of procrastination. Moreover, the study highlights the different interventions used for reducing the delay behaviour. Despite the fact that there are a number of studies available on procrastination, the most influential intervention and an effective theory to explain the behaviour is still vague and needs further exploration. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of procrastination and informs practical approaches for its management and prevention.