Table 2. Reasons for procrastination reported by the students (N=347).
SD: standard deviation
Sl. no | Major domains of procrastination | Sub-domains | Score, mean ± SD |
1 | Evaluation anxiety | Worried about getting a bad grade | 3.20 ± 1.51 |
Concerned professor wouldn’t like your work | 2.92 ± 1.41 | ||
2 | Perfectionism | Set very high standards yourself and worry that won’t be able to meet those standards | 3.03 ± 1.51 |
Concerned you won’t meet your own expectations | 3.03 ± 1.45 | ||
3 | Difficulty making decisions | Hard time knowing what to include and not to include in your paper | 3.19 ± 1.34 |
Couldn’t choose among all the topics | 2.80 ± 1.29 | ||
4 | Laziness | Didn’t have enough energy to begin the task | 2.88 ± 1.49 |
Just felt too lazy to write a term paper | 3.02 ± 1.48 | ||
5 | Time management | Had too many other things to do | 3.14 ± 1.44 |
Felt overwhelmed by the task | 2.73 ± 1.28 | ||
6 | Lack of assertion | Need to ask the professors for information, but felt uncomfortable approaching them | 3.05 ± 1.41 |
Difficulty in requesting information from other people | 2.78 ± 1.44 | ||
7 | Dependency | Waited to see if the professor would give some more information about the paper | 2.71 ± 1.41 |
Waited until a classmate did his/hers to get some advice | 2.94 ± 1.39 | ||
8 | Task aversion | Disliked writing a term paper | 2.70 ± 1.47 |
Felt too long to write a term paper | 2.81 ± 1.34 | ||
9 | Low self-esteem | Didn’t trust yourself to do a good job | 2.46 ±1.49 |
Didn’t think you knew enough to write the paper | 2.85 ± 1.37 | ||
10 | Risk-taking | Looked for the excitement of risk-taking this task at the last minute | 2.68 ± 1.51 |
Liked the challenge of waiting until the deadline | 2.55 ± 1.56 | ||
11 | Rebellion against control | Resented people setting deadlines for you | 2.52 ± 1.42 |
Resented to do things assigned by others | 2.63 ± 1.38 | ||
12 | Peer pressure | Knew that your classmates hadn’t started the paper either | 2.78 ± 1.42 |
Friends were pressuring you to do other things | 2.37 ± 1.41 | ||
13 | Fear of failure | Concerned that if you got a good grade, people would have higher expectations of you in the future | 2.60 ± 1.49 |
Concerned that if you did well, your classmates would resent you | 2.31± 1.39 |