Research Paper Relationship Between Self Esteem and Procratination

The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Procrastination

Psyc 1013 – Introduction to Research Methods in Psychology

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the relationship between self-esteem and procrastination. A questionnaire was administered to a total of thirty (30) students from all faculties of the University of The West Indies Cave Hill Campus, who agreed to participate in the study. The responses obtained were recorded and the analyses were acquired through the entry of data into SPSS for Windows. Results revealed a moderately negative correlation between self-esteem and procrastination.

INTRODUCTION
Pervin and John (1997, P.186) cited a study of self-esteem conducted by Coppersmith (1967), where he defined self-esteem as “the evaluation an individual makes and customarily maintains with regards to the self”. Coppersmith stated that a person’s self-esteem is the amount of worthiness the individual perceives himself as possessing and this worthiness is influenced by factors in his environment.
Cohen and Manion (1981) contended that the self-esteem or the way a person feels about themselves consists of all the abilities and assumptions that he holds concerning himself, these feelings are believed to affect the ways in which the individual approaches tasks and the level at which he performs them.
Rosenberg (1965) argued that persons with high self-esteem, express feelings that he/she is “good enough”, “the individual simply feels that he is a person of worth, he respects himself for what he is”. While on the other hand low self-esteem “implies self-rejection, self-dissatisfaction, and self-contempt”. Rosenberg postulated that persons with low self-esteem (egophiles) report greater difficulty and hesitation in social interactions and tend to have lower aspirations and expectations for success, than individuals with high self-esteem (egophobes).
Procrastination is often referred to as the delaying of an action to a later date. It is seen in the field of psychology as delaying high priority tasks and replacing them with less important ones. According to Shraw, Wadkins, and Olafsonin in their article "Doing the things we do: A grounded theory of academic procrastination" (Journal of Educational Psychology), they stated that a behaviour must be counterproductive, needless and delaying for it to be classified as procrastination. Evans (2007) suggests that the prefrontal cortex can play a part in the physiological part of procrastination. This area of the brain is responsible for brain functions such as planning, attention and impulse control.
A review of procrastination literature revealed that low self esteem is a characteristic of procrastinators (Burka and Yeun, 1983). Procrastination is viewed as a method of protecting their low self worth. “Putting things off acts as a buffer for their shaky sense of self worth” (Burka and Yeun, 1982, p. 32). They suggests that there may be many more reasons for procrastination such as deficient time management and study skills, the inability to make decisions, fear of success and lack of assertion. Two types of procrastinators have been identified, the relaxed type and the tense-afraid type. The first type devotes energy to other tasks because they view the main tasks negatively. The tense-afraid type procrastinator is usually exhausted with pressure and is not goal oriented and portrays many negative feelings.
Effert and Ferarri, (1989) also concur low self-esteem a product of this behaviour. Ellis and Knause (1977) posit that procrastination can be seen as an “emotional disturbance stemming from irrational thoughts.” Having thoughts such as “I will only be considered a worthwhile person if I do well on my assignments,” will cause a person’s self-esteem to be lowered if they failed at succeeding. More so, this unreasonable way of thinking is used to avoid starting or finishing assignment because the student begins to think that doing the work will prove even more that they are not worthwhile, and as they don’t want to feel any worse about themselves the work is delayed. Various studies produced the following figures about university students who engaged in procrastination: ninety five percent (Ellis and Knaus, 1977), forty six percent of university students (Solomon and Rothblum, 1984) and seventy five percent (Potts, 1987). According to Semb, Glick and Spencer, (1979), this leads to unsatisfactory academic performance which includes grades and deregistering of courses. They also go on to say that the longer the student is in college the more they procrastinate. The aim of the study was to test the relationship of self-esteem with procrastination.

METHOD
Participants
The participants for this study consisted of thirty students from the University of the West Indies. The students ranged in age from seventeen (17) to forty- four (44) with eighteen (18) being females and twelve (12) being males. The mean age of the sample was 22 years of age. The students were members from all faculties. All the students participated voluntarily in the study.

Materials
Procrastination Scale (Lay,1986) and The Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) questionnaires were used to gain feedback on the items proposed for the research instrument. The Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) consisted of ten (10) questions; items 2, 5,6,8,9 are reversed scored. The scale goes from 1(“Strongly Agree”)to 4(“strongly Disagree”).The Procrastination Scale (Lay,1986) “for student populations” consisted of twenty (20) questions; items 3,4,6,8,11,13,14,15,18,20 are reversed scored. The scale goes from 1(“Extremely Uncharacteristic”) to 5(“Extremely Characteristic”) with 3 being (“Neutral”). Both scales are scored by summing up results of the instrument. Participants indicated some flaws in some areas. Indicators were that some of the questions were unclear and gave them a sense of depression.

Procedure
Participants were asked to fill out a survey for a first year research methods psychology course. All thirty participants had a booklet comprised of two parts. They were also told to write their age and sex in the front page of each survey. Rosenberg Self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965) survey was the first instrument in the booklet followed by Procrastination Scale (Lays, 1986).

Results
Table 1 presents means and standard deviations and Table 2 presents the correlation coefficients among all the variables tested in this study. Statistical tests reported and a degree of freedom of 28 (df = 28). The relationship between self -esteem and procrastination was investigated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient, with self-esteem having a standard deviation of (SD=6.2) and procrastination (SD=6.5) There was a significantly positive correlation between self-esteem and procrastination r=.41,p=.02, N=30, this is an indicator that persons with high / low procrastination scores are more than likely going to exhibit high / low self-esteem scores this as because as one variable increases so does the other.
The relationship between gender and age was investigated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient, with gender having a standard deviation of (SD=.50) and age (SD=6.5)There was a weak positive correlation between the two variables r= .23 n=30 p=.23
Further analyses were done and it was found that there was no relationship between the two variables.

The relationship between gender and self-esteem scores was investigated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient with the self- esteem scores having a standard deviation of (SD=6.2) There was a strong positive correlation between the two variables r= .10 n=30 p=.60
Further analyses were done and it was found that there was no significant relationship between the two variables. Gender had no significant relationship on any of the variables in the study.

The relationship between gender and procrastination scores was investigated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient with the procrastination scores having a standard deviation of (SD=10.4) There was a negative correlation between the two variables r= -.04 n=30 p=.60
Further analyses were done and it was found that there was norelationship between the two variables.
The relationship between age and procrastination scores was investigated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient.There was a weak positive correlation between the two variables r=.15 n=30 p=.43
Further analyses were done and it was found that there was no relationship between the two variables.
The relationship between age and self-esteem scores was investigated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient. There was a weak positive correlation between the two variables r=.29 n=30 p=.12
Further analyses were done and it was found that there was no relationship between the two variables. Age had no significant relationship to any of the variables in the study.
Discussion
The analyses of data revealed that the two variables did relate with each other causing there to be a strong positive correlation. The results show that although procrastination and self esteem do affect each other, in this study the data proved the literature incorrect where as Effert (1989) and Ferrari (1994) as well as Burka and Yuen (1982) both state that procrastination is connected to weak self esteem. According to the calculated information, the higher the self esteem the higher level of procrastination the person has. More so, the point of irrational beliefs (Ellis and Knause, 1977) proved to be of no correlation based on the results. However, from the procrastination scores obtained, twenty-four out of the thirty students who completed the survey have procrastination scores about fifty. The issue of validity and generalising from our conclusions will come about because only thirty students participated. It can be surmised from our findings that other students who did not take part in the study would have produce the same results between procrastination and self esteem.

References
Burka, J. B. & Yeun, L (1982). Mind games procrastinators play. Psychology Today, pp.32-34
Burka, J. B. & Yeun, L (1983). Procrastination: Why you do it, and what to do about it. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley
Effert, B. R. & Ferrari, J. R. (1989). Decisional Procrastination: Examining personality correlates. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 4, 151-161
Ellis, A. & Knaus W. J. (1977). Overcoming Procrastination. New York: Institute of Rational Living.
Potts, T. J. (1987). Predicting Procrastination on Academic Tasks with Self-Report Personality Measures. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. New York: Hofstra University .
Rothblum, E. D. & Solomon, L. J. (1984).Academic Procrastination: Frequency and cognitive behavioural correlates. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 31, 503-509. Semb, G., Glick, D. M. & Spencer, R. E. (1979). Student withdrawals and delayed work patterns in self-paced psychology courses. Teaching of Psychology, 6. 23-25.

References: Burka, J. B. & Yeun, L (1982). Mind games procrastinators play. Psychology Today, pp.32-34 Burka, J. B. & Yeun, L (1983). Procrastination: Why you do it, and what to do about it. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Effert, B. R. & Ferrari, J. R. (1989). Decisional Procrastination: Examining personality correlates. Journal of Social Behaviour and Personality, 4, 151-161 Ellis, A. & Knaus W. J. (1977). Overcoming Procrastination. New York: Institute of Rational Living. Potts, T. J. (1987). Predicting Procrastination on Academic Tasks with Self-Report Personality Measures. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. New York: Hofstra University . Rothblum, E. D. & Solomon, L. J. (1984).Academic Procrastination: Frequency and cognitive behavioural correlates. Journal of Counselling Psychology, 31, 503-509. Semb, G., Glick, D. M. & Spencer, R. E. (1979). Student withdrawals and delayed work patterns in self-paced psychology courses. Teaching of Psychology, 6. 23-25.