Is procrastination all that “bad”? A qualitative study of academic procrastination and self-worth in postgraduate university students

ABSTRACT

Most of the existing literature investigated the construct of procrastination using quantitative paradigms—primarily self-administered questionnaires. However, such approaches seem to limit insight, elaboration, and deeper understanding of central facets that might influence procrastination. The present qualitative study explored how a sample of postgraduate students from Cambridge University represented academic procrastination framed within their personal perspectives and context using semistructured interviews. This study extends the existing quantitative literature by adding students’ personal narratives and voices. Ten postgraduate students were interviewed and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The preponderance of the literature on academic procrastination has described it as a maladaptive and detrimental behavior. However, the present study found evidence which supports the existence of a positive form of procrastination as well which suggests that procrastination can sometimes be worthwhile and allow further thinking time, allowing students to do a task and enable them to give more attention to detail which suggests a reconsideration of the negative image commonly associated with procrastination.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic procrastination
• goal theory and competition
• self-regulation
• self-worth theory