Chapter 2

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter explores the literature and studies which encompasses

significant information to this study. This review of literature and studies

promotes an understanding on large discussion on Exploring the students

experiences on procrastination.

Definition of Procrastination

Due to procrastination having timeless origins and being a common-

language term, researchers define procrastination in a multitude of ways.

Currently, there is no absolute consensus among researchers for

procrastination’s definition because different researchers highlight various

aspects of the behavior. However, the definition has evolved as more research

has been conducted, and therefore, deeper understanding of procrastination has

been reached. For this reason, in scholarly communities and for the general

public, delay is a needed concept in understanding the accepted criteria for

procrastination and fundamental due to the word’s Latin origins (Lay, 1986;

Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). The word procrastination originates from the Latin

“procrastinatus,” which is divided into two parts. The first part “pro” means

“forward” and the second part “crastinatus” means “of tomorrow” (Klein, 1971).

Thus, procrastination translates to delaying something until tomorrow.

A commonly used definition in procrastination research is “the putting off

of that which is necessary to reach some goal” (Lay, 1986, p. 475). Some

additional common definitions are “the tendency to delay or completely avoid

 14

responsibilities, decisions, or tasks that need to be done” (Tuckman & Sexton,

1986, p. 503). In addition, the Oxford English Dictionary defines procrastination

as "the action or habit of postponing or putting something off." Nevertheless,

these definitions are not adequate because a person could put off a task without

having any intentions to work on the task. Thus, to exclude people who have no

intention of completing a

task a layman’s definition for procrastination is “to be slow or late about

doing something that should be done; to delay doing something until a later time

because you do not want to do it, because you are lazy, etc.” (Merriam-Webster

Dictionary, n d.). In other words, procrastination is to put off intentionally the

doing of something that should be done. Therefore, many researchers include in

the definition the concept that a person must intend to delay completing a task.

Beswick and Mann (1994) stated that “procrastination is when we delay

beginning or completing an intended course of action” (p. 391).

Thus, this definition is more comprehensive but it is still not complete.

Procrastination cannot be simply defined as a person intentionally delaying

completing a task due to people having differing perceptions regarding delay Van

Eerde, (2003). In addition to a person intending to delay a task, another

component to the definition is that procrastination is “needless” in nature or

avoidable. This concept is needed because some people delay completing a task

on purpose in order to complete more important tasks. Thus, when more

important tasks are needing to be completed delaying working on smaller or less

important tasks would not be considered procrastination. When people delay

 15

completing the smaller tasks, a person is managing their time efficiently. An

example of procrastination being avoidable is when a person choses to delay

completing an important task in order to a more favorable and less important task

such as socializing with friends.

Thus, in addition to the concept of intentionally avoiding a task, many

researchers frequently include various additional concepts such as the delay

being dysfunctional or a person experiencing emotional upset (Schouwendburg,

1995). Research has repeatedly demonstrated that when people delay

completing a task it is a maladaptive response. Soloman and Rothblum (1984)

define procrastination as “the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of

experiencing subjective discomfort” (p. 503). Ferrari (2010) uses a similar

definition and defines procrastination as, “the process of delaying is voluntary or

purposeful and deliberate. And the process feels uncomfortable, experiencing

emotional unease from delaying” (p. 17).

In addition to the delay aspect, many times there is also some aspect of

psychological pain involved. However, some research definitions do not include

the aspect of psychological pain. While many people who delay completing a

task will feel stress and other negative emotions, others may not. Many

researchers debate whether people need to experience negative effects such as

discomfort from anxiety or diminished performance to be classified as

procrastinating (Steel, 2007). Therefore, research is burgeoning that examines a

subtype of people who do not experience negative effects when procrastinating

Chu & Choi, (2005). This population reports they work better under pressure and
 16

their work quality does not suffer due to the delay. Thus, due to this emerging

population, one proposed criteria for a behavior to be classified as

procrastination is being counterproductive, needless, and delaying Schraw,

Wadkins, & Olafson, (2007).

Therefore, the most commonly used definition that includes these criteria

is “to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse

off for the delay” Steel, (2007, p. 66). Thus, this definition includes all three

aspects of procrastination: delay, counter-productivity, and needlessness.

Causes of Students Procrastination

Procrastination is an act everyone takes a part in everyday, regardless of

their situation in life. Everyone from young junior high students to adults who

have been out of school for a while participate in procrastination. Some people

would say that it is a form of deviance because by definition deviance is any

violation of norms and avoiding what should be done is a violation of norms. In

today’s world of technology and the Internet, however, people procrastinate all

the time. It seems that procrastination is now more of a social norm than a

deviance.

According to Laeus (2015), procrastination is the avoidance of completing

a task that must be completed. He goes on to say that procrastination is the act

of doing more enjoyable things instead of less pleasurable ones, or completing

less important chores instead of more urgent ones, therefore deferring looming

tasks to a later time.

 17

Procrastination appears to be a troubling phenomenon, with people most

strongly characterizing it as bad, harmful, and foolish. Several studies have

linked it to individual performance, with the procrastinator performing worse

overall, and to individual well-being, with the procrastinator being unhappy in the

long run. Procrastination has been connected to a number of organizational and

social concerns at a higher level of study Dilmac (2009),

Moreover, Plaxton (2017) reported that many students treated

procrastination as the worst hindrance when managing their time because they

would prioritize the thing they revel in over their work. Some students have so

many schedules, including school, homework, household chores, social life,

and/or other extracurricular activities. Because of this, homework and schoolwork

are frequently neglected, and they will do something more enjoyable to allow

them to have extra freedom in the rest of their schedule.

However, Swanson (2016) reported that almost all of the researchers

have considered procrastination largely as a failure of self-regulation, like terrible

behaviors that have to do with a lack of self-control, such as overeating, and

gambling problem, or overspending. Even though it is no longer counted as being

lazy or having poor time management, many clever people who are

procrastinating still become successful.

Ducharme, as cited from Rozental (2018) stated that people

procrastinate due to reason that they don't value a certain task, and they expect

that they could not attain the value that they want to aim for because of

the impulsivity of people. They commit procrastination because they are worried
 18

about the result and do not think that they can do well because they are scared

to fail.

Students begin to have interaction in routine avoidance behaviour’s, to the

disapproval of their teachers. As a result, some students have trouble budgeting

their study time, attending after-school greater help or workplace hours, and

spending a long way less time than they at the start supposed to spend on their

studying. This behaviour is often sure up in a cram of emotions and confusion,

leaving students thinking about what to tackle first. Although procrastination is

regularly seen as a terrible phenomenon, some students record that it helps their

educational performance Kent (2016).

Consequences and the Results of Students Procrastination

In addition, the study of Tiboron & Decano., et, al 2021) shows the result

that the students’ procrastination is leads to habit of every student. The following

are the consequences of students’ procrastination.

The Mañana habit, which is also known in Filipino as Mamaya na practice,

is a Filipino term for procrastination. This kind of practice has already been an

existing problem since before. And it was the reason why this kind of

phenomenon is rapidly scattered through generations, Mejica (2017).

The students who procrastinate often have worse performance in any

activity because postponing tasks will lead students who procrastinate to submit

unfinished work and missed important deadlines. This means that procrastinators

tend to earn worse grades than non-procrastinators, which becomes more

 19

problematic since some side effects can increase students' tendency to

procrastinate more.

Procrastination is associated with negative consequences concerning

performance as well as physical and psychological well-being. However,

although never a particularly helpful behavior, the relationship with performance

is probably not as strong as most would expect. Among students, the correlation

with academic achievement is weak, rs = –0.13 to –0.19 (Steel, 2007; Kim and

Seo, 2015), and perhaps not the main reason for why individuals regard

procrastination as a problem. Instead, it might be its effects on physical and

psychological well-being that eventually makes someone seek professional help

(Rozental and Carlbring, 2014).

Furthermore, in a qualitative study of 36 students, for instance, the most

frequently reported negative consequences were anger, anxiety, feelings of

discomfort, shame, sadness, feeling remorse, mental stress, and negative self-

concept (Grunschel et al., 2013).

Leiberman (2019) has proposed that the answer as to why doing

procrastination makes us feel so rotten is due to consciousness within ourselves

because whenever people procrastinate, they are not just aware that they are

avoiding a task but doing it intentionally is not a good idea and yet they still do it.

In addition, Laureta (2017) stated that procrastination makes us loathe

ourselves and regret not being productive early before, especially when facing

loads of works and in need to meet the deadlines. Moreover, she said that there
 20

are ways to Divide your job into sections, establish personal deadlines, confront

the largest waves first, and start anything or anything to prevent procrastinating.

According to the study, procrastination might contribute to a fear of failure.

Fear of failure is linked to poor self-confidence, as people put off activities

because they are afraid or believe they will fail. Despite the complexity of the

task, students with strong confidence can respond favourably to academic

difficulties. Task evasiveness, on the other hand, is characterized by a hatred of

activities as well as worry, which leads to procrastination (Buladaco, 2021).

In Addition, Mannerism is a distinctive behavioral trait. It is, so to say, an

exaggerated, affected, situationally controlled style or habit in body language as

well as in verbal behavior. The mannerisms of different contexts and social set-

ups are designed and practiced according to socio-cultural, situational, and

personal patterns and dispositions. Suitable mannerisms sometimes help

professionals to be adorable among the people than others who cannot fine-tune

this in themselves. Like other professionals, for teachers in this context, it is

presumed that regulated and well-practiced formal classroom mannerisms and

verbal behavior can lead to a major part of success in teaching. Especially, in

words, the teacher's own behavior' is the single most important motivational tool

in the language classroom, Dorneyi (2018).

In the study of Adeniyi, 2019 entitled The Impact of Procrastination on

students’ Academic Performance in Secondary Schools. Procrastination is a

habit that everyone engages in on a daily basis, regardless of their

circumstances. Procrastination is practiced by everyone from young junior high

 21

students to seniors who have been out of school for a time. Some would call it a

sort of deviance because deviance is defined as any breach of norms, and

avoiding what should be done is a violation of norms. People postpone all the

time in today's era of technology and the Internet. Procrastination appears to

have become more of a societal standard than a social vice.

As stated by Laeus on 2015, The Impact of Procrastination to the students

and he defined that Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to

be accomplished. He further states that procrastinate is the process of doing

more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, or carrying out less

urgent tasks instead of more urgent ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a

later time.

Furthermore, Dewitte and Lens (2010), a significant distinction between

the two kinds may be their degree of adaptability. Although procrastination

appears to be associated with a variety of psychopathological symptoms in

general, this association may be attributable largely to pessimistic procrastinators

and much less to optimistic procrastinators, who appear to manage their issues

relatively well.

According to ZimChu and Choi (2015), there are two types of

procrastinating habits. According to them, passive procrastinators are paralyzed

by their indecision and so fail to complete assignments on time. This is

undoubtedly bad conduct. Active procrastinators, on the other hand, love to work

under pressure and make mistakes.

 22

Whereas, the study stated as they explore that there are Two (2) types of

Procrastination the Behavioural Procrastination and the Decisional

Procrastination. Means that Behavioural procrastination is Procrastination is a

self-sabotage strategy that allows people to shift blame and avoid action.

Prolonged procrastination and failure to perform adequately creates a cycle of

self-defeating behavior. Self-inflicted degradation and shame of this kind often

translates into stress and mental health problems.

On the other hand Decisional Procrastination People who practice high

level decisional procrastination tend to be afraid of errors and are likely to be

perfectionists. These procrastinators seek out more and more information about

alternatives before attempting to make a decision, if they make one at all

Dimkisma (2013).

Corkin, Lu and Lindt (2011) have argued that active procrastination is

distinct from procrastination in general, and should be referred to as ‘active

delay.’ Their definition of active delay is very close to Klingsieck's (2013) strategic

delay.

Corkin et al. (2011) also showed active delay to be associated with

adaptive self-regulatory processes and academic achievement, and

procrastination to be associated with mastery-avoidance goals and a lack of

metacognitive strategy.

Finally, Grunschel, et al., (2013) used the term ‘purposeful delay,’ which

can be considered synonymous with strategic delay. On the basis of this

distinction between procrastination and strategic delay, procrastination can be

 23

defined as the voluntary delay of an intended and necessary and/or personally

important activity, despite expecting potential negative consequences that

outweigh the positive consequences of the delay.

Klingsieck’s definition extends Steel’s (2013) definition of procrastination

as a prevalent and pernicious form of self-regulatory failure.

There are always the reasons hidden why students procrastination and

whatever reason missing class, being distracted when the teacher announced

the homework, not writing it down, or forgetting to look at the class website

sometimes students leave their work until the last minute because they genuinely

have no idea that there’s any work to be done. That is, until a friend mentions it

the day beforehand or until they walk into class the next morning. Technically

speaking, this wouldn’t be classified as procrastination because the student is not

resisting their work they simply don’t realize they have any work, but this is

definitely a common cause of leaving things until the last minute.

Thus, When students are confused by an assignment, or don’t know

exactly what is expected of them, they often put off the assignment in hopes that

they will understand it better later. This is especially problematic for students who

are uncomfortable with uncertainty or unknown situations. Unfortunately, when

they look at it the night before the deadline, they usually have no more

information than they did before and no time left to ask their teacher for

clarification. Optimistic time estimates, Optimism is a wonderful quality in most

situations. But when it comes to estimating how much time it will take to complete

an assignment, optimistic time estimates can create big problems. Students

 24

commonly overestimate the amount of time they have left to complete

assignments, and underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete them.

Consequently, they fail to leave themselves enough time to complete the work.

Furthermore, considering Sometimes students set aside time with the

intention of completing their work, but end up distracted with other things. These

distractions can be external (Face book, text messages, etc.) or internal their

own thoughts & impulses. Either way, this result to them was spending time that

had been budgeted for their work in other ways. Overwhelm. When an

assignment seems very complex or time-consuming, even thinking about it can

seem scary and stressful. So, students often fall into the trap of putting it off.

Unfortunately, this ultimately backfires when they eventually do start the project

because now the inherent difficulty of the project is compounded by the fact that

they have insufficient time to complete it. So, they end up with far more stress

than they would have had if they had started earlier.

Moreover, students preoccupied with making their projects perfect,

nervous about making mistakes or “messing them up”, or afraid of criticism, are

often so concerned about doing assignments incorrectly that they will put them

off to avoid the anxiety they feel when they are trying to work on the project. This

can lead to the seemingly irrational behavior of avoiding the project even more as

the deadline approaches because they become less and less likely to be able to

do a good job on it until, at last, they are so close to the deadline that producing

an ideal assignment is no longer possible, and their only options are to do an

imperfect job or turn in nothing at all.

 25

Difficulty regulating emotions recent studies have suggested that

procrastination is less of problem with time management than we had once

believed, and more of a difficulty with emotional regulation. Students who feel

bored, tired, frustrated or nervous when they work on assignments will often

pursue a strategy of trying to make themselves feel better in the short-term by

downplaying the assignment it’s no big deal; it won’t affect my grade much

anyway and distracting themselves with fun, rewarding activities in order to

improve their mood.

The study of Babadogan C, (2010) aimed to know the factor that influence

the student’s procrastination in their behaviour. Academic procrastination

including leaving the academic duties to the last minute like preparation for

exams and doing homework, Further, the procrastination that the students has

been experienced, having difficulty in planning that lead to life routine

procrastination that manifest the delayed to do their task.

The Decisional Procrastination that emerges of conflicts situations and

various options (Ferrari and Dovido, 2010) the compulsive procrastination that

differs both task to be done and also decision to be done. In another

classification, procrastination is grouped into two basic structures. First one of

them is procrastination as personality traits, which is mainly based on

procrastination in decision-making and life routine of daily living; second type is

conditional procrastination including also the academic procrastination.

Furthermore, when it pertains towards pursuing their higher education,

students with handicap encounter several challenges. Services for handicapped

 26

students, for example, and assistive technology may not be adequate to facilitate

learning. Adult students with disabilities are increasingly enrolling in online

education. The findings, students with impairments prefer the online environment

Verdinelli & Kutner, (2016).

Despite the fact that online learning is becoming more popular,

accessibility for handicapped learners remains an issue. Individuals must reveal

their handicap; it is difficult for an instructor to determine whether a student is

impaired in an online environment. Many universities offer a disability services

department, but the student must take the effort to use these services so that

adjustments may be legally authorized and subsequently fulfilled by the

professor. This study was meant to help the researcher discover hurdles that

handicapped students encounter in online learning settings, as well as solutions

for overcoming such barriers Massengale & Vasquez, (2016).

Addressing Students’ Procrastination

To overcome the procrastination the related study stated that the Time

management would be the cure to end the procrastination. This is according to

(Rios, 2016).

Time management is the key to overcome procrastination. Controlling time

and how to spend it wisely can be learned. You should make a list to follow what

things are needed to be done. Know your priority, decide what you need to do

first and what you need to do next, and so on. You should know how long it takes

to finish your task. Do not do procrastinate. Do not delay a task, just focus on

your to-do list that was written on your notepad. Be persistent on your task. Just
 27

keep doing what you are doing. Also, always check your progress; it keeps you

on track to get everything complete. Be optimistic about everything you do.

Always think the bright side. It is better that you have tried than never Rios,

(2016).

As cited by Newton & Paul (2014) there are three (3) strategies to

overcome procrastination in line with what has just been stated. Primarily, it is

important to do your morning routines. Secondly, do it right now and pass it on to

the actual deadline. Lastly, discipline yourself. You should always know what you

need to do, you need to be focused and to work smarter and not harder.

Lombardo E. (2017) suggested that it would be easy if you continue what

you have started. It will be better if you are going to finish the tasks right away.

There would be no room for cramming if we will just do everything on time. The

creativity, the beauty of the work you are making, the eagerness to make your

work done, etc, will go away as long we will still practice procrastination.

Cherry (2019) added that neglecting a project or work, not doing tasks in

school, or not doing the household chores, and the reason was because of the

uncontrolled habit of procrastination, can absolutely give you a huge impact on

your work, academic grades, and in your life, it is either gaining low grades or

being fired to work.

Furthermore, this context presents how the distance learning course

designers have rationalized the sophistication of their program, given the

physical barriers of time zone management. For instance, situated in the extreme

was synchronous discussion forum sessions, which are extended as

 28

asynchronous discussions. On the other hand, adopts both formal and informal

synchronous tools to improve social interactions Fulford and Zhang, (2017).

This is justified by the low level of time management problems and

physical barriers associated with time zones. The survey of learners in each of

the case studies indicates their preferences not to be isolated and to be engaged

with co-learners and tutors. This was mainly evident, where the students had to

work on a group project as one of their assessments in the program. They

understood the important role that time management-based delivery mechanisms

played, but at the same time, appreciated the flexibility aspect of distance

learning courses as the majority of the learners were employed full-time in the

learning process (Fulford and Zhang, 2017).

 To overcome procrastination, you need to have an understanding of the

reasons why students procrastinate and the function procrastination serves in

your life. You can't come up with an effective solution if you don't really

understand the root of the problem. As with most problems, awareness and self-

knowledge are the keys to figuring out how to stop procrastinating. For a lot of

people acquiring this insight about how procrastination protects them from feeling

like they are not able enough, and keeping it in mind when they are tempted to

fall into familiar, unproductive, procrastinating habits goes a long way to solving

the problem. For instance, two psychologists, Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen, who

have helped many people overcome procrastination, report in their article, Mind

Games Procrastinators Play Psychology Today, January, (1982) that for many

students understanding the hidden roots of procrastination often seems to

 29

weaken them. Just knowing our true reasons for procrastinating makes it easier

to stop (Spring 2017).

Approaches in decreasing academic procrastination found in the literature

can essentially be categorized into three groups; 1. therapeutic treatment, 2.

therapeutic prevention, and 3. Instructor/teacher intervention. The first two

approaches are similar in that they employ therapeutic interventions to decrease

procrastination. They differ regarding when the intervention is administered.

Therapeutic treatment methods seek to intervene after a student has

demonstrated procrastinatory behavior, e.g., late submission of first course

assignment, whereas therapeutic preventions aim to prevent the negative effects

of procrastination from the outset, e.g., therapeutic courses offered to students at

the start of the semester. The third approach attempts to recruit the instructor of

the course to provide nontherapeutic methods of decreasing procrastination

tendencies among student participants, Zacks & Hen, (2018)

In the context of Procrastination Sigmund Freud as the proponent to

explain the procrastination to is finest. According to the Theoretical Lenses that

to have a clearer understanding of this matter, a brief discussion about the

following approaches will be given by the researcher in accordance with the

theoretical work of Siaputra (2010).

Sigmund Freud coined psychoanalytic and psychodynamic approaches

Sigmund Freud tried to explain the tendency of procrastination based on the

concept of avoiding a task because of a threat to the ego. He concluded that,

whenever the ego detects any kind of threat, the natural defense mechanism will
 30

occur, and which will probably result in avoidance of doing the task. On the other

hand, the behavioristic approach stated that the repeated individuals' success

raises procrastination despite having procrastinating behavior. This is due to the

reason that there is a lack of punishment occurring about this kind of practice.

In addition, this approach is simply talking about a redundant occurrence

of success despite having a practice of procrastination, and this scenario will

continue as long as there is still no punishment for such procrastinators.

Meanwhile, the cognitive approach proposed procrastination as an emotional

disorder that was rooted in irrational thinking. In other words, this refers to

positive thinking without doing anything. Or just simply means that you have the

aim to do something, but you do not want to take any action for it.

Furthermore, procrastination shouldn’t be treated as just a procrastination

it should be address to lessen the students who practice procrastination. This will

lead to vulnerability of every student’s that fall to have the fear of failure. Thus,

Plaxton (2017), stated that the students are practicing the procrastination

because of loaded of homework. However, in spite of being the procrastinator it

should be address earlier so that it can’t lead to failure in achieving their goals

and might not lead to have the low self-esteem.

Synthesis

Many studies conducted by the local researcher’s and international

researchers’ that give their utmost attention on the academic procrastination and

often studied the life experiences of a procrastinator. As the problem exposed in

the review of related literature and studies myriads of authors stresses the
 31

causes and consequences on students’ procrastinations’ experiences that

includes the percentage presented by Steel (2007), that 75% consider

themselves habitual procrastinator, however, in the qualitative results 36

students, for instance, the most frequently reported negative consequences were

anger, anxiety, feelings of discomfort, shame, sadness, feeling remorse, mental

stress, and negative self-concept (Grunschel et al., 2013).

Therefore, Procrastination had had been the issue over time it gives

redundancy in the effects of procrastination to the students. The cause was being

publicize and immensely happening to the students choosing to dump their

activities and left it alone, due to have the plenty of task student lead to early

procrastination. They are call as procrastinator that the cause of this is lack of

time management and their duties at home and their errands includes; work,

student leader, and games these are the factors as a cause of their

procrastination lead to the effects and consequences that fall to the fear of

failure, low self-esteem, lack of time management and also to their academic

performances, due to the results it is visible that the students who had choose to

procrastinate has this active delay procrastination that refers to the

consciousness of the students as tactic in delaying their works and finishing it

near the deadline.