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Procrastination

By omnibrain on January 10, 2007.

i-6e4f769e1e7baa1925fb661c30886553-procrastination.jpgAhhh modeling... gotta love it - especially when it models something like procrastination - or "Temporal Motivation Theory" as Dr. Piers Steel from the University of Calgary business school calls it.
He find these interesting things in his paper, "The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of Quintessential Self-Regulatory Failure." published in Psych Bulletin:

* Most people's New Year's resolutions are doomed to failure

* Most self-help books have it completely wrong when they say perfectionism is at the root of procrastination

(He spent time reading self help books?)

* Procrastination can be explained by a single mathematical equation

And of course we can't leave out the actual model:

Temporal Motivational Theory, which takes into account factors such as the expectancy a person has of succeeding with a given task (E), the value of completing the task (V), the desirability of the task (Utility), its immediacy or availability (Ã) and the person's sensitivity to delay (D).

It looks like this and uses the Greek letter Ã: Utility = E x V/ÃD


Here's the EurekaAlert press release

Tags
Academia
math
Philosophy of Science
Psychology

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(1) It's hard to beat this for irony: "Continued research into procrastination should not be delayed."

(2) The author does debunk a pop-psych theory, usually a good thing to do.

(3) Assuming that the variable define something meaningful, which can actually be measured, then this is a statistically testable theory, and thus Science.

(4) I'll probably look at the paper itself, if and when I can get around to it, if I'm confident enough, if it's utility is high enough, if the understanding is desirable, and if the paper and its supporting evidence is available enough.

1) I meant that to be funny
2) Thanks
3) Can be and you are bang on the money
4) If you are looking for a definitive proof of the theory and the model, see "Integrating Theories of Motivation" in the Academy of Management Review (Vol 31, 2006), the top management journal in the world. I prove it six ways from Sunday (and yes, I know you meant this comment as a joke)

Piers... it's really great to see an author go out on the internet and talk about their research!
Welcome!
(p.s. great study!)