Academic Procrastination Psychological Reactance and Locus of Control Among University Students

Abstract

The present study aim to investigate the relationship between academic procrastination, psychological reactance and locus of control. Moreover, it also focused to determine the role of various demographics like (age, gender, family system, monthly income, mother and father work status) across study variables. Sample (N= 300) comprised of university students. Sample was collected from different universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Academic procrastination was measured with help of Lay Procrastination Scale (Lay, 1986), Psychological Reactance was measured with Salzburg State Reactance Scale (Hong & Felda, 1996), and locus of control with Rotter Locus of Control scale (Rotter, 1966). The results were analyzed using pearson correlation, reggresion, t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that there is positive relationship between academic procrastination and psychological reactance. But no significant difference was found between academic procrastination and locus of control. There were no significant differences found on the basis of gender in regards to these variables. There were significant differences found on the basis of percentage that individuals with low percentage procrastinate more than the individuals with high percentage. There are also significant differences found on the basis of family system on study variables individuals with joint family system procrastinate more than the individuals with nuclear family system in individuals with external locus of control. There were no significant differences found on basis of internal locus of control for family system. There are no significant differences found on the basis of working status of mother. There were significant differences found on basis of work status of father for procrastination that individuals with father non-working procrastinate more than the individuals with father working on basis of external locus of control. No significant differences were found on basis of internal locus of control. This study would be helpful in providing the direction that how much free choice is important for an individual to reduce procrastination in academic settings. In the light of findings of present research different programmes can be developed to reduce procrastination among students.