Irrational Delay Revisited: Examining Five Procrastination Scales in a Global Sample.

Frode Svartdal,Piers Steel

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01927

Frode Svartdal, Piers Steel

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01927

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Abstract

Scales attempting to measure procrastination focus on different facets of the phenomenon, yet they share a common understanding of procrastination as an unnecessary, unwanted, and disadvantageous delay. The present paper examines in a global sample (N = 4,169) five different procrastination scales – Decisional Procrastination Scale (DPS), Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS), Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS), Adult Inventory of Procrastination Scale (AIP), and General Procrastination Scale (GPS), focusing on factor structures and item functioning using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Item Response Theory. The results indicated that The PPS (12 items selected from DPS, AIP, and GPS) measures different facets of procrastination even better than the three scales it is based on. An even shorter version of the PPS (5 items focusing on irrational delay), corresponds well to the nine-item IPS. Both scales demonstrate good psychometric properties and appear to be superior measures of core procrastination attributes than alternative procrastination scales.

Highlights

Measurement of self-reported procrastination in tests and questionnaires focuses on different areas in which unnecessary delay expresses itself
The present paper examines the Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS) and Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS), as well as the complete Decisional Procrastination Scale (DPS), Adult Inventory of Procrastination Scale (AIP), and General Procrastination Scale (GPS) instruments in a global data set with 4,169 participants
Four different factor models have been suggested for the PPS

Summary

Introduction

Measurement of self-reported procrastination in tests and questionnaires focuses on different areas in which unnecessary delay expresses itself. As per Goal Phase Theory (Steel and Weinhardt, 2017), aside from goal attainment itself, motivation can be broken down into a decisional stage, a planning stage and a goal striving or implementation stage, with people capable of procrastinating in each or all of them. These aspects of procrastination are closely related, they may still be differentiated and are often measured by different instruments. First is the Irrational Procrastination Scale (IPS), which consists of nine items focusing on implemental attributes of procrastination with an emphasis on “irrational” delay, “irrational” referring to voluntary delay despite expecting it to be disadvantageous. Second is the Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS, 12 items), which is based on items from existing and somewhat diverse

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