Trait procrastination and affective experiences: Describing past study behavior and its relation to agitation and dejection

Abstract

Previous research has primarily associated trait procrastination with dejection, and not agitation. The present study sought to confirm these earlier findings by examining the affect of trait procrastinators after their past study behavior had been primed in a written recollection assignment. The subjects were 38 male and 40 female university students. Procrastinators produced a higher number of dilatory behavior self-statements than nonprocrastinators. Baseline agitation was positively associated with this content and dejection negatively related. In hierarchical multiple-regression analyses, trait anxiety, baseline agitation, and concurrent dejection all contributed to the prediction of postrecollection agitation. In addition, trait procrastination and the number of dilatory self-statements interacted. Procrastinators making no mention of their defining behavior in their written recollections of past study behavior reported lower levels of postrecollection agitation than nonprocrastinators. In contrast, procrastinators who included a number of references to their past dilatory behavior expressed higher levels of agitation at Time 2, compared to nonprocrastinators. Baseline dejection, concurrent agitation, and trait anxiety contributed to the prediction of postrecollection dejection. Trait procrastination did not.