The Link Between Procrastination, Delay of Gratification, and Life Satisfaction: A Preliminary Analysis

LAUREN M. CALDWELL A preliminary study which attempted to address and as two inter- vening variables that link procrastination, but not delay of gratification, to life ROBERT R. MOWRER* satisfaction is reported. Regression (path) analysis indicated that much of procrastination’s effect on life satisfaction was mediated through anxiety and Angelo State University regret. Delay of gratification did not have a significant effect on life satisfaction via anxiety but did through regret. Results are discussed in terms of when delay of gratification involves anxiety and when it does not.

ROCRASTINATION HAS BEEN DEFINED IN A NUM- immediate reward rather than waiting for a more ber of ways, including “the act of needlessly desired, but delayed reward) might have a negative Pdelaying tasks to the point of experiencing effect on life satisfaction. subjective discomfort” (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984, To investigate the relationship between procras- p. 503), an emotional problem that has self-defeating tination, delay of gratification, and life satisfaction, aspects and arises from irrational choices (Ellis & Durden (1997) used 128 undergraduate students and Knaus, 1977), a self-defeating behavior that lowers found a significant negative relationship between pro- the quality of performance (Baumeister & Scher, crastination, as measured by Tuckman’s (1990) procras- 1988), or a self-handicapping strategy in which people tination scale, and delay of gratification, as measured postpone or put off completing a task as an excuse by Ray and Najman’s (1986) delay of gratification for subsequent poor performance (Tice, 1991; Tice scale. Durden also found that those individuals high & Baumeister, 1990, 1997). By most of the above in procrastination were significantly less satisfied with definitions, it would appear that high levels of their lives relative to those individuals low in procras- procrastination should reduce the degree of life tination. However, this relationship did not apply to satisfaction (but see Ferrari, 1992, for a discussion of delay of gratification. That is, although delay of the possible positive impact of procrastinating on gratification and life satisfaction were significantly life satisfaction). (positively) correlated, there was no difference in life In contrast, delay of gratification has been con- satisfaction between those students who seemed high ceptualized as “the voluntary postponement of gratification (positive reinforcement) in order to Author note. The authors would like to extend their appreciation receive a more distant, long-term reward” (Gatchel to Steven Shepherd for his comments on an earlier version of this manuscript and his production of Figure 1. Portions of this re- & Mears, 1982, p. 336) or “the self-denial of immedi- search were presented at the annual meeting of the Southwest- ate gains/needs of lesser value . . . in favor of more ern Psychological Association, April 1998, New Orleans, LA. highly prized but distal prosocial or moral goals” Address all correspondence to Robert R. Mowrer, PhD, Department of Psychology and Sociology, Box 10907 ASU Station, (Ward, 1988, p. 2). Similar to procrastination, the in- Angelo State University, San Angelo, TX 76909. Electronic mail ability to delay gratification (e.g., settling for a lesser, may be sent to [email protected].

PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ! Winter 1998 145 Copyright 1998 by Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology (Vol. 3, No. 4, 145–150 / ISSN 1089-4136). *Faculty Supervisor PROCRASTINATION ! Caldwell and Mowrer and those students who seemed low in the ability to ated with life satisfaction. Delay of gratification has delay gratification. Durden’s finding that high and not been found to be related to anxiety but is assumed low procrastinators differ in terms of life satisfaction, to be associated with regret, and regret has been whereas those individuals high and low in delay of shown to be associated with life satisfaction. Based gratification do not, implies that different interven- on the above description of the relationship between ing variables might link these two factors (procrasti- the five variables, we expected to find that procrasti- nation and delay of gratification) to life satisfaction. nation affected life satisfaction indirectly via anxiety The purpose of the present study was to investi- whereas delay of gratification affected life satisfaction gate two of the variables that might differentially link indirectly via regret. procrastination and delay of gratification to life satis- faction. The two intervening variables chosen were Method anxiety and regret. Anxiety was chosen based on pre- Participants vious research linking it to procrastination (e.g., Lay, Participants were 84 undergraduate students Edwards, Parker, & Endler, 1989; Solomon & (55 women and 29 men) attending a medium-size Rothblum, 1984) and to life satisfaction (e.g., Headey, university. Participants ranged in age from 18 to 58 Kelley, & Wearing, 1993; Healy, 1991; Huebner, 1991; years (M = 24.2). Participants were volunteers from Hosen, 1990; Neto, 1993). In terms of procrastina- undergraduate psychology classes, and they received tion, Lay et al. (1989) found that anxiety increased extra course credit for assisting. All participants in student procrastinators (who delayed studying) as completed an informed consent form and were an exam period approached. Likewise, Solomon and treated in accord with APA ethical principles regard- Rothblum (1984) found a positive correlation be- ing the use of human participants. This research was tween procrastination and several factors, including approved by the university’s Institutional Review anxiety among college students. In terms of life satis- Board. faction, Headey et al. (1993) found that individuals can be anxious yet still be satisfied with their lives. In Materials contrast, Healy (1991) found a negative correlation To measure procrastination and anxiety, subsets between anxiety and life satisfaction among commu- of two existing questionnaires were used. To keep the nity college students. Huebner (1991), as well as Neto number of items per scale relatively consistent, 14 (1993), also found a negative relationship between questions were randomly chosen and adapted from anxiety and life satisfaction among junior high and Tuckman’s (1990) procrastination scale and the State- high school students. Finally, Hosen (1990) reported Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI; Spielberger, 1983). that low trait anxiety is associated with a greater Delay of gratification was measured using Ray and “hedonistic surplus” (i.e., more ) in terms of Najman’s (1986) delay of gratification scale. Regret life satisfaction in adults. Unfortunately, no studies was measured using a preliminary 14-item regret scale were found linking delay of gratification to anxiety developed by the authors (see Table 1). Life satisfac- in a nonclinical population. tion was measured using “The Satisfaction with Life Our choice of regret was more anecdotal. Defined Scale” (Deiner, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985). as “a more or less painful cognitive/affective state of Questions pertaining to procrastination, anxiety, re- sorry for losses, transgressions, shortcomings gret, and life satisfaction were mixed into a single scale or mistakes. . . . [including] sins of commission as called the Self-Rating Questionnaire; the delay of well as sins of omission . . .” (Landman, 1987a, p. 153), gratification scale was relabeled as Self-Rating Ques- regret has been found to account for up to 19.8% of tionnaire Part 2. All questions except those on the the variance in life satisfaction (Lecci, Okun, & Karoly, delay of gratification scale used a 4-point Likert scale: 1994). No research was found linking regret to ei- 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = disagree, and 4 = strongly ther procrastination or delay of gratification. How- disagree. The delay of gratification scale used simply ever, it seemed to us that opting for an immediate, “yes” or “no” responses. lesser reward rather than waiting for a delayed, larger reward would result in regret but not anxiety. For Procedure example, the second author experienced subsequent The Self-Rating Questionnaire was administered regret but not anxiety when he purchased a vehicle to 84 undergraduate students in groups ranging from off the lot rather than wait for a preferred, but 15 to 50. Participants were instructed to respond to delayed factory-ordered vehicle. the statements in terms of how well each item de- In general, research suggests that procrastination scribed them in general. One questionnaire was dis- is associated with anxiety. Anxiety in turn, is associ- carded due to incomplete information.

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calculated; these correlations were significant; r(81) TABLE 1 = –.24, p < .04, and r(81) = .31, p < .005, respectively Fourteen-Item Regret Scale (see Table 2 for zero-order correlation coefficients relating all variables). A multiple regression analysis 1. I often view my past actions negatively. was performed including all five variables with pro- 2. When I have a moment to think, I reflect upon my crastination, delay, anxiety, and regret serving as pre- mistakes. dictor variables and life satisfaction serving as the de- pendent variable. The predictor variables explained 3. I would change the majority of things I’ve done. 39% of the variance in life satisfaction. In the full 4. It is alright to make mistakes because I learn from regression model, the standardized regression co- them. efficients were .04 for procrastination (p = .55), .24 5. I often reflect on my decisions and think of better for delay (p = .05), –.36 for anxiety (p = .0001), and solutions. –.10 for regret (p = .26). 6. Past consequences often my future To focus on the direct and indirect effects decisions. (through anxiety and regret) of procrastination and delay of gratification on life satisfaction, path analy- 7. There are many things I wish I’d done. sis was utilized. We used standard least squares re- 8. I don’t mind if I don’t finish what I start. gression and regressed each variable on those be- 9. I seldom have trouble sleeping because of lieved to be prior to it in a causal chain. Standard- . ized path coefficients that were significant at the .05 10. I seldom think about things I should have done. or .01 level are indicated in Figure 1. As can be seen, procrastination was significantly related to anxiety and 11. Memories of missed opportunities trouble me a lot. regret, which in turn were significantly related to life 12. I can’t think of any actions I would change. satisfaction. Indirect effects of procrastination on life 13. It’s easy to recall my last poor decision. satisfaction were derived by multiplying coefficients 14. My conscience often reminds me of negative in its path through anxiety and regret (Alwin & things I have done. Hauser, 1975), which produced coefficients of –.12 and –.11, respectively. Procrastination was also reli- ably predictive of life satisfaction directly. The total Results effect (indirect + direct) of procrastination on life Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the five mea- satisfaction was –.38. In contrast, delay of gratifica- sures were as follows: procrastination = .71, anxiety = tion was significantly related to regret but not to anxi- .69, regret = .66, delay = .61, and life = .84. Although ety. The indirect effect of delay of gratification some values are slightly below the arbitrary standard through regret was .07. Delay of gratification was also of .70, the present research represents a preliminary a reliable predictor of life satisfaction directly, result- analysis with a relatively small sample and thus low ing in a total effect of .44. alphas were to be expected. Pearson product– One additional comment is in order; multi- moment correlation coefficients relating procrastina- colinearity is a concern any time path analysis is con- tion and delay of gratification to life satisfaction were ducted. In the present case, the correlation between

TABLE 2 Zero-Order Correlation Matrix for All Variables

Procrastination Regret Anxiety Life satisfaction Delay of gratification

Procrastination — 0.38*** 0.34** –0.24* 0.44*** Regret — — 0.63*** –0.47*** –0.29** Anxiety — — — –0.58*** –0.20 Life satisfaction — — — — 0.31** Delay of gratification — — — — —

* p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.

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FIGURE 1 Model of the relationship between procrastination, delay of gratification, and life satisfaction for significant standardized path coefficients. Standard errors are indicated in parentheses.

–.15* (.07) PROCRASTINATION +.28** (.09) –.44** +.32** ANXIETY (.07) (.09)

LIFE SATISFACTION

–.13 –.35** (.07) REGRET (.07)

–.19** DELAY OF +.37** (.07) GRATIFICATION (.13)

*p < .05. **p < .01.

regret and anxiety was .63. Although this was a with regret. On the other hand, procrastinating significant relationship, it does not reach the stan- most often involves both regret and anxiety. A few dard of .80 mentioned by Hatcher (1994) as the point examples might help illustrate the above idea. One at which concern is warranted. However, it is inter- example of a failure to delay gratification was men- esting to note that even with this significant relation- tioned in the introduction, purchasing a vehicle im- ship, delay of gratification is only significantly associ- mediately “off the lot” rather than waiting for a pre- ated with regret, not anxiety. This result may indi- ferred but delayed factory-ordered vehicle. This ac- cate that, regardless of a significant correlation, anxi- tion resulted in regret but not anxiety. A less com- ety and regret (as we measured them) may be sepa- mon scenario, in which failing to delay gratification rate constructs. resulted in regret and anxiety, may be found in the movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. In this Discussion film, Clark Griswald (Chevy Chase) made a down The results of this study provide some support payment and signed a contract for construction of for anxiety and regret as two variables that link pro- an in-ground swimming pool, predicated on later re- crastination to life satisfaction. In contrast, the link ceiving a Christmas bonus. Thus, rather than delay- between delay of gratification and life satisfaction ing this purchase until the bonus was assured, he appears to involve regret alone (delay was significantly opted for the immediate reward. Later, when the related to regret but not to anxiety). The finding that monetary bonus he expected was replaced by a mem- delay of gratification is not significantly related to bership in the “jelly of the month club,” he experi- anxiety even though anxiety and regret are correlated enced not only regret but also anxiety. Finally, with implies that anxiety and regret do represent some- respect to procrastination, as students (and faculty) what different constructs. we have all postponed starting a task until the last Our results do not indicate that failure to delay minute. For students, this might have involved writ- gratification is never associated with anxiety, but ing a paper; for faculty, perhaps it was writing an exam. rather suggest that it is more commonly associated As a result, we often regret not starting earlier, and

148 PSI CHI JOURNAL OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ! Winter 1998 PROCRASTINATION ! Caldwell and Mowrer experience anxiety with respect to completing the task ested in those factors that promote well-being rather in time. than factors that result in psychological unhappiness Before discussing the general implications of our or pathology (Lucas, Diener, & Suh, 1996). results, several limitations should be noted. This The present study addressed the above areas be- project was a preliminary study, and the sample size cause it looked at the effect of regret, in addition to was small in terms of studies using path analysis. other factors, on well-being (i.e., life satisfaction). The Further, to simplify/shorten the assessment instru- results of this study indicate that regret is associated ment, subsets of some scales were used rather than with delay of gratification and is a component of well- the entire scale (e.g., STAI). In addition, even though being. We have provided evidence that people who the alpha coefficient for the regret scale was close to are able to delay gratification experience less regret the standard of .70 (.66), greater reliability of this than those who cannot, and are more content with scale would be desirable. The validity of the scale also their lives. The same pattern was found for procrasti- needs to be established (although to our knowledge, nation in terms of regret with the addition of anxi- no established regret scale has been developed, we ety. Thus, psychological well-being is enhanced to the could probably use a subscale of the 16PF or the NEO degree that people can delay gratification and avoid Personality Inventory that has regret as a facet). Our procrastinating which, in turn, reduces both regret next step is to increase the reliability and validity of and anxiety. this scale and to use the full STAI. Finally, regret and In sum, the combination of procrastination, de- anxiety are not the only variables that might mediate lay of gratification, anxiety, and regret account for procrastination and delay of gratification in terms of 39% of the variability in life satisfaction. It appears their relationship with life satisfaction. that procrastination is partially linked to life satisfac- The relationship between procrastination, delay tion through anxiety whereas delay of gratification is of gratification, regret, anxiety, and life satisfaction not. Future studies might investigate the role of im- supports and extends the results of Durden (1997). pulsivity as a mediating variable due to its association In his study, the difference between the participants with delay of gratification and life satisfaction (Kahana with respect to high and low procrastination may have & Kahana, 1975) as well as procrastination (Ellis & been due to the combination of anxiety and regret Knaus, 1977). Likewise, an investigation of the role and their effects on life satisfaction (the indirect path played by and might also be warranted coefficient was .23, direct was .15). Specifically, high due to their relationship with regret (Landman, procrastinators evidenced both high anxiety and high 1987a). Due to the increasing focus on psychological regret which may have resulted in lower life satisfac- well-being, such studies will greatly enhance our un- tion. The same combination did not hold for delay derstanding of this phenomenon. of gratification. Although students low in delay of References gratification also evidenced high regret, there was no Alwin, D. F., & Hauser, R. M. (1975). The decomposition of effects significant relationship between anxiety and delay of in path analysis. American Sociological Review, 40, 37–47. gratification. Thus, in Durden’s study, the failure to Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). 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