This study was to develop a treatment program for overcoming academic procrastination of college students and to examine the effects of the program according to perfectionism styles.
The contents of this study are structured as follows:
(1) To develop a treatment program for overcoming academic procrastination of college students.
(2) To identify how the effects of the treatment vary according to perfectionism styles.
The principles and contents of the treatment program were determined according to the Instructional System Design(ISD). This study had three principles: (a)the complex approach of cognitive, affective, and behavioral strategies to academic procrastination. (b)student-based activity. (c)feedback from oneself, peers, and an expert. The contents of the treatment included
self-awareness, setting goals and priorities, time management, splitting assignment, setting deadline by oneself, modifying cognitive distortions and perfectionism, reducing anxiety, a reward system, and so on.
To examine the effects of the treatment, 85 undergraduates were used as subjects. They were classified into a control group(wait-listed people) and an experimental group(procrastination workshop participants). This study was conducted using a pre-test and post-test(all 4 times) designed for an experimental group and a control group. Multi-level analysis using the growth
model was conducted to analyze the effects of the treatment.
Results of this study are summarized as follows:
First, the experimental group with low self-oriented perfectionism demonstrated a significantly lesser degree of academic procrastination than the control group. There was no significant difference between an experimental group and a control group with high self-oriented perfectionism.
Second, the experimental group with high socially prescribed perfectionism demonstrated a continuously lesser degree of academic procrastination than the control group. There was no significant difference between an experimental group and a control group with low socially prescribed perfectionism.
Third, the experimental group with high other-oriented perfectionism demonstrated a continuously lesser degree of academic procrastination than the control group. There was no significant difference between an experimental group and a control group with low other-oriented perfectionism.