Attachment styles and psychological separation in relation to procrastination: A psychodynamic perspective on the breakdown in volitional action.

摘要

In the present study, I sought to understand procrastination from a psychodynamic perspective by exploring the influence of the intra-psychic factors, attachment and separation-individuation from parents, on academic procrastination. Two hundred and one undergraduate students completed a battery of measures. The results revealed that total academic procrastination had a significant negative relation with conflictual, emotional, and functional independence from parents and a significant positive relationship with preoccupied and fearful prototypes as well as fear of rejection. However, these results were not consistent for different components of academic procrastination and the results differed on the basis of gender. Conflictual independence from father for females as well as emotional and functional independence from mother for males were the significant contributing factors in the prediction of procrastination. Freedom from negativity and conflict related to self and parents was identified as the most important construct in this study, and I argue that it may be instrumental in reducing general academic procrastination.