Perfectionism and Academic Procrastination

2097 Words9 Pages
Abstract The present study explored the relationships between perfectionism and academic procrastination. 200 students (92 males, 108 females ) were selected from universities in the city of Tehran through multistage cluster-random sampling. All subjects were asked to complete the following questionnaires: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS-F; Frost et al., 1990) and Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS; Solomon & Rothblum,1984). Three dimensions and total scores of perfectionism (concern over mistakes, parental criticism, and doubts about actions) were found to be positively and significantly correlated with academic procrastination and organization dimension negatively and significantly correlated with it. In other words, individuals with higher scores in perfectionism scale revealed more academic procrastination in comparison with individuals with lower scores. The findings provide preliminary support for the role of perfectionism in the maintenance of academic procrastination. Keywords: Perfectionism; Academic procrastination; Perfectionist procrastinator; Procrastination 1. Introduction Perfectionism is characterized by striving for flawlessness and setting of excessively high standards for performance accompanied by tendencies for overly critical evaluations of one’s behavior (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). Moreover perfectionism explained as setting goals that are out of range and as a structure in which it causes the person to experience negative feelings as a consequence (Frost, Marten, Lahart & Rosenblate, 1990). Early conceptualizations of perfectionism suggested perfectionism to be a unidimensional construct (Burns, 1980). In contrast, recent views have stressed that perfectionism is multidimensional in nature (Terry- Short, Owens, Slade & Dewey, 1995). Recent research has shown that two major dimensions of perfectionism can be
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