Category: psychological papers
With the continuous development of social economy, people's lives are becoming more and more colorful, and all kinds of information are flooding people's eyes, especially the emergence and prosperity of the Internet. There are more and more attractive factors to attract individual attention, which makes it difficult for people to concentrate on their study or work tasks. The network attracts our attention only to distract us, and procrastination has become a common behavior phenomenon of individuals. "Procrastination is a problematic habit, which will push important and time-limited things to other times. Delaying this process is likely to have some adverse consequences. "
Procrastination reflects the individual's emotion, self-control, time management ability and self-identity. Everyone has different ways of procrastination, and those who choose to procrastinate actively have more self-management ability and willpower than those who procrastinate passively. So not every kind of procrastination is called procrastination. Procrastination is not a strict medical term at present, and academic circles have not formed a unified definition of it. Therefore, my understanding of procrastination is "a situation in which individuals subjectively and intentionally delay the completion of necessary tasks until they have bad emotions and consequences, thus affecting their physical and mental health and quality of life." Procrastination is very harmful, and serious cases need to be corrected by psychological theories and methods, such as rational emotional therapy and exposure therapy, so that procrastinators can change their cognitive concepts and correct procrastination behavior.
1 the harm of procrastination
Procrastination seems to have become a common problem in modern society, especially in schools and workplaces. Students can't finish the learning tasks assigned by teachers before the deadline, and they don't perform their duties until the last minute. In the workplace, people tend to procrastinate, especially for tasks that they don't like or are not good at. But procrastination is obviously harmful. Procrastinators will never start before the deadline when they have to finish the task, so it will definitely seriously affect the quality of completing the task. When working in a team, it will inevitably affect the overall progress and work efficiency of the team, and even make the team suffer huge losses. Often procrastinators will feel anxious, regret and blame themselves at this time, because Rogers' humanistic theory emphasizes that "people have an innate tendency to achieve." This tendency to achieve requires not only physical and psychological self-maintenance, but also constant self-growth and development. "
Therefore, no one is willing to indulge and be lazy from the heart. When the procrastinator realizes that he is procrastinating, he will feel depressed, irritable, depressed and self-reproach in the face of the adverse consequences of procrastination, but when he is determined to take action, he still procrastinates again and again. Over time, the negative emotions of procrastinators will accumulate, which will greatly damage the mental health of the subjects and seriously reduce the quality of life of individuals.
2 the formation of procrastination
There is a reason behind every choice, and so is procrastination. For short-term, false happiness, or fear of failure, fear of success, or pursuit of perfection, procrastinators always choose to delay again and again, regardless of major problems, until individuals have deep emotional reactions such as remorse, guilt and irritability, but they still can't make up their minds to take action, which makes procrastination more and more serious. Through observation and rational analysis, we can analyze the reasons why procrastinators choose to procrastinate from both objective and subjective aspects.
2. 1 objective reasons
2. 1. 1 situational factors Everyone is inevitably exposed to the social environment and affected. People are not only influenced by the macro environment such as social politics, economy, culture and mass media, but also by the micro environment such as family, school, unit and community. Under the background of economic globalization, the development of socialist market economy provides people with various opportunities, but it also intensifies competition. Both students and men and women in the workplace are facing great challenges and pressures. Sometimes, they are influenced by classmates or colleagues, interpersonal environment and network environment, and tend to evade tasks briefly. In this era of information explosion, the Internet, mobile phones, television, newspapers and music make it easy for them to get away from their tasks.
2. 1.2 the nature and characteristics of the task itself The task that an individual must complete has its own nature and characteristics: in terms of difficulty, some are easy to understand and some are abstruse; In the time required to complete the task, some have a long time limit and some have a short time limit; In terms of fun, some are boring and some are full of fun; From the perspective of meeting individual needs, some tasks can arouse the enthusiasm of individuals to participate and complete, while some tasks are of little or no value to individuals. These factors will affect the individual's mood and choice to complete the task. The more abstruse, time-limited, boring and low satisfaction with individual value, the more likely it is to cause delay.
2. 1.3 The size and timeliness of rewards and punishments Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory points out that people have physiological needs, security needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs, and it is human biological instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. Therefore, if the completion of the task can make the individual get the timely feedback of recognition and get the corresponding return, then the individual behavior will tend to "pursue success"; If you don't finish the task, you will be punished accordingly. At least in order to avoid punishment, individuals will choose "avoid failure" on the deadline and choose to complete the task. Often the size and timeliness of rewards and punishments are inversely proportional to whether individuals delay, that is, the bigger the rewards and punishments, the more timely they are, and the more inclined people are to refuse to delay.
2.2 Subjective reasons
2.2. 1 Different personality characteristics are closely related to procrastination. The research shows that "neuroticism and sense of responsibility in big five personality are related to procrastination, and sense of responsibility is the root of trait procrastination."
Lack of sense of responsibility will lead to laziness and procrastination in thinking and behavior. Those who often feel sad, anxious, depressed, fragile, sensitive, delicate and prone to mood swings also account for a considerable proportion in the procrastination group. Children who grow up in an authoritarian family environment may express their inner resistance through procrastination, while children who grow up in a doting environment will also delay because of laziness.
2.2.2 Different ways of thinking will lead to different behaviors. People who pursue perfection, fear failure and rely on others to evaluate their lives are more likely to delay the completion of tasks. They always assume that they are fully prepared before completing the task, but they often waste a lot of time. Similarly, the negative emotions generated by the psychology of resisting tasks and being ordered will also directly affect the enthusiasm for completing tasks. The loss of internal driving force makes it difficult to complete the task, and it is an illusion to complete the task with high quality in advance.
2.2.3 Self-efficacy Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in his ability to successfully complete a task. Generally speaking, individuals have a clear self-concept, but "individuals with low self-efficacy underestimate their competence in the task, which leads to strong fear of difficulties, frequent experience of anxiety and helplessness, and then repeatedly delay the start of the task."
Because they lack the expectation of success, the confidence to complete the task, and attach importance to other people's evaluation, they often feel inferior and afraid, and relieve their inner tension and anxiety through procrastination. Some people deliberately procrastinate because of overconfidence, thinking that they have enough ability to finish the task within the time limit.
3 Overcome procrastination
Procrastination will bring great inconvenience and trouble to personal life. Overcoming procrastination is not only beneficial to mental health, but also can improve the quality of life of procrastinators, which is conducive to establishing good interpersonal relationships and creating a harmonious living environment. Procrastination manifests itself in all aspects of daily life through procrastination, so we should start from daily life and combine psychological professional methods to get rid of procrastination.
3. 1 rational emotional therapy
Rational Emotional Therapy (RET) was founded by American psychologist Alice, emphasizing the criticism of irrational beliefs, and its basic theory-ABC theory has a good effect on overcoming procrastination. Task, as an activity event, does not directly lead to individual's procrastination mood and behavior, but the individual's belief system and attitude directly affect the individual's behavioral consequences, that is, whether and how much the individual decides to delay. By criticizing and refuting unreasonable and irrational beliefs such as procrastination, temporary happiness of procrastination, "it doesn't matter when to finish the task", "it is necessary to complete the task perfectly" and "it is impossible to complete the task", the procrastinator can build up the belief and confidence to overcome procrastination by changing the positive attitude of the individual, and continue to consolidate and strengthen it through homework, so that the procrastinator can rely more on his own positive actions to solve his emotional and life troubles and get rid of procrastination.
3. 1.65438+ Compared with negative emotions such as irritability, anxiety, self-blame, guilt, etc., which are not conducive to their long-term development, and the evaluation and behavior of others, procrastinators should rationally analyze the long-term advantages and disadvantages of "procrastination" and "immediate action", establish endurance, pay attention to long-term goals, and understand the importance of completing tasks in time.
Individuals with low self-efficacy should believe that they have the power to complete the task, establish the belief of success, establish the internal driving force to complete the task and pursue success. Those who have perfectionist plots should abandon absolute thinking, those individuals who are afraid of difficulties should abandon the idea of incompetence and inferiority, believe that the evaluation of completing tasks is not equal to the evaluation of individuals, and abandon those words such as "must" and "must", try to be rational in cognition, have a clear self-concept, believe in yourself, become active in handling tasks, and tolerate their dislike of tasks through interactive inhibition.
3. 1.2 Take immediate action to get rid of procrastination. ABC theory is not only a theory that emphasizes the active education and guidance of consultants in psychology, but also a method that emphasizes the continuous self-education of consultants through their own behaviors, and emphasizes the continuous self-management and action of consultants in the form of homework. Counselors should actively complete the tasks assigned by counselors and use the thinking blocking method when procrastinating thinking appears. Immediately say "stop" to your procrastination thinking, and use the idea of "immediate action" to restrain, imagine the serious consequences of procrastination, hate procrastination, use your willpower and self-control to restrain your behavior, take active actions, and overcome procrastination step by step.
3.2 Daily life management
3.2. 1 Physical exercise is the psychological basis to ensure adequate sleep physiology. Physical exercise can enhance physical fitness and make the body run healthily. Maintaining good living habits, regular work and rest and adequate sleep can make the body have a good metabolism, make it easy for procrastinators to concentrate for a long time, and avoid procrastination caused by distraction. Healthy body and abundant energy are the important guarantee of mental health, and being positive, optimistic and enterprising and refusing pessimism and disappointment are the prerequisites for successfully completing the task.
3.2.2 Establish objectives and divide tasks. Man is an advanced creature with conscious initiative. Doing things with a purpose, setting goals and defining deadlines can motivate individuals to keep moving forward. But for procrastinators, the task itself is the goal, but there is no effective mechanism to restrain their procrastination. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen time management and divide tasks to make them look simpler, more direct and more feasible. Prioritizing the priorities of personal affairs and learning from pomodoro technique will effectively improve the work efficiency of procrastinators, that is, concentrate on working for 25 minutes, rest for 5 minutes, continue working for 25 minutes, rest for 5 minutes after "planting four tomatoes" in a row 15 ~ 20 minutes, and do what you like as a reward. Strict time limits enable procrastinators to complete tasks step by step. In life, to-do items can be used to record and manage life behaviors and develop good living habits.
3.2.3 As an external supervision system, it is of great significance to establish an enhanced reward and punishment system to overcome procrastination. You can set an individual to receive a self-reward that matches the size and difficulty of the task in time for positive reinforcement, while failing to complete the task will be punished with negative reinforcement, such as asking a friend to supervise, inviting a friend to dinner or buying something for him if he fails to complete the task on time. It is also positive and effective to get rid of procrastination through such practical actions and auxiliary driving forces.
3.2.4 Impose restrictions and reduce choices "American columnist James Jecky pointed out in a column about procrastination written for The New Yorker that the main way to overcome procrastination is to' impose restrictions, reduce choices and voluntarily give up freedom', and then he gave an example: victor hugo could write naked, and he asked the housekeeper to put. Therefore, in daily work and study, we should try our best to ensure that the environment is clean and simple, so that our eyes are not easily attracted by other things, because distraction is often the first step of procrastination. If conditions permit, keep the network disconnected and the mobile phone away, try to find an atmosphere where others work hard and urge themselves not to slack off.
Procrastination is a common phenomenon in almost everyone in modern society. It covers all aspects of people's lives, including both active procrastination and passive procrastination. We should overcome those negative procrastination behaviors, especially those that cause strong negative emotions such as guilt and self-blame because of procrastination. We should combine rational emotional therapy with imagination aversion and thinking block, establish reasonable beliefs by means of homework, cultivate positive emotions and thinking methods, and combine reward and punishment mechanisms to overcome procrastination immediately.
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