Why Does Joseph R. Ferrari Study Chronic Procrastinators?

[hypnagogue]

Joseph R. Ferrari has a name for people who dillydally all the time. Sometimes, he spits out the term as if it were stale gum or a polysyllabic cuss word. When he dubs you a "chronic procrastinator," however, he does not mean to insult you. He is just using the psychological definition for someone who habitually puts things off until tomorrow, or next week, or whenever. The afflicted need not feel lonely: Research suggests that the planet is crawling with dawdlers.

Procrastinators vex Mr. Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University, yet he owes much to the dilatorily inclined. Without them he could not have helped blaze a trail of inquiry into procrastination (the word comes from the Latin verb procrastinare — "to defer until morning"). The professor is as prompt as the sports car that shares his name, but he sees the symptoms of compulsive stalling everywhere.

Mr. Ferrari and other scholars from around the world are finding that procrastination is more complex — and pervasive — than armchair analysts might assume. And helping people climb out of their pits of postponement is not as simple as giving them a pill or a pep talk.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=63klkx6drw34y6cqfktwkfd7c3ns9t6j

 

[gumbythescientist]

It's hard for me to say if procrastination is completely enviromental because I have a friend who has always been a procrastinator and I mean a hardcore one (he waited until roughly an hour before it was due to turn in a collage aplication essay) and the nothing that I know of in his environment has really encourged him to be procastinent. I do think there is some pyshological link to procrastination.

 

[Moonbear]

I've run into a lot of procrastinators in my time (and I've done my fair share of procrastinating too). I don't think it's possible to say there's just one reason for it. I know in my case, it's usually because a task is very undesirable, so I'd rather spend my time doing everything else that interests me more first, then eventually get around to the more odious task just because the deadline is approaching and I have no choice but to get it done. For others, it just seems they simply don't think ahead enough to realize how long a task is really going to take, so don't leave enough time for it. I think there are some people who just lack motivation to get much of anything done. For them, it seems more like a mental illness, because you see this similar attitude in a lot of aspects of their life, like something just isn't right with the parts of their brain required for motivation.

 

[zoobyshoe]

I'll read the article and respond tomorrow.