1.0 Literature Review Define Procrastination In late 16th century, the word procrastination came from a Latin word pro- 'forward ' and crastinus 'belonging to tomorrow ', meaning to delay an action (Klein, E. (1971). Procrastination has been defined as the irrational tendency to delay tasks that should be completed (Lay, 1986). Other psychologists define procrastination as delaying task completion to the point of experiencing discomfort (Ellis & Knaus, 1977). Procrastination is different from waiting and delaying, as it affects one’s emotions to feel guilt and shame (Combs, 2012). To name a few things people often put off, “I will book dentist appointments later, start diet later, pay my bills later, clean later, start revision later, …show more content…
Senecal and Koestner (1995) research found students who depend on external motivation such as immediate benefits or other people are more prone to procrastinate in completing a task, compared to self-motivate or intrinsic motivated students. When the sources of external motivation became inexistent, the person will feel the less motivation and therefore view the task as less important, and lack of interest to start a task immediately. According to this study and other researchers, development of intrinsic motivation can truly reduce procrastination among students, as they become self-motivated individuals (Senecal, Koestner, and Vallerand, 1995; Steel, 2007). Self-esteem and Self-efficacy serve as other important aspect to understanding procrastination. Self-efficacy refers to people’s beliefs in their capabilities to achieve desired effects by their own actions (Bandura, 1997). Self-esteem refers to a person perception and feeling about themselves base on all characteristic they have. Non-procrastinators have higher self-esteem and self-efficacy compared to chronic procrastinators (Ferrari et al., 1992; Klassen, Krawchuk, & Rajani, 2008). Psychologist believes developing and maintaining self-esteem could improve in self-efficacy and