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Procrastination, thesis writing and Jungian personality type

University of British Columbia

This study sought to examine the relationship between the procrastination involved in thesis writing and Jungian personality type. A sample of 50 graduate students enrolled in the Department of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia participated in the study. These individuals were classified into one of two groups: those who procrastinated while writing their thesis and those who did not. Procrastination was measured using length of time taken to complete the thesis coupled with self-report. The 50 subjects were then administered the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which measures Jungian personality type. These two groups were then compared to determine if significant differences in personality type existed between the procrastinating and nan-procrastinating groups. Five hypotheses were tested. A t-test (two tailed) was performed using the continuous scores of the four scales of the MBTI to test the first four hypotheses to determine if a statistical difference could be found between these two groups on these dimensions. No differences were found on the first three scales (extraversion-introversion; sensation-intuition; thinking-feeling), but a significant difference was found on the judging-perceiving index (p=.008). Procrastinators tended to score toward the perceiving end of the scale while non-procrastinators scored toward the judging end of the continuum. A chi-square analysis using tire dichotomous scores of the MBTI was performed to test the fifth hypothesis which predicted that a significantly higher number of NFP types would be procrastinators than nan-procrastinators. This hypothesis was accepted (p=.0017) indicating that specific personality variables do tend to correlate with procrastination.

Text

2010-08-31

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28059

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

Graduate