A New, Easier Method for Classifying Types of Procrastination

Abstract

  The present article reports the development of an easier method for classifying types of procrastination. Undergraduates (N=974) completed an awareness of procrastination scale, the Japanese version of the General Procrastination Scale, and the Decisional Procrastination Scale. Cluster analysis using multivariate normal mixture models showed that the participants could be classified into 4 types. In order to select important variables for classification, an importance index was calculated by a random forest, after which a decision tree for classification was conducted without using multivariate analysis. The decision tree reliably reproduced the classification that had been obtained by the clustering method. The variables that were important for the decision tree were optimistic thinking, negative feelings during and after procrastination, and scores on the Decisional Procrastination Scale. The results of a validation study, comparing the 4 types with depression, effortful control, and academic performance, described features of each of the 4 types. The 4 types could be named negative feeling type, optimistic type, task prioritizing type, and emotional control type.