毕业论文翻译原文

The Journal of Genetic Psychology. 2005, 160(4), 436--442

The Effects of Locus of Control and Task Difficulty on Procrastination TRACY JANSSEN Department of Psychology Beloit College

JOHN S. CARTON Department of Psychology Oglethorpe

University

ABSTRACT.The authors investigated the effects of locus of control

expectancies and task difficulty on procrastination. Forty-two college

students were administered an academic locus of control scal e and a task

that was similar to a typical college homework assignment.The students

were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 task difficulty levels. Although none of

the results involving task difficulty was significant, several results

involving locus of control were significant. Specifically, analyses

revealed that students with internal locus of control expectancies tended

to begin working on the assignment sooner than students with external

locus of control expectancies. In addition, students with internal locus of

control completed and returned the assignment sooner than students with

external locus of control. The results are discussed within the context of J.

B. Rotter's (1966, 1975, 1982) social leaming theory.

PROCRASTINATION refers to the act of needlessly delaying a task

until the point of some discomfort—a behavior problem that many adults

experience on a regular basis (Ferrari, Johnson,&McCown, 1995). Most

research on procrastination has focused on college students; researchers have estimated that anywhere from 46% (Solomon&Rothblum, 1984) to 95% (Ellis&Knaus, 1977) of college students regularly procrastinate on academic assignments. Research findings suggest that, the longer students are in college, the more they tend to procrastinate (Semb, Glick,&Spencer, 1979), although most students perceive such behavior as a problem that they would like to eliminate (Solomon&Rothblum,1984). In addition, procrastination has been associated with a variety of difficulties, including test anxiety, missed deadlines for assignments, poor semester grades, depressed affect, low self-esteem, and social anxiety (e.g., Beswick,

Rothbun，&Mann，1988;Ferrari，1991;Ferrari et al.，1995;Lay，1986，1987;Lay&Burns，1991;Solomon&Rothblum，1984)

TO better understand Procrastination，researchers have sought to identify personality variables associated with it(for a review，see Ferrari et al.，1995)One variable that has been studied is locus of control of reinforcement. locus of control refers to a generalized expectancy reflecting the degree to which individuals perceive consequences as contingent on their own behavior and abilities(internal control)rather than on some external force such as luck，chance，fate，or powerful others(external control;Rotter,1990).Because individuals with internal control expectancies perceive a contingent relation between their