College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

Spring 6-12-2017

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Joseph R. Ferrari, PhD

Second Advisor

Theresa Luhrs, PhD

Abstract

Procrastination behavior sabotages their future performance, damages other people's perception of the person, and much more personal, academic, work-related, financial, and health problems (Ferrari, 2010). One purpose of this study was investigating the prevalence of decisional procrastinators on decision-making among Japanese adults, as an example of collectivistic countries in Asia. A total data of 2,603 adults (1,047 men, 1,521 women) residing in Japan was used. Two hypotheses, 1) the prevalence rates of chronic decisional procrastination among Japanese people would be higher than that of people in individualistic countries, and 2) participants who leaned to the collectivism dimension on Individualism-Collectivism scales would have a stronger tendency to procrastinate than those who were lower on individualism dimension when making decisions, were tested which were both rejected. None of personal characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and educational status) and cultural tendency (collectivist vs. individualist) were statistically significant on chronic Decisional Procrastination (DP) scale but did for marital status and occupation. Participants who claimed to be single showed slightly higher DP scores than persons who were married. In addition, students, housewives, office workers, and unemployed participants were more likely to show higher DP scores than company executives and self-employed persons. The present study was the first attempt to investigate the prevalence of chronic decisional procrastination of Japanese adults living in Japan. Although the results did not sturdily give enough evidence to support two hypotheses for this study, it contributes to the previous knowledge about relations between demographic characteristics and chronic decisional procrastination. Clearly, further psychological research on Asian societies is needed, to investigate how adults living in this culture with its lifestyle might influence their indecision, or decisional procrastination.

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