Self-Report and Behavioural Procrastination in Relation to the Dark Triad Traits

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Procrastination is a common issue among university students, potentially impacting academic performance.
• The Dark Triad personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) are associated with various behavioral patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between Dark Triad traits and both self-reported and behavioral procrastination.
• To examine the association between actual study time and planned study time as a measure of behavioral procrastination.

Main Methods:

• A short-term longitudinal study involving 298 German university students in a 15-week statistics course.
• Utilized two self-report procrastination measures and one behavioral procrastination task (comparing actual vs. planned study time).

Main Results:

• Psychopathy and narcissism showed significant correlations with both self-report and behavioral procrastination.
• Machiavellianism was not significantly related to either self-report or behavioral procrastination.
• Self-report and behavioral procrastination measures exhibited only a weak relationship.

Conclusions:

• Certain Dark Triad traits are linked to procrastination behaviors in students.
• Behavioral and self-report measures of procrastination capture distinct facets of the procrastination phenomenon.
• Findings highlight the complexity of procrastination and its relationship with personality.