Abstract
The present study compared chronic procrastination tendencies claimed by “whitecollar” working adults (n = 141) with rates reported by Harriott and Ferrari ( 1996) of “blue-collar” working adults (n - 211). Participants completed reliable and valid measures of everyday procrastination tendencies (decisional, arousal, and avoidant), and socio-demographic items at one of several public forums. Results showed no significant difference between classes of working adults on age, gender, marital status, or the number of children, although “white-collar” workers claimed higher levels of education than “blue-collar” workers. “White-collar” workers also reported significantly higher scores on all three forms of chronic procrastination than “blue-collar” workers. It seems that professional employees report procrastination more frequently than unskilled workers. Further research is needed to explore the causes and consequences associated with differences in chronic procrastination by occupational group.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brockner, J., Grover, S., Reed, T. F., & DeWitt, R. L. (1992). Layoffs, job insecurity, and survivors' work effort: Evidence of an inverted-U relationship. Academy of Management Journal, 35, 413–425.
Chusmir, L. H. & Koberg, C. S. (1988). A look at sex differences in the relationships between religious beliefs and work-related attitudes. Journal of Social Behavior & Personality, 3, 37–48.
Ellis, A. & Knaus, W. (1977). Overcoming procrastination. New York: Institute for Rational Living.
Ferrari, J.R. (1991a). Self-handicapping by procrastinators: Protecting self-esteem, social-esteem, or both? Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 245–261.
Ferrari, J.R. (1991b). A preference for a favorable public impression by procrastinators: Selecting among cognitive and social tasks. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 1233–1237.
Ferrari, J.R. (1991c). Procrastination and project creation: Choosing easy, non-diagnostic items to avoid self-relevant information. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 619–628.
Ferrari, J. R. (1993). Christmas and procrastination: Explaining lack of diligence at a “realworld” task deadline. Personality & Individual Differences, 14, 25–33.
Ferrari, J.R., Johnson, J.J., & McCown, W.C. (1995). Procrastination and task avoidance: Theory, research, and treatment. New York: Plenum.
Ferrari, J.R. & Pychyl, T. (2000). Procrastination: Current issues and future directions. Corte Madera, CA: Select Press.
Ferrari, J.R., & Tice, D. (2000). Procrastination as a self-handicap for men and women: A task avoidance in a laboratory setting. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 73–83.
Harriott, J. & Ferrari, J.R. (1996). Prevalence of procrastination among samples of adults. Psychological Reports, 78, 611–616.
Lay, C. H. (1986). At last, my research on procrastination. Journal of Research in Personality, 20, 479–495.
Mann, L. (1982). Decision-making questionnaire. Unpublished scale. Flinders University. Flinders University of South Australia.
Mann, L., Radford, M., Burnett, P., Ford, S., Bond, M., Leung, K., Nakamura, H., Vaughan, G., Yang, K. (1998). Cross-cultural differences in self-reported decision-making style and confidence. International Journal of Psychology, 33, 325–335.
Matthews, M.D. & Weaver, C.N. (1996). Comparison of perceived job security of college professors versus white-collar and blue-collar workers. Psychological Reports, 79, 367–370.
McCown, W.C. & Johnson, J. (1989). Validation of an adult inventory of procrastination. Paper presented at the Society for Personality Assessment, New York.
McCown, W.C. & Roberts, R. (1994). A study of academic and work-related dysfunctioning relevant to the college version of an indirect measure of impulsive behavior. (Integra Technical Paper 94-28). Radnot, PA: Integra Inc.
Prohaska, V., Morrill, P., Atiles, I., & Perez, A. (2000). Academic procrastination by nontraditional students. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 15, 125–134.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hammer, C.A., Ferrari, J.R. Differential incidence of procrastination between blue and white-collar workers. Curr Psychol 21, 333–338 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-002-1022-y
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-002-1022-y