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Assessing “Clutter” and Related Constructs with a Non-White, Urban Sample

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Abstract

How does the clutter in people’s lives affect their sense of home and well-being? Why do some people (specifically non-white individuals) have too much clutter, and too many possessions, and is clutter related to procrastination? We examined the relation of clutter to psychological sense of home, subjective well-being, procrastination (both decisional and routine), and the need for cognition. Our participants (n = 192) were predominantly non-White, urban college students. Results confirmed prior research indicting negative relations between clutter and both the psychological sense of home and subjective well-being, plus a negative relation between clutter and need for cognition. Clutter was positively related to both forms of procrastination examined. The two forms of procrastination differed in their relation to need for cognition, supporting the view of decisional and routine procrastination as two distinct sub-types of procrastination.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Lehman College, City University of New York, 250 Bedford Park Blvd. West, Bronx, 10468, NY, USA

    Vincent Prohaska, Denise Celestino, Tiffany Dangleben & Alana Sandoval

  2. Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, NY, USA

    Pamela Sanchez

Authors
  1. Vincent Prohaska
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  2. Denise Celestino
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  3. Tiffany Dangleben
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  4. Pamela Sanchez
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  5. Alana Sandoval
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Correspondence to Vincent Prohaska.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflict of Interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Prohaska, V., Celestino, D., Dangleben, T. et al. Assessing “Clutter” and Related Constructs with a Non-White, Urban Sample. Curr Psychol 37, 432–435 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9680-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-017-9680-y

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