Definition
Laziness is described as a person’s reluctance to perform a chore or an exercise despite having the ability to actually do it. Such hesitancy can be traced from a person’s lack of motivation to utilize one’s energy for the task (Burton 2014; Pelusi 2007). Thus, laziness is differentiated from a state of physical exhaustion. As Laird (1934) puts it, “True laziness… is mental and not physical. It is caused by ideas and emotions, and is not caused by work or poor physical condition” (Laird 1934, p. 23).
Introduction
Laziness is noted as related, albeit, distinct from the concepts of procrastination and idleness (Burton 2014). Procrastination involves unnecessarily delaying a task because of counterproductive schemes and a lack of enthusiasm to initiate a project or task thereby resulting to the non-completion of the task at hand. This, in turn, leaves the procrastinator perturbed (Burton 2014; Senecal et al. 1995; Solomon and Rothblum 1984)....
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
References
Burka, J., & Yuen, L. (1982). Mind games procrastinators play. The Psychology Today, 16(1), 32–34.
Burton, N. (2014). The Psychology of laziness. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/hide-and-seek/201410/the-psychology-laziness
Dawson, P. (2010). Lazy – or not? Educational Leadership, 68, 35–38.
Glantz, K., & Pearce, J. K. (1989). Exiles from Eden: Psychotherapy from an evolutionary perspective. London: W. W. Norton.
Laird, D. A. (1934). What it means to be lazy. Scientific American, 150(1), 22–24.
Miller, L. D. (2015). 7 reasons why laziness is a myth. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/contemporary-psychoanalysis-in-action/201510/7-reasons-why-laziness-is-myth
Pelusi, N. (2007). The lure of laziness. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/200707/the-lure-laziness
Senecal, C., Koestner, R., & Vallerand, R. J. (1995). Self-regulation and academic procrastination. The Journal of Social Psychology, 135(5), 607–619.
Solomon, L. J., & Rothblum, E. D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31, 503–509.
Xiangyu, Y., Huanhuan, L., Shan, J., Fei, P., & Zhongxin, L. (2014). Group laziness: The effect of social loafing on group performance. Social Behavior and Personality, 42(3), 465–472.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Balmores-Paulino, R.S. (2019). Laziness. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2098-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2098-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences