UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS COLLEGE OF SCIENCE 1

UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS GRADUATE SCHOOL

SELF-REGULATION, ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION,
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
OF COLLEGE STUDENTS

A Research Proposal Submitted to the

Department of Psychology, College of Science
of the University of Santo Tomas

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology

by

DANA MARELLI L. HIPOLITO

HANNA KATHLYN L. PADILLA
PAULINA ANGELIKA L. SANCHEZ
ALYSSA MAE O. SISON
SOFIA XYRA AUDREY M. SOLIMAN
3PSY2

April 2018
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
Title i
Table of Contents ii
List of Tables iii
List of Figures iv
List of Appendices v

CHAPTER 1 INTRODCUTION
Background of the Study 3
Statement of the Problem 6
Hypothesis 7
Theoretical Framework 7
Conceptual Framework 10
Significance of the Study 11
Scope and Limitation 13
Definition of Terms 14

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW -

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODS

Research Design -
Respondents and Sampling Technique -
Description of the Instruments -
Data Gathering Procedure -
Statistical Treatment -

REFERENCES 16

APPENDICES -
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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Feelings and thoughts can be inhibited by an ability commonly known

as self-regulation. Self-regulation controls and manages desires and

impulses, both conscious and unconscious. Thus, highly self-regulated

learners have more active strategies, as self-regulation enables the making

of plans, setting of goals, self-monitoring and the subsequent evaluation, and

adapting to the environment or context (Pintrich, 2000 as cited by Park &

Sperling, 2012). Those with poor self-regulation have less control over their

urges, making them more likely to procrastinate.

Procrastination is universally known as the method of delaying the

onset or completion of an assigned task, one that usually comes with a

deadline. This can take place in a multitude of settings including, but not

limited to the workplace, home, or school environment. Everyone has, at one

point in their lives, procrastinated, either on chores, business reports, or

even in something as mundane as going downstairs to turn off the lights.

Students are no exception. In fact, most of the procrastination done by

students revolves around not yet finishing or even starting a paper due

tomorrow or a project that has been assigned since last week. Some of
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these students never intended to put off the assigned task, and thus the

realization of the impending deadline gives birth to pessimistic thoughts, the

mere act of thinking about said procrastinated task itself daunting and

worrying these students, although this worry might be more towards inaction

due to nervousness. They will then be found later rushing to finish it before

the said time limit, causing a great deal of stress due to time pressure as well

the task's complexity. This unintentional and stressful kind of procrastination

is known as passive procrastination (Chu & Choi, 2005 as cited by Habelrih

& Hicks, 2015).

On the contrary, some students procrastinate on purpose, using

procrastination as an effective productivity strategy. They see themselves as

motivated by the impending deadline and thus more productive when they

procrastinate. They perceive themselves as more creative when under time

pressure and prefer this rush. These students meet deadlines head on and

finish the procrastinated task right on time. They also feel the stress of the

oncoming time limit but transform this into the positive mindset of it being a

challenge. This purposeful type of procrastination is termed active

procrastination (Chu & Choi, 2005 as cited by Habelrih & Hicks, 2015 and

Ismail, 2016).

        However, despite these two kinds of procrastination and their different

perceptions on the time limit, the stress felt by a procrastinating student is

still a legitimate source of concern to their psychological well-being. A

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person's psychological well-being is better understood as their state of mind

and is generally accepted as part of their well-being as a whole. Their current

frame of thought can affect not only themselves and their goals but also their

interactions with other people.

As endorsed by Solomon and Rothblum (1984 as cited by Kiamarsi &

Abolghasemi, 2014), academic procrastination, or rather procrastination

done by students, relates to their current psychological vulnerabilities. The

anxiety experienced by procrastinators combined with their lack of self-

control and negative outlook on tasks may also contribute to an overall

decreased or limited psychological well-being.

As stated earlier, those with lower self-regulation have higher chances

of procrastinating, due to their low control over their impulses. Hence, self-

regulation and procrastination has an inverse relationship. This inverse

relationship also stands for procrastination and the learner’s psychological

well-being. Procrastinators have higher stress levels than those who do not

procrastinate, their anxiety negatively affecting their own psychological well-

being. This then leads to pessimistic thoughts, which in turn affects their self-

regulation, as they would dwell on the disagreeable circumstance rather than

be moved to action (Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011). This is in part due to

their own pessimism leading to their belief that there is nothing more they

can do about it and that the situation is hopeless. The cycle then continues

in a downward spiral.
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Within the context of the academe, procrastination has been identified

to be most dominant with college students, as it is found with a prevalence of

80% (Schubert & Stewart, 2000, Steel & Ferrari, 2013 both cited by Abbasi &

Alghamdi, 2015). The researchers, as college students themselves, have

experienced what it is like to procrastinate only to excessively worry about

the deadline afterwards. The researchers seek to better understand why

some fall victim to academic procrastination more so than others, as well as

how this procrastination affects both them and fellow students mentally and

emotionally.

Statement of the Problem

The main purpose of this study is to determine if there is an

interrelationship of the factors: academic procrastination, self-regulation, and

psychological well-being. Specifically, it answers the following questions:

1. What is the level of self-regulation, academic procrastination, and

psychological well-being of the respondents?

2. Does the self-regulation, academic procrastination, and psychological

well-being or the respondents vary across different sexes?

3. Does the self-regulation, academic procrastination, and psychological

well-being of the respondents vary across different year levels?

4. Does the self-regulation, academic procrastination, and psychological

well-being of the respondents vary across different universities?

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5. Is the self-regulation and psychological well-being of the respondents

significantly related?

6. Is the self-regulation and academic procrastination of the respondents

significantly related?

7. Is the academic procrastination and psychological well-being of the

respondents significantly related?

8. Is the self-regulation, academic procrastination and psychological

well-being of the respondents significantly related?

Hypothesis

         The following hypotheses will be formulated and tested at .05 level of

significance:

1. There is a significant relationship between self-regulation and

academic procrastination.

2. There is a significant relationship between self-regulation and

psychological well-being.

3. There is a significant relationship between academic procrastination

and psychological well-being.

4. There is a significant relationship between active procrastination,

psychological well-being, and passive procrastination.

Theoretical Framework
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The study was based on the self-regulation theory (SRT) that was

studied and developed by Roy Baumeister. Self-regulation theory is a

system of conscious personal management that controls one’s thoughts,

feelings, and behavior to reach a specific goal. In other words, “self-

regulation theory is a broad term denoting any kind of regulation of the self

by the self” (Vohs & Baumeister, 2004 as cited by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner,

2011). SRT has many facets; it can be the regulation of emotional,

attitudinal, motivational or behavioral processes. With respect to the

regulation of motivational and behavioral processes, self-regulation is

involved in goal setting, enactment, and successful completion of the goal-

directed actions in accordance with the self (Carver & Scheier, 1998 as cited

by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011). Consequently, in the self-regulatory

capacities, there are dispositions of attention control and action control

(Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011). Attention control is the ability to keep one’s

focus on a given goal despite the distractors (Diehl, Semegon, & Schwarzer,

2006 as cited by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011), while action control is the

ability to regulate one’s own thoughts and emotions (Baumann, Kaschel, &

Kuhl, 2005 as cited by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011). It is also the capacity

of a person to regulate one’s own behavior without needing external rewards

or support and behaving in a way that is appropriate in reaching one’s goal

even under stress or pressure (Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011). When a

person is under stress or anticipating failure, he or she have the tendency to

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contemplate about the unpleasant situation and remain in the state of

inactivity because of the lack of better alternative, ability to down-regulate the

ideas of negative affect caused by these stressful events, focus on the

positive affect, and initiation of better behavioral alternatives (Hofer, Busch,

& Kärtner, 2011).

In accordance to this, academic procrastination was found out to be

closely linked to a failure in self-regulation (Park & Sperling, 2012). Poor self-

regulated learners often fail to engage effective learning strategies and hold

to maladaptive motivational beliefs such as low goal-directed behavior and

low self-efficacy (Park & Sperling, 2012). They exhibit cognitive and

behavioral regulation (Park & Sperling, 2012), and experience higher levels

of anxiety (Lay 1994; Lay & Schouwenburg, 1993; Steel, 2007; Van Eerde,

2003; Wolters, 2004 as cited by Park & Sperling, 2012) and fear of failure

frequently (Pintrich, 2000; Zimmerman, 2002 as cited by Park & Sperling,

2012). These characteristics have been observed among academic

procrastinators (Park & Sperling, 2012) which can also be seen in light of the

impaired self-regulatory capacities of attention and action control. Impaired

action control increases the intensity of an individual’s first emotional

reaction to an unpleasant event (Baumann, Kaschel, & Kuhl, 2007 as cited

by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011), also increases the perseveration of

negative affect states thus increase the psychosomatic symptoms under

stress (Baumann et al., 2005 as cited by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011).
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Furthermore, action control also facilitates the recovery from an unpleasant

situation and generates positive affect which influences one’s motivation

(Beckmann & Kellmann, 2004 as cited by Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011).

Moreover, attention and action control were associated with both increase in

positive affect and decrease in negative affect (Brunstein, 2001 as cited by

Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011) which helps facilitate levels of anxiety and

stress and has strong relation to an individual’s psychological well-being

(Hofer, Busch, & Kärtner, 2011).

Conceptual Framework

As illustrated in Figure 1, self-regulation, as a conscious system of

personal management of one’s own thoughts, feelings, and behavior, is

linked with the tendency of a student to exhibit procrastinating behavior.

Specifically, poor self-regulation can predict increase of academic

procrastination (Kandemir, 2014). Furthermore, self-regulation and

procrastination has an effect on one’s psychological well-being. Some

empirical findings (Fernie & Spada, 2008 as cited by Habelrih & Hicks, 2015)

indicated that the relationship between academic procrastination and

psychological well-being is also cyclic. For instance, students with higher

psychological well-being would be expected to perceive academic

environment as less of a stressor which makes them less likely to be a

procrastinator (Riolli et al., 2012 as cited by Habelrih & Hicks, 2015) and
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those with low psychological well-being are more likely to engage in

procrastination (Habelrih & Hicks, 2015). Accordingly, low psychological well-

being increases the tendency of an individual to procrastinate, but increased

procrastination decreases the level of one’s psychological well-being (Fernie

& Spada, 2008 as cited by Habelrih & Hicks, 2015). With this in mind, self-

regulation also has an effect on one’s psychological well-being and vice

versa.
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Figure 1. A diagram showing the relationship of self-regulation,

procrastination, and psychological well-being.

Significance of the Study

Procrastination has been primarily viewed as a phenomenon which is

randomly distributed throughout the population affecting all ages,

occupation, socioeconomic levels, and genders. Despite the increasing

number of students engaging in academic procrastination, little is known

about the effects of academic procrastination and self-regulation on

psychological well-being. This study attempts to look at procrastinating

behaviors and self-regulation, and its link to psychological well-being

amongst college students in Manila.

This research would be of great benefit to the following:

1. Students. The given data will enable students to understand their

behavior of procrastinating and how to avoid it by knowing the

different kinds of self-regulation. This, in turn, may increase their

knowledge on how to handle procrastination through coping strategies

such as self-regulation in order to finish their tasks. This may also

provide students ideas on how to cope with their procrastination which

can lead to an increase in students’ academic performance and be

able to learn the importance of time management.

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2. Professors. The results of this research will guide the professors to

know the reason of the students’ procrastination and be able to help

them later on. This study can give professors an understanding about

the different kinds of self-regulation, then they can implement an

intervention to improve the performance of the students.  

3. Counselors. The results of this research can increase awareness

and knowledge of counselors regarding procrastinating behaviors of

students. In this way, they can guide the students in managing their

time, increase self-regulation, and minimize procrastination.

4. Parents. This research can inform parents about procrastinating

behaviors and may be of help to be a support system by applying

knowledge gained about self-regulation and monitor them in finishing

their activities on time to avoid the negative consequences of

procrastination.

5. Future researchers. The ideas presented may be used as reference

data in conducting new researches or in testing the validity of other

related findings.

Scope and Limitations

The researchers in the study will target the relationship between self-

regulation, academic procrastination, and psychological well-being on

college students around the city of Manila. They will demonstrate the
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connection of one variable to another as it goes with the whole

interconnection of the three variables. Furthermore, active and passive

procrastination under academic procrastination will be distinguished to

strengthen the correlation on academic procrastination to psychological well-

being and vice versa. The five types of self-regulation will also be taken into

account for understanding the relationship of self-regulation to academic

procrastination and self-regulation to psychological well-being. The study will

be limited to participants who are college students around the age of 16-22

years old and are currently studying in an institution only within chosen

schools in the University Belt in the city of Manila. Another limitation of this

study will be that the researchers will get representative samples drawn only

from the five big schools within the University Belt, namely: University of

Santo Tomas, Centro Escolar University, Far Eastern University, National

University, and University of the East due to having a time-bound research

study. Furthermore, the sampling technique that the researchers chose will

be convenience sampling for its nature of simplicity, ease for research and

short duration for data collection in the study. Moreover, this study will be

based on quantitative research method that will be based on the data from

self-report scales to justify the correlation of the said variables.

Definition of Terms
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To make a clearer understanding of this research, the researchers

defined the following terms in their conceptual and operational forms.

Academic Procrastination. Academic Procrastination is a form of

situational procrastination of delaying task requirements (Harris & Sutton,

1983 as cited by Balkis, 2013). In this study, academic procrastination is the

avoiding of undesirable academic tasks through which the individual delay

the task at hand.

Self-Regulation. Self-regulation refers to generating personal thoughts,

feelings, and behaviors in order to guide oneself in achieving their goals

(Zimmerman, 2000 as cited by Park & Sperling,2012). In this study, self-

regulation is a behavior that monitors and evaluates own performances in

order to make proper adjustment in attaining personal goals.

Psychological Well-being. This refers to connections of positive emotional

states such as experiencing happiness and able to effectively socialize with

others (Jayaraja, Tan & Ramasamy, 2017). In this study, psychological well-

being is a health state in which it shows extent of an individual’s contentment

and satisfaction in all interacting aspects of life.

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Balkis,M. (2013).The relationship between academic procrastination and

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Hofer, J., Busch, H., & Kärtner, J. (2011). Self-regulation and well-being: The

influence of identity and motives. European Journal of Personality, 25,

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211–224. doi: 10.1002/per.789

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