The role of academic self-handicapping and self-regulation as the predictor of academic procrastination under graduation students (Thesis Sample)

A Report Submitted to The Department of Applied Psychology in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements of The Degree of Master of Science in Psychology Supervisor Miss ANAM UL MALIK Department of Applied Psychology (2018-2019) Islamabad Model College for girls (Post graduate) F-7/2, Islamabad The role of academic self-handicapping and self-regulation as the predictor of academic procrastination under graduation students Submitted By Hafsa Bashir Roll # 40321183014 BS Psychology (Session 2018-2022) Submitted to Ms. Nazia Ashraf Department of Applied Psychology Islamabad Model College for Girls ( Post Graduate) F-7/2, Islamabad Date Signature _____________ _____________ Acknowledgement First and for most thanks to ALLAH Almighty who gave me knowledge and opportunity to learn. I would like to thank my supervisor Ms. Nazia Ashraf, of Applied Psychology Department, in I.M.C.G (P.G) F-7/2 Islamabad. Without her passionate supervision and guidance survey could not have been completed. I must express very profound gratitude to my family who provided me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study in process of survey and writing the report. Thank you Abstract The present study aims to explore the relationship between academic procrastination, academic self- handicapping and self- regulation. A purposive sample of 350 individuals (175 males, 175 females) was selected from different institutions of Islamabad. Age ranges from 15 to 25 years. The study also aimed to explore the effect of demographic variables (gender, age) on academic procrastination, academic self- handicapping and self- regulation. The analysis of the data for achieving these objectives was carried by using SPSS (special package for social sciences). Questionnaires were used for the assessment of academic procrastination, academic self- handicapping and self- regulation. The scales used were The General Procrastination Scale (GPS, Lay, 1986), Academic Self- handicapping Scale by Gupta and Geetika in 2020 and Self-regulation scale by Schwarzer et al, in 1999. Results showed that there is a significant and positive relation between academic procrastination and academic self- handicapping. Males score more in academic procrastination, academic self- handicapping and self- regulation than females. The present study may open the door for further studies, for investigating the relationship between academic procrastination, academic self- handicapping and self- regulation. Table of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Acknowledgment1 Abstract2Chapter 1 Introduction5Chapter 2Method 23 Objectives23Hypothesis23 Sample24 Instruements24Procedure25Chapter 3Results .26Chapter 4Discussion 31Conclusion 33Implications33Limitations33References35 Appendices38 List of tables S.NO Contents Page 1 Table 1: Alpha Coefficients and Descriptive Statistics for all Variables (N=350) 27 2 Table 2: Pearson correlation among academic procrastination, academic self-handicapping and self-regulation and demographic variables (N=350) 28 3 Table 3: Hierarchical regression showing the effects of demographic variables (age and gender), Academic Procrastination, Academic Self-handicapping and Self- regulation. (N=350). 29 4 Table 4: Gender differences in Academic Procrastination and Academic Self-handicapping and Self –Regulation. (N=350). 30 Chapter 1 Introduction Education and knowledge is the key to success. In education, new roles, ideas and contents emerging every day as well as in our daily life. In the previous decades the emergence of self-handicapping also comes in the list of cognitive characteristics. Self-handicapping was first elaborated by Berglas et al., in 1978; they stated that persons who practiced ambiguity about their essential adequacy to accomplish every task would try to express or authentic their disappointments. They explained that it is a choice for a situation in which a person expresses its failure (Akça, 2012). Similarly, researchers have exhibited that academic procrastination also cause self-regulation. They tried to relate both the procrastination and self-regulation with each other. Some study exhibit that both are positively correlated with each other. Mood and feelings can lead to failure of self- regulation that indirectly leads to procrastination (Sirois, et al., 2016). Present study aims to investigate the effect of academic procrastination with that of self-regulation and academic self-handicapping. Academic Self-handicapping: The tendency of self-handicapping behavior or choices that avoids individuals from compelling peculiar duty for consequences. And when there is likelihood of some kind of failure, they blame it for the failure (Cherry, 2020). Self-handicapping behavior decrease the probability of achievement. For this behavior, avoiding overall failure is more important than avoiding specific failure. If such type of person accomplishes poorly in an evaluative condition, then the subject can clarify the poor performance by using the impairment rather than uselessness. If the person performs positively despite the impairment, he or she capability is heightened (Fadhli, et al, 2021). In the process of Self-handicapping, barriers are created for the fulfillment of successful performance, which is designed to a safeguard person’s sense of self-competence. The researcher has elaborated that self-handicapping had a positive correlation with test anxiety, and there is high possibility that people with high level of self-handicapping having more chances to search pretext for their procrastination or failure. In other words, people who have high rate of their self-handicapping had higher pressure before the exam, but they would not work very hard, so the final score was lesser as compare to other (Jia, et al, 2021). The idea of academic self-handicapping may be legitimately anchored in a variety of intellectual contexts, some antique and some more recent. Alfred Adler was possibly the first to articulate the significance of various self-defeating claims and gestures for defensive the self-idea, thus the obvious paradox of "defeat" inside the interests of “protection." Heider's "naive psychology" introduced attribution rhetoric to the description of self-defeating techniques. Even as predominantly cognitive in its thrust, the attritional approach integrated numerous motivational impacts especially the ones regarding selfish concerns. Heider hardly violated our commonplace feel while he counseled that people are inclined to characteristic their performances in a self-serving manner (Higgins, et al., 2020). Academic Self-handicapping includes accomplishing behaviors that sabotage our possibilities of success. researchers have located that we every sometimes cross up to now as to hurt our chances of success so that it will keep away from taking responsibilities for our failures. Truly positioned, self-handicapping lets in human beings to locate an out of doors source guilty for viable failures. At the same time as this will be a powerful method for protective, it could understandably have a substantially bad impact on fulfillment. Allows take a more in-depth study why self-handicapping occurs and the capability consequences of these activities. Psychologists have determined that all of us have a robust want to assign our disappointments on outdoor powers though enchanting individual credit score for our achievements. It seems that this activity is useful for us, but in real it was not. Basically, human beings create obstacles in order that any feasible failures can then be blamed on those out of doors forces. Failure can cause discomfort while humans recognize that their very own loss of ability or instruction caused the final results. By means of conducting activities that weaken feasible achievement, individual trying to stay away from truth take benefits of their own capabilities. There are numerous exclusive types of self-handicapping. In some situations this may be dangerous, while in some case this may be beneficial to the individual. In a few instances, it'd even pressure human beings to have interaction in probably dangerous act. For example, college students would possibly procrastinate on its exercise or cast off reading till the final time. Competitors may pass exercise or keep continue the exercise till the time. In a few circumstances, individuals would possibly have interaction in greater risky sorts of self-handicapping inclusive of drug addicted. Scholars have indicated that self-handicapping may be linked to self-serving bias, wherein human beings entitlement particular recognition scores for fulfillment however; they indicate the external powers as the consequences for their failure. Berglas et al. (1978), have a look at that worried arbitrarily allocating pupils to finish anagrams, some of these had easy and can be solved while other are not. Later on, the entire college pupils had been informed they had executed nicely. This comments become definitely disturbing also puzzling for the contributors who were given the difficult form of anagram. All of them were advised they had carried out fine however no idea that what is the causes of that. “These are the persons to whom it was explained that they may be top notch, instead of having information of how those inferences are derived,” the individual were then told that they have a choice to take drug for performance improving or inhibiting, before any type of test. From that individuals,70% of the members who were given the unsolved anagrams and choose to take drugs to cease performance, in comparison to only 13 percentages of people to whom easy anagrams were...