Academic procrastination and irrational thinking: a re-examination with context controlled

As a test of the theory that academic procrastination is due to irrational thinking, undergraduate students at two universities were given the Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students (PASS), a measure of academic procrastination, and the Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI), an improved measure of irrational thinking. Because earlier research in this area had not adequately controlled for context effects (Council, 1993), the measures were administered at 2–3 week intervals as if they were separate research projects. Self-reported procrastination correlated with both a global measure of irrational thinking and with the subscale of problem avoidance. Implications for procrastination intervention strategies are discussed.