PROCRASTINATION AS REVENGE - DO PEOPLE REPORT USING DELAYS AS A STRATEGY FOR VENGEANCE

Procrastination may be a means of getting revenge for mistreatment by others or inequities from life. Across two samples, the relation between procrastination and revenge was assessed. In Sample 1,263 college students completed self-reported inventories on revenge and decisional and behavioral procrastination. Revenge was significantly related to decisional procrastination, behavioral procrastination, and dysfunctional procrastination. In a second sample, 277 other college students completed the procrastination and revenge scales, plus measures of irrational beliefs and just world. Results indicated that only a just world belief was related significantly with decisional, behavioral, and dysfunctional procrastination. Irrational beliefs and revenge were not significantly related to procrastination in this sample. Taken together, these studies indicate that people may not openly admit the use of ''procrastination as revenge,'' and the relation between these personality variables is tentative at best.