Procrastination Research-Part III
This is the third in a series of at least four articles on the research into
the experience of procrastination. Related issues are the anxiety it
creates, its effects, procrastination/s causes and cures. Please read
the first two articles before reading this one.
Another way to describe procrastination "thinking failures" is
what is known as present bias. This is being unable to grasp that
what we want will change over time, and what we want now isn't the
same thing we will want later. Present bias explains why we buy l
ettuce and bananas only to throw them out later when we forget to eat
them. Present bias is why we've made the same resolution for the
tenth year in a row, but this time we mean it. We are going to lose
weight and forge six-pack abs that are so ripped our stomach could
deflect speeding bullets. We weigh yourselves. We buy a workout DVD.
We order a set of weights and then ................don't.
Procrastination also links time to impulsivity. Why? Well,
from a psycho-evolutionary point of view, there is no pay off for waiting.
For example, if I offer you fifty dollars now or one-hundred dollars in a
year, which would you take? Most would take the fifty dollars. This is
true when time is clearly different between choices. If I offer
the hundred dollars in three months, the decision gets tougher because
three months is not that far away, compared to a year. Waiting for an
ntire year predisposes one to consider what might happen in a year. We
might be dead, so take the fifty bucks now. Here's another take on time
distortion, using the same example. What if I instead offer you fifty
dollars in five years or one hundred dollars in six years? Nothing has
changed other than adding a delay, but now it feels just as natural to wait
for the hundred dollars because you already have to wait so long, anyway.
It no longer is a contest between the time one has to wait, just between the
values of the reward. So, being completely logical and thinking about this
last contingency, you would think, "more is more," and pick the higher amount,
despite the additional wait time. Unfortunately, we are not rational,
logical beings. Faced with two possible rewards, you are more likely to
take the one which you can enjoy now over one you will enjoy later-even if
the later reward is far greater, and even if the more immediate reward is
less beneficial. As you can see, procrastination is the first cousin to
impulsivity, in this case, the inability to delay gratification.
-Dr. Griggs
http://www.psychologyproductsandservices.com/page194.html
The author is a clinical psychologist in private practice for twenty-six years. For more information about this and other articles and ebooks by this author, start with: www.psychologyproductsandservices.com. For more information about the author, go to:
www.drgriggs.org
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