毕业论文翻译原文.docx

毕业论文翻译原文.docx

《毕业论文翻译原文.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《毕业论文翻译原文.docx（9页珍藏版）》请在冰点文库上搜索。

毕业论文翻译原文

TheJournalofGeneticPsychology.2005,160（4）,436--442

TheEffectsofLocusofControlandTaskDifficultyonProcrastination

TRACYJANSSENDepartmentofPsychologyBeloitCollege

JOHNS.CARTONDepartmentofPsychologyOglethorpeUniversity

ABSTRACT.Theauthorsinvestigatedtheeffectsoflocusofcontrolexpectanciesandtaskdifficultyonprocrastination.Forty-twocollegestudentswereadministeredanacademiclocusofcontrolscaleandataskthatwassimilartoatypicalcollegehomeworkassignment.Thestudentswererandomlyassignedto1of2taskdifficultylevels.Althoughnoneoftheresultsinvolvingtaskdifficultywassignificant,severalresultsinvolvinglocusofcontrolweresignificant.Specifically,analysesrevealedthatstudentswithinternallocusofcontrolexpectanciestendedtobeginworkingontheassignmentsoonerthanstudentswithexternallocusofcontrolexpectancies.Inaddition,studentswithinternallocusofcontrolcompletedandreturnedtheassignmentsoonerthanstudentswithexternallocusofcontrol.TheresultsarediscussedwithinthecontextofJ.B.Rotter's（1966,1975,1982）socialleamingtheory.

PROCRASTINATIONreferstotheactofneedlesslydelayingataskuntilthepointofsomediscomfort—abehaviorproblemthatmanyadultsexperienceonaregularbasis（Ferrari,Johnson,&McCown,1995）.Mostresearchonprocrastinationhasfocusedoncollegestudents;researchershaveestimatedthatanywherefrom46%（Solomon&Rothblum,1984）to95%（Ellis&Knaus,1977）ofcollegestudentsregularlyprocrastinateonacademicassignments.Researchfindingssuggestthat,thelongerstudentsareincollege,themoretheytendtoprocrastinate（Semb,Glick,&Spencer,1979）,althoughmoststudentsperceivesuchbehaviorasaproblemthattheywouldliketoeliminate（Solomon&Rothblum,1984）.Inaddition,procrastinationhasbeenassociatedwithavarietyofdifficulties,includingtestanxiety,misseddeadlinesforassignments,poorsemestergrades,depressedaffect,lowself-esteem,andsocialanxiety（e.g.,Beswick,

Rothbun，&Mann，1988;Ferrari，1991;Ferrarietal.，1995;Lay，1986，1987;Lay&Burns，1991;Solomon&Rothblum，1984）

TObetterunderstandProcrastination，researchershavesoughttoidentifypersonalityvariablesassociatedwithit（forareview，seeFerrarietal.，1995）Onevariablethathasbeenstudiedislocusofcontrolofreinforcement.locusofcontrolreferstoageneralizedexpectancyreflectingthedegreetowhichindividualsperceiveconsequencesascontingentontheirownbehaviorandabilities（internalcontrol）ratherthanonsomeexternalforcesuchasluck，chance，fate，orpowerfulothers（externalcontrol;Rotter,1990）.Becauseindividualswithinternal

controlexpectanciesperceiveacontingentrelationbetweentheirbehaviorandconsequences，onemightexpectthemtoprocrastinatelessthanindividualswithexternalcontrolexpectancies.

Previousresearchontherelationbetweenlocusofcontrolandacademicprocrastinationhasproducedmixedresults.Severalresearchershavefoundnorelationbetweenthetwovariables（e.g.Briordy,1980;Ferrari,Parker，&Ware，1992）.However，TriceandMilton（1987）foundthatprocrastinatorshadgraterexternallocusofcontrolthannonprocrastinators.Inaddition，Rothblum，Solomon，andMurakamifoundthatprocrastinatorsweremorelikelythannonprocrastinatorstoattributesuccessonexamstoexternalfactors.

Onereasonfortheinconsistentfindingsmaybethatmostresearchershaveusedgeneralizedexpectancyscalesinsteadofspecificacademicexpectancyscalestopredictacademicprocrastination（Trice,1985）.AccordingtoRotter’s（1966，1975，1982）sociallearningtheory，domain—specificexpectancyscalesshouldprovidebetterpredictionsofspecificbehaviorsthangenera1izedscalesdo.

Inthepresentstudy，wesoughttoextendpreviousresearchontherelationbetweenlocusofcontrolandacademicprocrastinationinseveralways.First，weusedaspecificexpectancyscaleforacademicperformanceinordertomeasurestudents’locusofcontrol.Second，tomeasureprocrastinationandimprovetheexternalvalidityofthefindings，weusedabehavioralmeasureofprocrastinationthatwassimilartoatypicalcourseassignment，whereasmanypreviousstudieshaveusedself-reportscales.Third,tobetterunderstandtheprocessofprocrastination，weoperationallydefinedprocrastinationinseveralways:

timetakentoinitiateanassignedtask，timetakentocompletetheassignedtask，andtimetaken

toreturntheassignedtask.Previousresearchershaveassessedonlythedateatwhichanassignmentwasreturned，aprocedurethatmakesitimpossibletodeterminewhetherthereweredifferencesbetweenindividualswithinternalandexternalcontrolexpectancieswithrespecttowhentheystartedandcompletedthetask.Fourth，toinvestigatetheeffectsoftaskdifficultyonProcrastination，weassignedtwodifferenttasks.Thehypothesesforthestudywereasfollows:

Hypothesis1:

Studentswithinternalcontrolexpectancieswillprocrastinatelessthanthoseexternalcontrolexpectancies.

Hypothesis2:

Studentswhoreceivethedifficultassignmentwillprocrastinatemorethanthosewhoreceivetheeasyassignment.

Hypothesis3:

Therewillbeaninteractionbetweenlocusofcontrolandtaskdifficulty,suchthatstudentswithexternallocusofcontrolexpectancieswhoreceivethedifficultassignmentwillprocrastinatethemost.

Method

Participants

Theparticipantsforthestudywere42undergraduatestudents（10menand32women）.Theirmeanagewas19.7years（SD=0.65）.Thestudentswereenrolledintwopsychologycoursesatarelativelysmall,midwesternU.S.college.Collegestudentswereselectedsothatwecouldreplicatepreviousstudiesandbecauseoftherelativelyhighratesofprocrastinationobservedinthispopulation.ThestudentswerepredominantlyCaucasian（90%）andmiddleclass.Theyreceivedcredittowardtheircoursegradefortheirparticipation.

Measures

Locusofcontrol.StudentscompletedtheAcademicLocusofControlScale（ALC;Trice,1985）.TheALCisa28-item,true-falsescaledesignedtoassesslocusofcontrolwithrespecttoacademicoutcomes,withhigherscoresindicatinggreaterexternality.Trice（1985）reportedaKuder-Richardson20internalconsistencycoefficientof0.70anda5-weektest-retestreliabilitycoefficientof0.92fortheALCwithcollegestudents.Inaddition,scoresontheALChavebeenshowntobecorrelatedinpredicteddirectionswithacademicachievement,classparticipation,homeworkcompletion,andscoresontheRotterInternal-ExternalControlScale（Trice,Ogden,Stevens,&Booth,1987）.

Procrastination.Wemeasuredthestudents'procrastinationbyrecordingtheamountoftimethatpassedbetweenthedatethetaskwasassignedandthedatesthestudentsbegan,completed,andreturnedthetasktotheteachingassistant.Specifically,thestudentswereaskedtotakehomeapsychologyarticle,readit,providewrittenanswerstotwoquestionsaboutthearticle,andreturntheiranswerstotheprofessor'steachingassistant.Thequestionsaboutthearticlewerepresentedonaworksheetthatalsoincludedplacesforthestudentstorecordthetimesanddatestheystarted,completed,andreturnedtheassignmenttotheteachingassistant（thereturndatewasverifiedbytheteachingassistant,whocheckedthereturnboxdaily）.

Taskdifficulty.Wemanipulatedtaskdifficultybyusingtwoarticlesofequallengthandsimilartopicbutofpresumablydifferentdifficultylevels.Theeasyarticlewasanarticleonhumanmemory,writtenforthegeneralpublic,inthemagazinePsychologyToday（Neimark,1995）.ThedifficultarticlewasaresearcharticleonhumanmemorytakenfromthejournalPsychologicalScience（Robinson&Roediger,1997）.Tocheckthedifficultymanipulation,weaskedthestudentstorateona5-pointscalehowdifficulttheyperceivedthearticletheywereassigned（1=veryeasy,5=verydifficult）.

Procedure

Thestudentswererandomlyassignedtoreceiveeithertheeasyorthedifficultarticle.Atthebeginningofthesemester,thestudentswereadministeredaconsentformandtheALC.Aftertheformswerecompleted,theprofessor（a32-year-old,male,Caucasian,assistantprofessor）assignedthearticlesandworksheets.Thestudentswereinstructedtoreturntheworksheetstotheprofessor'steachingassistant（a21-year-old,female,Caucasian,seniorcollegestudent）forgradingassoonastheyweredone.Thus,nospecificduedatewasprovided（inordertoenhancevariabilityinprocrastination）,althoughthestudentshadbeen

toldthattheassignmenthadtobecompletedbytheendofthesemester.Afteralloftheworksheetswerereturned,thestudentsweredebriefedonthepurposeofthestudy.

Results

ScoresontheALCwereanalyzedtodetermineeachstudent'slocusofcontrot.Scoresrangedfrom3to18,withanoverallmeanof9.64（SD=3.81）.Separateanalysesformenandwomenresultedinthefollowingmeans:

men,10.10（SD=2.85）;women,9.50（SD=4.09）.Themeanscoresforeachgenderwerenotsignificantlydifferent,andtheywerecomparabletomeansreportedbyTrice（1985）forcollegestudents.Studentswereseparatedatthemedian（9）intointernal（n=22）andexternal（n=20）controlgroups.

A2x2x2analysisofvariancewasusedtoanalyzethedata.Theindependentvariableswerestudents'gender（male,female）,locusofcontrol（internal,external）,andtaskdifficulty（easy,difficult）.Thedependentvariableswerethenumberofdaysbetweenthedatethearticlewasassignedandthedatesthestudentsreportedbeginning,completing,andreturningtheassignment.

Tocheckthetaskdifficultymanipulation,wefirstanalyzedthestudents'ratingsofthedifficultylevelsofthetwoarticles.Asexpected,therewasasignificantmaineffectoft