Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Slane, Stephen

Subject Headings

Fear of death, Time perspective, Procrastination, Procrastination, Future time orientation, Death anxiety

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between death anxiety and future time orientation among procrastinators. Eight-five students from Cleveland State University participated in the experiment. Participants first completed the Aitken Procrastination Inventory then one of three questionnaires (Revised Death Anxiety Scale, Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, or control), depending on the randomly assigned condition. Then all participants completed the Future Time Orientation Scale, a manipulation check, a goal exercise, and a demographic questionnaire. An exit questionnaire, used as a behavioral assessment of procrastination, was handed out at the end of the experiment. The results showed that showed that future time orientation scores varied significantly with procrastination level (p = .001) however, the hypothesized interaction between procrastination level and experimental group was not significant. When extreme procrastination and non-procrastination scores were analyzed, the interaction between extreme procrastination level and experimental group showed a trend towards significance (p = .061). Additional analyzes showed a significant negative correlation between future time orientation and procrastination (p < .001). Priming for death anxiety did not significantly increase future time orientation scores for procrastinators. Reasons for this result are discussed, as well as areas for future research

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