Fear, competence & autonomy in the prediction of procrastination

An interview with Mohsen Haghbin (Carleton University) about his most recent publication relating fear of failure and procrastination. I had interviewed Mohsen in 2010 when he helped Adam McCaffrey finish the study, but I wanted to do this again with the published paper, because the final analyses revealed some interesting findings about what affects the apparent relation between fear of failure and procrastination.

Mohsen explains that whether or not fear of failure is related to procrastination depends on whether we feel competent and whether we feel a sense of autonomy (choice) with the task at hand. If you like research, you'll get a good understanding of Mohsen's study. If you're seeking to understand why fear sometimes results in procrastination yet at other times fuels motivation, you'll find some of the answer in this study - it depends on other factors!

If you want to learn more about procrastination, visit procrastination.ca or The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.

I close the podcast with a song entitled "Procrastination" by Matt Weidinger.