Efficacious Factors related to procrastination: A cluster analytic approach

Procrastination is a widespread phenomenon that has been associated with the most of cognitive, emotional, and motivational factors, about which a clear and integrated picture is still lacking, though. The aim of this study was to use primary established psychological procrastination-related factors in the base of Ellis cognitive emotional behavioral approach to examine whether reliable subgroups of procrastinators can be identified through cluster analysis. So 900 students from Tehran University (447 females and 453 males) were selected with Random multi-stage and then completed a measure of procrastination and 200 students who got high scores in procrastination on the scale of Solomon and Rothblum (1984) were selected and this sample responded to the scale of self-regulation by Green and Miller (2004), self-efficacy of Midelton and Midgley (1997), the scale of the frustration beliefs of Harrington (2005) and irrational beliefs of  Koopmans et al. (1994). Two clusters were identified: The first cluster with middle scores of self-regulated and self-efficacy and high scores of irrational beliefs and frustration beliefs .The second cluster with low scores of self-regulated, self-efficacy, irrational beliefs and frustration beliefs. Based on the findings, it seems that students with high procrastination, have different motivational and belief profiles and cluster analysis can identify these profiles.