Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research, and Treatment

by Joseph R. Ferrari, Judith L. Johnson, William G McCown

Procrastination is a fascinating, highly complex human phenomenon for which the time has come for systematic theoretical and therapeutic effort. The present volume reflects this effort. It was a labor of love to read this scholarly, timely book-the first of its kind on the topic. It was especially encouraging to find that its authors are remarkably free of the phenomenon they have been investigating. One might have expected the opposite. It has often been argued that people select topics that trouble them and come to understand their problems better by studying or treating them in others. This does not appear to be true of the procrastination researchers represented in this book. I base this conclusion on two simple observations. First, the work is replete with recent refer ences and the book itself has reached the reader scarcely a year following its completion. Second, when one considers the remarkable pace of pro grammatic research by these contributors during the past decade, it is clear that they are at the healthy end of the procrastination continuum. The fascinating history of the term procrastination is well documented in this book. The term continues to conjure up contrasting, eloquent images-especially for poets. When Edward Young wrote in 1742, "Pro crastination is the Thief of Time," he was condemning the waste of the most precious of human commodities."

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 1995

About the author

Joe Ferrari is a professor of psychology who began his career in 1980 teaching at a private junior college back in the New York area. He joined the faculty at DePaul in 1994 as a Visiting Assistant Professor, and was hired as an Associate Professor without tenure in 1998. He was awarded Full Professor status in 2003 and became a member of the Society in 2006.

Joe is the Director of the MS in General Psychology program and was the founding Director of the PhD in Community Psychology. Dr. Ferrari is Editor of the Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community (Taylor & Francis, Publishers] since 1995.

He earned his PhD and MA degrees from Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, MS degree from SUNY at Cortland, and BA degree from St. Francis College, Brooklyn, NY.

Reviews

[Ypatios Varelas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave it 2 stars for the thorough research and collections of resources and for a few good points. Also for including the major self-report procratination inventories (PASS, API, GP, DP, AIP and TAP). However, there are several issues with this book:
- The book is based on the cognitive-behavioral point of view, in theory, research and suggestions for treatment. So this should be clear in the title! And it misses findings in neyropsychology research that strongly support the idea of self-regulation failure as the main aspect of procrastination.
- Again (as seen in numerous other publications), the authors easily turn correlations into cause and effect statements. That's misleading and bad science.
- I find very hard to believe the claim that "most cases of "typical" procrastination treatment that are uncomplicated by any other mental health or psychiatric concerns can be substantially improved in between 12 and 25 sessions of individual cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy, with possibility of benefit diminishing rapidly after 25 sessions". Later on in the same paragraph: "for adult procrastinators, whose mean ages are usually higher than those of students, there may be a much longer history of procrastination. The behavior is more ingrained, less dystonic, and therefore the behavior may require longer treatment to cause substantial modification." How much longer? 50 sessions? 100 sessions?
- They discredit psychodynamic forms of treatment, which however DO have results for procrastination, to my knowledge! Fortunately the book does include a (short) sub-section titled "Psychodynamic treatment for atypical procrastination", which however ends like this: "Our rule of thumb is simple, although perhaps not always accurate: If there is a history of procrastination, cognitive-behavioral and behavioral interventions are appropriate. If the behavior is discrete and involves a specific event or person, a more psychodynamic framework may be necessary to explore the meaning that the event has for the person and its associations with prior significant events or people." Disappointing and NOT supported by enough evidence.
I am putting this aside.

[Annie Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful for my assignments.
I can’t believe I really finished this kind of book in a few days just for one single assignment:)