Conjunctive and additive group work reduce academic procrastination: insights from a vignette study

Abstract

Group work can increase individual effort, performance, and positive affect, if group members perceive their own contribution as indispensable for the group product. A vignette methodology was applied to investigate whether group work may also reduce procrastination. The vignettes described a typical academic assignment, while varying the task structure (individual work vs. conjunctive group work vs. additive group work) and group member ability (high vs. low). For each vignette, student participants (N = 443) provided ratings on their perceived indispensability, procrastination of the assignment, and affect. When group member ability was high, procrastination was lower in additive group work as compared to individual work. When group member ability was low, procrastination was lower in conjunctive group work as compared to both individual work and additive group work. As predicted, perceived indispensability mediated the difference in procrastination between conjunctive and additive group work. Moderation analyses further revealed that the effects were more pronounced for high trait procrastinators. Further, both types of group work led to increases in task-related positive affect as compared to individual work. By demonstrating the relevance of group work as a social factor, the results should be useful for the extension of existing programs targeting procrastination, and may inspire measures for preventing procrastination by changes in the study environment.

An empirical link between motivation gain and NBA statistics: applying hierarchical linear modelling

“…Motivational gains were consistently observed in conditions of high indispensability, whether it is a conjunctive task, where the weakest member determines the team performance; a disjunctive task [ 41 ], where the strongest member determines the team performance, or where competing later or last during sequential teamwork (e.g., the last runner in a relay race) determines the team performance [ 27 , 42 , 43 ]. Since the NBA’s regular season consists of 82 games in 25 weeks, it is more reasonable to explain motivation gains with the Cost Component rather than the Expectancy Component, which assumes a disjunctive task condition where every game is won or lost by a high performer.…”

More sense of self-discipline, less procrastination: the mediation of autonomous motivation

“…Other researchers have pointed out that a lack of appropriate time management strategies is a significant cause of procrastination and have implemented interventions targeting procrastination from a time management perspective, as in van Eerde (2003). Additionally, some scholars have suggested that changing the way tasks are presented, such as through group work, can reduce academic procrastination (Koppenborg et al, 2023). Glick and Orsillo (2015) compared the effectiveness of these interventions and found that acceptance-based behavior therapies (ABBTs) were more effective for chronic procrastinators.…”

AI-Generated Images in Vignette Studies: Benefits, Challenges, and a Python Template

“…For instance, vignette studies assessed the accuracy of psychological diagnoses (Domínguez Martínez et al, 2024), the impact of social classes on diagnoses and treatments (Vlietstra et al, 2021), and the effects of corporate social responsibility (Paruzel et al, 2020) or leadership styles (Steinmann et al, 2020). Moreover, online microaggressions against LGBTQIA+ individuals (McInroy et al, 2024), the relationship between conspiracy beliefs and medical treatment preferences (Fournier & Varet, 2024), lay perceptions of narcissistic traits (Villalongo Andino et al, 2023), how group work fosters procrastination (Koppenborg et al, 2024), responsibility attributions concerning domestic violence (Leon & Aizpurua, 2024) or traffic accidents (Copp et al, 2023), victim blame regarding rape (Tomer & Guter, 2024) and accepting robots as job interviewers (Nørskov et al, 2020) or moral advisors (Arlinghaus et al, 2024;Straßmann et al, 2020) were also explored through vignettes. This list of current examples is far from exhaustive, underscoring the ongoing relevance of vignette studies in psychology.…”