A Study Intended to Develop a Turkish Procrastination Scale by Item Response Theory

Abstract

Although there are several definitions of procrastination, it can be defined as a behavioral characteristic or disposition as postponing or delaying to perform a task or to make a decision. Most of the research on procrastination has been performed on students’ academic performance and a relation has been found between academic failure and procrastination. As for demographic variables, it has been reported that procrastination decreases by getting older and seen somewhat more common in men than women. Procrastination has been viewed as a constant construct to be a trait. Procrastination has been related to Conscientiousness and Neuroticism factors of Five Factor Personality Model. Variables such as self-image, self-esteem, self-handicapping, locus of control, depression, mood, fear of failure, perfectionism are some of the characteristics that are studied. Some contradictory and conflicting results of previous studies revealed the need for further studies on the topic. The aim of the study is to develop a Turkish scale to assess behavioral procrastination for the reasons mentioned above and due to the lack of a Turkish procrastination scale. In accordance with literature, first of all, an item pool of 77 items is formed and applied to a total of 509 participants, 165 women (32.4%) and 344 men (67.6%) between the ages of 18-61 (mean=35.33±9.23) in the preliminary study. Internal consistency of the target scale was found as 0.79 at this step. In line with the results obtained in the preliminary study, new items are added increasing the item pool up to 120 for the purpose of improving some of the weak items. The new form of the scale is applied to a total of 729 participants, 374 women (51.3%) and 355 men (48.7%) between the ages of 17-83 (mean=31.90±11.31). The data of this study is examined by classical theory and Item Response Theory (IRT) and number of items is reduced to 20 by item analysis. While item discrimination varied between 1.29 and 2.46, difficulty of the items was between 0.68 and 1.91. The internal consistency of the final 20-item scale was determined as 0.93. The new scale developed will allow to assessing behavioral procrastination as a personality characteristic in employees. In this line, this scale as a new instrument can be used in personnel selection, performance assessment and in likewise processes.