1. Evaluating the Distinction Between Aversive Indecisiveness and Procrastination: Relationships with Anxiety, Anxiety Vulnerability, and Personality Traits
Sean A. Lauderdale, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University-Commerce, Commerce, TX
Poster presented at the 51st annual convention of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (November 2017), San Diego, CA
Introduction & Purpose
Indecisiveness has been defined as a dispositional trait (Germeijs & de Boeck, 2002; Rassin, 2007). The most widely used measures of indecisiveness is Frost & Shows’ (1993) Indecisiveness Scale (IS). Spunt et al. (2009) found the IS was represented by two related factors, aversive indecisiveness and avoidant indecisiveness. Recent research (Lauderdale, in review) demonstrated that aversive indecisive, which reflects indecision due to anticipation of negative consequences, was more strongly predictive of anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty, neuroticism, and worry than avoidant indecisiveness. Investigations also suggest that indecisiveness may be associated with impulsive decisions. Aversive indecisiveness aligns with contemporary conceptualization of anxiety-related cognitive processes (Barlow, 2002; Beck & Clark, 2010) due to its emphasis on anticipated negative outcomes resulting from decisions.
Indecisiveness and procrastination have been used interchangeably in the literature (e.g., Ferrari & Pychyl, 2007), but are considered distinct (Rassin, 2007). Procrastination has been defined as a dispositional trait resulting in delay of activity completion (van Eerde, 2003) despite knowing that the delay may result in negative consequences (Steel, 2007). Procrastination is robustly predicted by conscientiousness and its facet, self-discipline (van Eerde, 2003). The relationship between procrastination, neuroticism, and anxiety is inconsistent (Steel, 2007). Many of the measures assessing procrastination do not reflect delay due to anticipation of negative consequences. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that procrastination may not be as closely tied to anxiety as aversive indecisiveness.
In this investigation, the distinction between aversive indecisiveness and procrastination was assessed by examining the relationship between these variables and anxiety, worry, vulnerability for anxiety, and various personality dimensions. It was anticipated that aversive indecisiveness would be more strongly correlated with anxiety, worry, and vulnerability for anxiety (Intolerance of Uncertainty and neuroticism) than procrastination, which was expected to have a stronger relationship with conscientiousness and self-discipline compared to aversive indecisiveness.
Methods
Participants
Data has been collected from 334 (n = 250 women) undergraduate participants. Participants reported an average age of 22 years and having an average of 15 years of education. The majority of participants were white (45%), black (29%), and latino/latina (22%).
Measures
Indecisiveness: 11 item scale assessing aversive and avoidant indecisiveness (Frost & Shows, 1993; Rassin et al., 2007). Items were rated using a 1 (never) to 6 (always) response scale.
Procrastination: 10 item scale assessing procrastination (“I delay making decisions until it is too late”; Pure Procrastination Scale; Steel, 2010). Items were rated using a 1 (very seldom or not true of me) to 5 (very true of me) response scale.
Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU): 27 item scale assessing intolerance of uncertainty (“Uncertainty make life intolerable”; Buhr & Dugas, 2002). Items were rated using a 1 (not at all characteristic of me) to 5 (entirely characteristic of me) response scale.
Anxiety: 11 item scale from the Min-MASQ (Clark & Watson, 1995) assessing physiological anxiety. Items were rated using a 1 (not at all) to 5 (extremely) response scale.
Worry: 16 item Penn State Worry Scale (Meyer et al., 1990) was used to assess experience of worry using a 1 (not at all typical) to 5 (very typical) response scale.
Neuroticism: 20 item scale assessing the facets of neuroticism. Items were drawn from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg et al., 2006) and rated using a 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate) response scale.
Conscientiousness: 20 item scale assessing the facets of conscientiousness. Items were drawn from the IPIP (Goldberg et al., 2006) and rated using a 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate) response scale.
Immoderation: 10 item scale assessing emotional and behavioral impulsivity, which is a facet of neuroticism. Items were drawn from the IPIP (Goldberg et al., 2006) and rated using a 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate) response scale.
Self-discipline: 10 item scale assessing self-discipline, which is a facet of conscientiousness. Items were drawn from the IPIP (Goldberg et al., 2006) and rated using a 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate) response scale.
Procedures
Participants at a regional Midwestern university completed online questionnaires following informed consent. All research procedures were approved by a university Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects.
Results
Means and standard deviations for participants are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations for Participants
Mean SD
Aversive Indecisiveness
3.47
.95
Procrastination
2.70
.84
Anxiety
1.78
.72
Worry
3.44
.89
Intolerance of Uncertainty
2.48
.71
Neuroticism
2.92
Conscientiousness
3.54
.59
Immoderation
3.15
.60
Self-Discipline
3.16
.75
Bivariate correlations are shown in Table 2. The correlation between aversive indecisiveness and procrastination was statistically significant (r(312) = .41, p < .01). Also shown in Table 2 is the Z score for comparing dependent correlations. As seen in the bottom row of Table 2, aversive indecisiveness had larger and statistically significant correlations with worry, IU, neuroticism, and immoderation than procrastination while procrastination had larger and statistically significant correlations with conscientiousness and self-discipline.
Table 2 Bivariate Correlations Between Aversive Indecisiveness, Procrastination and Other Variables
Anxiety
Worry
Intolerance Uncertainty
Neuroticism
Immoderation
Conscientiousness
Self- Discipline
Aversive Indecisiveness
.34
.64
.57
.65
.45
-.38
-.39
Procrastination
.28
.33
.44
.37
.35
-.69
-.73
Z Score
1.03
6.24**
2.59**
5.70**
1.82*
-6.56**
-7.54**
Note. All correlations p < .01. * p < .05; ** p < .01.
Discussion
The purpose of this investigation was to determine if aversive indecisiveness and procrastination are distinct constructs. To evaluate the distinctiveness between aversive indecisiveness and procrastination, the correlations between aversive indecisiveness and anxiety-related processes were compared to the correlations between procrastination and anxiety-related processes. Consistent with expectations, aversive indecisiveness was found to be more strongly correlated with worry, Intolerance of Uncertainty, neuroticism, and immoderation than procrastination. The correlation between aversive indecisiveness and anxiety and the correlation between procrastination and anxiety was not statistically significant. Given the low level of anxiety in this sample, it is possible that a range restriction produced this result.
Similarly, it was also assessed if the correlations between procrastination and conscientiousness and self-discipline would be stronger than the correlations between aversive indecisiveness and these personality traits. Consistent with expectations, these findings were supported.
In sum, these results replicate previous findings demonstrating that aversive indecisiveness is clearly associated with anxiety-related processes. This is likely why indecisiveness has been linked to several disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (Frost & Shows, 1993), hoarding (Saxena et al., 2015), and GAD (Koerner, Mejia, & Kusec, 2017). Additionally, the current findings suggest that aversive indecisiveness and procrastination are distinct constructs that are associated with unique personality traits. These findings should provide direction for future investigations to assess the implications associated with aversive indecisiveness and procrastination.