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General Procrastination Scale

General Procrastination Scale

What is GPS

The General Procrastination Scale is a 20-item measure of general procrastination. Procrastination is defined as "the tendency to postpone that which is necessary to reach some goal."

GPS Printable PDF

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GPS Scoring and Interpretation

The Lay’s General Procrastination Scale is a 5 point Likert scale, consisting of 20 items, wherein for each item, response alternatives range from extremely uncharacteristic to extremely characteristic.

Participants rate their agreement with each item on the 5-point Likert scale according to the following order:

1 = Extremely Uncharacteristic

2 = Moderately Uncharacteristic

3 = Neutral

4 = Moderately Characteristic

5 = Extremely Characteristic

10 items are reverse scored. Reversed-keyed items: 3,4,6,8,11,13,14,15,18,20.

After reverse scoring 10 items, all items are totalled into a single score with higher values indicating a greater tendency towards chronic procrastination.

PsyPack can automatically score the GPS assessment and prepare corresponding tables and graphs.

GPS sample result

Further, PsyPack automatically plots a graph to help you easily track progress over time.

GPS track progress

Sample Report of GPS

Domain

Procrastination

What does GPS measure

The purpose of the evaluation is to:

  • examine procrastinatory behavior.

Administration

Self-administered

Type of outcome tool

Positive psychology

Assessment modes

Questionnaire

Age and eligibility

Nonstudent

Estimated time

10 to 15 minutes

Notes

As is true of any self-report instrument, respondents can consciously distort their response to the scale if they are motivated to do so.

Procrastination was positively related to measures of disorganization and independent of need-achievement, energy level, and self-esteem. High scorers on the procrastination scale were more likely to return their completed inventory late. Procrastination was unrelated to grade-point average.

Attribution and References

Lay, C. H. (1986). At last, my research article on procrastination. Journal of Research in Personality, 20(4), 474–495.