Exploring 40 years on affective correlates to procrastination: a literature review of situational and dispositional types

The relationship between different emotions with situational (e.g., academic) and dispositional (chronic) procrastination was examined extensively in the literature since the early days of procrastination research. A review of empirical studies over the past 40 years might shed light on the role of emotions in procrastination in different contexts with different populations. The current paper reviewed 83 studies (from 1977 to 2021) exploring the relationship between 9 different emotions and situational and dispositional procrastination. The emotions examined, listed in the order of the extent of focus of scholarly research are: anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, regret, boredom, frustration, anger, and revenge. Findings highlight the important role of emotions as motives, antecedents, correlates, or consequences of situational and dispositional procrastination. Based on the findings, a lack of a comprehensive theory summarizing dispositional and situational procrastination is pointed out and avenues for future research are outlined and recommended.