Norman A. Milgram

The procrastination of everyday life

Abstract Procrastinating in routine life tasks was investigated in university students (N = 314) by administering self-report measures of the phenomenon and various personality tests. Two conceptually independent aspects of procrastination—when one performed the task and how one handled scheduling tasks and adhering to schedule—were found to be highly correlated. Procrastination was greater on tasks regarded as unpleasant or as impositions, and to a lesser extent on tasks requiring skills the respondent did not believe he or she possessed. The phenomenon was inversely related to self-regulation, time-related factors of Type A behavior pattern, and life satisfaction, in men only. The findings were discussed in relation to broad concepts of cognitive appraisal, self-regulation, and coping with stress.

Personality correlates of decisional and task avoidant procrastination

Newly constructed scales of decisional procrastination were validated as a precondition for assessing similarities and differences between decisional and task avoidant procrastination. The two behavioral dispositions and their concomitant affective reactions (tension during decision making and discomfort about postponing tasks, respectively) were found to be independent. Each disposition was general rather than specific with a high inter‐correlation of indecisiveness on matters of minor as well as major importance and a high inter‐correlation of postponing life routines as well as postponing academic assignments. Two of the five Costa–McCrae personality factors accounted for most of the explained variance in the two kinds of procrastination, Neuroticism for decisional procrastination and Conscientiousness for task avoidance procrastination, respectively. These findings were consistent with theoretical formulations by Lazarus (Appraisal–Anxiety–Avoidance Model) and Kuhl (Action Control Theory). Copyright

Situational exposure and personal loss in children's acute and chronic stress reactions to a school bus disaster

Questionnaire data were obtained on seventh grade children a week after a catastrophic school bus accident, and 9 months later. Both acute and chronic stress reactions were more related to prior friendship with victims than to exposure to accident-related stressors. In fact, the effect of differential exposure on stress reactions in this particular accident was found to be nil, when the effect of prior friendship was controlled. The incidence of moderate and severe stress reactions was high in the initial acute phase and decreased markedly by 9 months. The professional help received and interest in future help were related to personal loss and to the extent of stress reactions both after 1 week and 9 months. Implications for disaster intervention were drawn.

Parenting stress in raising autistic children.

A review of the literature documents the absence of research on the parents of autistic children as copers in a chronic stressful life situation. The 46 parents of 23 autistic children (ages 7–14) were given a series of self-report measures: Overall parenting difficulty associated with raising their autistic child, number of parenting tasks performed primarily by each parent, division of overall parenting burden between father and mother, fairness of and satisfaction with this division, and personal life satisfaction. Findings were consistent with a cognitive appraisal orientation to the stressor-stress reaction relationship. The best predictor of life satisfaction for fathers was the absolute parenting burden they were assuming, and for mothers it was the relative burden. The latter finding was attributed to the different parenting roles of men and women in society.

The Effect of the Yom Kippur War on Anxiety Level in Israeli Children

Peacetime and wartime anxiety levels in fifth and sixth grade Israeli boys and girls (N = 85) were compared as a function of sex, socioeconomic status, degree of war related stress, and self-concept. The Sarason General Anxiety Scale and the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale had been administered to the children in May, 1973. The anxiety scale was readministered along with a war stress questionnaire during the Yom Kippur War in December, 1973. The general anxiety level of the children nearly doubled, with the children who reported the lowest peacetime anxiety levels reporting the highest wartime levels. Contrary to expectation, the rise in anxiety level was not related to personal war stress or to self-concept.

Personality Characteristics of Gifted Israeli Children.

Two groups of Israeli boys and girls in Grades 4-8, one intellectually gifted with a mean WISC IQ of (N = 182) and one nongifted (N = 310), were compared on several indices of personal-social adjustment. As predicted, the gifted group showed more positive self-concept, more internal locus of control, a lower level of general anxiety, and a still lower level of test anxiety. The few results on self-concept, unfavorable to the older gifted children, were attributed to a shift in the attitudes of gifted and nongifted children toward each other as they enter adolescence and their abilities and interest patterns diverge. Gifted girls were as well adjusted as gifted boys and better adjusted than nongifted girls.

Situational and Personal Determinants of Academic Procrastination

Abstract Female college students (N = 112) completed a test battery of personality scales and performance tasks at home over four consecutive evenings, under one of eight combinations of the following experimental conditions: Schedule Source (experimenter versus self) × Scheduled Starting Time (strict versus lenient) × Plausibility of the Experiment. Delay in starting, summed over four evenings, constituted the measure of behavioral procrastination. This measure was moderately correlated with high test anxiety scores and low self-regulation. Procrastination was exacerbated when subjects were permitted to schedule the time of their expected completion of the test battery. Significant interactions of specific experimental conditions and specific personal traits demonstrated the situational requirements for trait-behavior relationships to emerge. Findings supported the internal consistency and construct validity of the behavioral procrastination measure. The practical and heuristic applications of a stimulus...

Group versus Individual Administration in the Measurement of Creative Thinking in Gifted and Nongifted Children

MILGRAM, ROBERTA M., and MILGRAM, NORMAN A. Group versus Individual Administration in the Measurement of Creative Thinking in Gifted and Nongifted Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1976, 47, 563-565. The effect of group versus individual administration of an abbreviated Wallach and Kogan Creativity Battery was investigated in gifted (N = 182) and nongifted (N = 310) Israeli children in grades 4-8. Group administration exercised an adverse effect on creativity in nongifted children, producing creativity scores which were confounded with intelligence and lower than scores obtained in individual administration. Form of administration had no effect on the creativity-intelligence relationship or on the level of creativity scores of gifted children. Results were explained in terms of a requirement of average intellectual ability for the production of creativity distinct from intelligence in individual administration and a requirement of above average intellectual ability in group administration.

Typology in procrastination

Abstract The relationships of two kinds of behavioral delay, academic and daily life, to concern about delay and personality correlates of delay, were investigated in 138 Israeli university students. Absence of a significant relationship between delay and concern about delay provided an opportunity for assessing a delay × concern typology. Among nonprocrastinators, concerned students were found to be better adjusted (repressor response style, optimistic orientation, and low anxiety) than unconcerned. The opposite was found for procrastinators. Findings were discussed in relation to the differing functions of affective concern about behavioral delay in different behavioral contexts.

Dimensions of locus of control in children.

A multidimensional measure of locus of control, which included three dimensions of content, time, and orientation toward success-failure outcomes, was administered to non-gifted (N = 298) and gifted (N = 166) Israeli children in Grades 4 through 8. Content was measured in three important settings in the childs life: school, home, and neighborhood. The time dimension referred to the difference between assuming responsibility for events of the present and past versus the expression of competence to affect future outcomes. Internal consistency and reliabilities of the new instrument were adequate, especially for the Future Scale, and the three dimensions were empirically distinguishable. Relationships were found between locus of control and age, scholastic achievement, and personality variables.