engleski

Automatic thoughts and beliefs in underachieving students

In our longitudinal research focused on the identification of the factors contributing to students’ achievement, we have found that student who fail tend to procrastinate more comparing to students who succeed, while there is no difference in cognitive abilities between these two groups. The aim of this research is to check how cognitive factors (personal beliefs about success, automatic thoughts during learning and taking exam) and behavioural measure (putting effort) contribute to procrastination, after controlling for personality factors. Representative sample of 212 freshmen from University of Rijeka were assessed at their first and second year of college. Big Five Inventory (John, Donahue & Kentle, 1991), The Components of Self-Regulated Learning (Niemivirta, 1996), Automatic Thoughts during Learning and Taking Exam (Živčić-Bećirević & Anić, 2001) and Procrastination Scale (Tuckman, 1991) have been used. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis show that conscientiousness is the only personality factor that negatively contributes to procrastination. Personal beliefs about control are positive predictor, meaning that those students who unrealistically overestimate their control over academic achievements tend to procrastinate more. Negative automatic thoughts related to fear of failure are also positive predictor, while putting effort in achieving success is a strong negative predictor of procrastination. The results suggest that, in treating underachieving students, it is important to develop realistic perception of control under personal academic success, learn skills to cope with negative automatic thoughts during learning and taking exam, and encourage and reinforce personal beliefs and efforts devoted to academic achievements.

academic achievement; university students; automatic thoughts; personality factors; procrastination

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