The effect of Morita-Art therapy on students' academic procrastination

Procrastination is one of the most common behaviors among individuals, including students, which leads to several psychological and physical damages. Hence it needs attention and treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Morita therapy and Art therapy on students’ academic procrastination. The research design was a clinical trial with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all female students in psychology and education sciences at Payam Noor University in the first semester of the 2015-2016 academic year. For this purpose, 40 students were selected by the implementation of the Academic Procrastination Questionnaire (Savari, 1390) and were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received Morita-Art therapy in eight two-hour sessions over two months based on the Williams-Patterson (2012) protocol. Analysis of MANCOVA demonstrated that the experimental group had a significant decline in academic procrastination (p=.020). Moreover, the results of the univariate analysis showed that Morita-Art therapy had a significant effect on components of Academic Procrastination (intentional, due to physical and mental fatigue, due to lack of planning) (p<.05). Based on the results of the research, it seems that Morita-Art therapy is a suitable procedure to reduce academic procrastination.