The Relationship between Cognitive Failure and Alexithymia and Decisional Procrastination among University Students

Decisional procrastination is one of the negative factors which might hinder students’ progress and it is an ineffective defense strategy used by students to avoid failure, maintain self-esteem and personal values. It is essential in the learning process to provide the learning condition for achieving the best results. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive failure and alexithymia and decisional procrastination among university students. In this descriptive-correlational study, 400 students of Arak University of Medical Sciences were selected by convenient sampling based on Krejcie and Morgan’s formula in 2013-2014 academic years. The data was collected through Rieffe et al. `s Alexithymia Scale, Broadbent’s cognitive failure scale and Mann's decisional procrastination scale. Data were analyzed using correlation coefficient and linear regression tests. In this study 300 questionnaires were analyzed (75 percent response rate). Findings showed a significant positive relation between cognitive failure and alexithymia and decisional procrastination (P>0. 001). The results of multivariate regression analysis showed that cognitive failure and alexithymia predicted respectively 35 percent and 26 percent of the variance of decisional procrastination among students. The results of current research showed the importance of cognitive failure and alexithymia in decisional procrastination of students. These results suggest that the cognitive failure and alexithymia share an important role in exacerbating and incidence of decisional procrastination among students. Given the importance of decision making process for students, it seems necessary for authorities, planners and stakeholders of educational system to pay attention to the objectives and adopt strategies in order to change the orientation of objectives and reduce or improve decisional procrastinations.