Science of Happiness

Andres Luna
Response Paper #1
As an undergraduate student at New York University, one can
always find something pleasurable to do. In fact, there are so many
things that you can do, that it could potentially have negative impacts
on our decisions such as the procrastination of assignments and tasks.
It is no surprise that according to the American Psychological
Association, between 80-95% of college students procrastinate on their
schoolwork. Procrastination is a serious matter that can affect every
aspect of our lives including our emotional, cognitive, physical and
career experiences. Recently, I am every bit guilty of this and I have
begun to realize how it is affecting my general well being. I hope to
analyze my procrastination behavior by examining my choice decisions
and seeing how they affect me in the long-run, researching the
structural changes needed in order to implement a change in behavior,
and strengthening my overall well being by adapting to and nurturing
this new behavior.

Professors here at NYU usually give about a

week or two to hand in assignments - an ample amount of time.

However, as these due dates gradually approach, various social events
start unfolding and career opportunities appear. Party invitations begin
to accumulate in my inbox, and free tickets to a music concert are won.
While I attempt to responsibly decide on my plans for the week, I

realize that the farther away I am from a due date of an assignment

the less priority I give that assignment. Moving to towards the deadline
of the task I kept pushing off, what usually happens now is the
unnecessary rushing of the work, the accumulation of unwanted stress,
and lack of sleep.
As I rush the assignment, I find myself writing numerous errors
and have to spend time rechecking over everything multiple times. The
quality of work I produce under these conditions is not up to par with
the work I am able to do comfortably. It is around this time when Im
nearly finished with the assignment that I look back and remember
how I preferred to use my precious time doing something else. I begin
to regret my choice, realizing that I valued something extra curricular
and social over a class assignment and was forced to stress over it
when the due date approached. This has recently become a repetitive
cycle for the last few weeks that I truly want to change.
One of the first studies documenting the dangers of
procrastination was published back in 1997 by the highest ranked
empirical journal in psychology: Psychological Science. Researchers
here rated college students attending Case Western Reserve on a
recognized scale of procrastination and recorded their academic
performance, stress, and general health throughout the semester. The
results were fairly interesting as the procrastinators within the set of

students felt much less stressed out compared to the other students
throughout the semester. Like myself, these students would push aside
certain assignments to pursue more enjoyable activities. However, the
benefit of less stress soon proved to be short-lived as each
procrastinator earned lower grades, suffered through larger amounts of
stress and illness, and reported over-all deterioration of work quality. In
other words, the general well being of these students proved to be
damaged much more then the other students who chose to complete
the workload at a timely manner.
To further understand the apparent reason for procrastination,
the same researchers tested out a theory connecting the idea of
pleasurable events and stimulation of student interest. They gathered
students to participate in a math puzzle that some were told was a
meaningful test of their cognitive abilities, while others were told that
it was designed to be insignificant and fun. Before doing the puzzle,
the students had a short period during which they could prepare for
the task or spend their time playing games. The results showed that
the chronic procrastinators delayed practice on the puzzle only when it
was described as a cognitive evaluation, but when it was described as
fun, they just as eagerly prepared for the math puzzle as the rest of
the students. What this result indicates to me is that if us students can
somehow manage to spin an assignment around to make it even

slightly amusing, the interest in it can increase and thus increase in

priority level.
The segment on the Paradox of Choices in our lecture has
established that a way to combat the stress created by the decision
process is to set myself up with fewer, well-refined choices. To tie this
in with procrastination, when one is faced with too many choices one
enters a state of paralysis when trying to decide which choices to
commit to. When the decision is finally reached, regret or anticipated
regret can potentially start overflowing your emotions, and you soon
start expecting too much from yourself in the future to compensate. To
attempt and limit the amount of options, its recommended to adopt
the behavior of a maximizer and receive its noteworthy benefits that
include seeking and accepting only the best of the choices available to
you. This translates to eliminating possible choices that do not
prioritize my academic assignments over social and extra-curricular
events. This paired up with finding an aspect of the assignment
interesting and amusing to enjoy while completing it, will be the first
steps for me to change into the direction I want.
The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge has taught
me that change isnt impossible even in the most unique, unexpected
cases. Just like how a brain can change its own structure and function
through thought and activity, one can change his or her habits to
combat themselves against procrastination tendencies. As discussed in

The Science of Happiness Change lectures, for me to adopt and nurture

this change, I have to alter my fixed mindset into a growth mindset. I
need to start believing that anyone can change aspects of themselves
and increase his or her intelligence through effort. As I adopt this
mindset I will start inviting challenges to my doorstep, will begin to
persevere and succeed in the face of setbacks, and see effort as the
path to mastery.

References

Tice, D., James, W., & Baumeister, R. (1997) Procrastination, Lower

academic
performance, damaging general health; susceptibility to
cumulative amounts of stress and illness.
Schlechter, A. (2015, September). Lecture presented in The Science of
Happiness

New York University, New York, NY

American Psychological Association