The early bird catches the worm, but falls exhausted from the branch at dusk

Gehrig, Christopher; Herzberg, Philipp Yorck

doi:10.1007/s12144-025-08454-y

The early bird catches the worm, but falls exhausted from the branch at dusk

Developing the FIPS – facets of (mal)adaptive precrastination scale

Publication date

2025-10-09

Document type

Forschungsartikel

Author

Gehrig, Christopher

Herzberg, Philipp Yorck

Organisational unit

Persönlichkeitspsychologie und Psychologische Diagnostik

DOI

10.1007/s12144-025-08454-y

URI

https://openhsu.ub.hsu-hh.de/handle/10.24405/22466

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-105018332216

Publisher

Springer

Series or journal

Current Psychology

ISSN

1046-1310

Periodical volume

44

Periodical issue

24

First page

18831

Last page

18840

Is part of

https://openhsu.ub.hsu-hh.de/handle/10.24405/22464

Peer-reviewed

✅

Part of the university bibliography

✅

Language

English

Keyword

Personality traits

Precrastination

Procrastination

Questionnaire

Abstract

The tendency to postpone tasks until the very last minute, whether in an academic setting, at school, or at the workplace, is a many common phenomenon experienced by individuals. This behavior, known as procrastination, has been extensively researched. While a significant number of people prefer to tackle tasks immediately rather than delaying them, there is limited research on the opposite behavior, often referred to as “precrastination.” This study aims at addressing this lack of research by developing the first measurement tool to make the construct of precrastination researchable. The questionnaire is named Facets of (Mal)adaptive Precrastination Scale (FIPS). To accomplish this, a sample of N = 214 German young to middle-aged adults was selected for the initial development of the instrument. Subsequently, another sample of N = 354 individuals was used for confirmatory factor analyses. The FIPS was validated by testing relationships with previously researched and well-known constructs, such as various personality traits. The outcome of this study is a three-dimensional questionnaire measuring functional precrastination, as well as precrastination driven by fear and by compulsion. By capturing both the behavior and its underlying motivations, the FIPS provides a reliable and efficient self-report instrument that enables research beyond laboratory paradigms and facilitates studies with larger and more diverse samples.

Description

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Version

Published version

Access right on openHSU

Metadata only access

Open Access Funding

Springer Nature (DEAL)