Just remember, you are protecting your EGO

[kedrin]

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http://youarenotsosmart.com/2009/10/29/self-handicapping/

Interesting perspective I had never thought of. So just remember you are not so smart and should probably be studying right now instead of giving yourself excuses.

 

[gettheleadout]

Cool story bro.

 

[Spin]

Ayn Rand would like this article. All of the evil people in her books are self-handicappers in the extreme.

 

[BenjaminT]

The site makes a good point.

Recently, a friend of mine and I took a test, he made a B and I made an A. While I was ridiculing him he said, "Yeah, but I hardly studied for it at all, I could have made an A too."

He's a smart guy, and he's right that he could have made an A. But, I had to explain that that logic added up to a pile of crap. It's like losing a race and saying, "Yeah, I lost but I didn't train at all."

 

[BJJ]

I disagree with this article. You know what is the ultimate ego stroke? Getting higher marks then your peers on tests. When someone says "I just didn't study" makes me feel sorry for them. If you're in college working towards a professional career and you don't care enough to study that just tells me you're going to be the one who "Just didn't fax the document" and probably get fired or yelled at.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Psychological defense mechanisms sure are fun.I believe Festinger did some pretty interesting studies on this topic.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I disagree with this article. You know what is the ultimate ego stroke? Getting higher marks then your peers on tests. When someone says "I just didn't study" makes me feel sorry for them. If you're in college working towards a professional career and you don't care enough to study that just tells me you're going to be the one who "Just didn't fax the document" and probably get fired or yelled at.

Eh.. it's all about the operational conditioning hierarchy and cognition. The fun thing about Psychology is really all about the fact that you're unaware of so many things in your behavior/cognition.

 

[IvyHopeful20]

Really? I thought the fun thing about psychology was that you could make all sorts of ridiculous unfalsifiable statements and have them be accepted as dogma for decades.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Really? I thought the fun thing about psychology was that you could make all sorts of ridiculous unfalsifiable statements and have them be accepted as dogma for decades.

That too. Albeit even with Freudian psychodynamics you've got some pretty good observations of behavior and cognition and then some theories explaining it which are completely crazy, but you gotta start somewhere. Anyways, modern psychology was only truly born in the early 20th century when the behaviorists started using statistical methods. Before that it was basically akin to biology and chemistry( Alchemy) prior to the microscope or calculus without the concept of 0 ( Using Roman numerals). So like I said, you gotta start from somewhere.

 

[FearAndInsomnia]

Really? I thought the fun thing about psychology was that you could make all sorts of ridiculous unfalsifiable statements and have them be accepted as dogma for decades.

Sounds about right.

 

[kedrin]

I disagree with this article. You know what is the ultimate ego stroke? Getting higher marks then your peers on tests. When someone says "I just didn't study" makes me feel sorry for them. If you're in college working towards a professional career and you don't care enough to study that just tells me you're going to be the one who "Just didn't fax the document" and probably get fired or yelled at.

I would like to refer you to this document good sir
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/07/the-just-world-fallacy/

This website has an answer for everything haha

 

[blh53]

um...i procrastinate because going out with my friends and messing around on the internet is more fun than studying. and i still get A's. but when i don't i don't make ridiculous excuses. suck it, psychology.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

um...i procrastinate because going out with my friends and messing around on the internet is more fun than studying. and i still get A's. but when i don't i don't make ridiculous excuses. suck it, psychology.

A possible response could be to operationalize "fun," and then to delve into exactly WHY it's more fun for you to procrastinate than to study. Often times, things are initially rewarding to us for one reason, but as the years progress, the behavior and sense of reward become so far removed from the original reinforcer that we fail to recognize its importance.

 

[Narmerguy]

A possible response could be to operationalize "fun," and then to delve into exactly WHY it's more fun for you to procrastinate than to study. Often times, things are initially rewarding to us for one reason, but as the years progress, the behavior and sense of reward become so far removed from the original reinforcer that we fail to recognize its importance.

Yeah but doesn't that tap into the very common human desire for immediate satisfaction over delayed gratification?

Studying sucks and it's boring and it's mentally taxing whereas playing video games is fun and exciting and mentally not very taxing...shouldn't it be obvious why people procrastinate?

I feel like a small group of people may only procrastinate for defense mechanisms, but I bet a lot of people genuinely just enjoy other things more, and rather than acknowledge that they're deficient compared to their peers, will often invoke their procrastination as an excuse to make themselves feel better.