Analysis of Onwuegbuzie's Research on Procrastination and Anxiety

This report provides a comprehensive critique of Onwuegbuzie's research paper on academic procrastination and statistics anxiety. The paper investigated the prevalence of procrastination among graduate students and its relationship with statistics anxiety. The critique analyzes the research topic, methodology, including the use of questionnaires and factor analysis, and major conclusions, such as the high rates of procrastination and its link to fear of failure and task averseness. The critique evaluates the paper's purpose, literature review, objectives, ethical standards, operational definitions, methodology, data analysis, and discussion, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses. The report also assesses the clarity and readability of the paper and suggests areas for improvement, offering a balanced assessment of the research's contribution to the field.

Research Paper: Academic procrastination and statistics anxiety
Author: Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie
Reference: Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Academic procrastination and statistics anxiety.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 29(1), 3-19.
Elements of the critique
Summary of the article:
The research paper has tried to study the relationship between the anxiety related to the statistics
and the procrastination of doing assignments. The paper considered 135 graduates of a university
and a survey was conducted to understand the relationship. Moreover, the paper also focused on
understanding the prevalence of the procrastination.
Research Topic:
The topic of the research was to examine the prevalence of procrastination among graduate
students and to investigate the relationship between academic procrastination and six dimensions
of statistics anxiety.
Research Methodology:
The researcher took 135 students from a university as the participants assessed their statistics
anxiety in different academic situation using questionnaires based on Statistical Rating Scale.
The second set of questions was based on the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students that
was developed by Solomon and Rothblum. A factor analysis was conducted for the collected
data.

Major Conclusions:
One of the major findings of the study was that nearly 40-60% of the students procrastinate when
writing for their term paper or when they involve with reading assignments. Another major
finding was that the procrastination results from both fear of failure and task averseness which
reflects well in statistics anxiety. For the first finding, the author recommends finding the reason
behind why academic procrastinations occur. For the second finding, the author is not sure that
whether the relationship is causal and the recommendation is not based on fact but rather on the
consideration of unclear causal relationship.
In-depth critique of the article
Purpose
The research problem is clearly stated and one can clearly understand the purpose after going
through the introductory section of the paper. Though the researcher has taken enough time in
building the background prior to stating the actual purpose of the paper (at the end of the
section), yet one can get the complete picture if abstract is read first. The first three page of the
paper completely clears the intension of the researcher.
Literature Review
The literature review is brief but it is organized very well. The literature review has considered
both the aspects of the factors and has tried to come up with balanced approach. Most of the
research papers selected by the researchers are from prior to 1990. If the publishing date of the
paper is considered that is 2004, then it can be stated that the limited number of recent papers
have been used that are after 2000. The literature review is empirical in nature.

Objectives/hypotheses
The hypotheses of the research have been mentioned briefly while mentioning the consideration
of Rothblum et al (1986). There are no specific section for the research question or hypotheses
within the research paper, however, reading the paper before the method section can give the
reader enough understanding about the intention of the researcher and the answers to the
questions he is trying to find.
Ethical Standards Applied
The author has taken complete consideration of the ethical aspects while moving ahead with the
research. The participants were fully aware about the whole process of the research and even
they were provided grades from the University for their Participation in the research process. The
confidentiality was guaranteed from the researcher and there were no methods involved that can
entail harm.
Operational Definitions
The terms used within the paper are easy to understand for individual with average academic
understanding. The theories were explained properly and the concepts used within the researcher
are not of the level that is difficulty level.
Methodology
The research design has been clearly defined in the method section of the research paper. The
researcher stated the tools that had been used in the development of the questions, namely,
STARS and PASS. The statistical tool used was factor analysis. These tools have been amply
used by the previous researcher and are appropriate to the current paper. The reliability test was

conducted and the value of .84, .89, and .76 was obtained. No pilot test seems evident from the
study.
Data Analysis/Results
Factor analysis was conducted on the collected data. The tool was appropriate as it helped
identify the variability among the observed, correlated variables. 135 graduates were considered
as the participants and all of them agreed for the study without any absence. The findings are
expected to help the universities take the research further and understand the reasons why the
procrastination occurs. The research paper has built a background on which the possible reasons
for procrastination such as difficult paper, hectic lectures duration or limited lecture duration,
and others could be identified in subsequent researches.
Discussion
The findings are linked back to the literature review and there was no major hypotheses therefore
there was no point in coming up with any support point. The paper has in a way explored the
topic under study. The results identified have good amount of closeness with its ability to be
generalized. The results can be applied to the students of various universities as there were no
such factors considered for the study that was specific to those particular university students
under study. The recommendations for further research have been made.
References
The researcher considered mixture of journals, books and media to conduct the study.
Conclusion

If all the above aspects are considered, then it can be stated that the research has been conducted
appreciably well. However, if the readability of the paper is considered, then it could be said that
development of more sections to clarify each of the research aspects could have made it more
reachable to average or below average readers.