Procrastination (Adult Inventory of Procrastination — AIP)

What it measures

A multiple-item likert scale designed to measure the degree to which a person expresses a tendency to put off doing things that need to be done and not being diligent in meeting deadlines.

Response format

7-point Likert scale

Scale items

• I pay my bills on time. (r)
• I am prompt and on time for most appointments. (r)
• I lay out my clothes the night before I have an appointment so I won't be late. (r)
• I find myself running later than I would like to be.
• I don't get things done on time.
• If someone were teaching a course on how to get things done on time I would attend.
• My friends and family think I wait until the last minute.
• I get important things done with time to spare. (r)
• I am not very good at meeting deadlines.
• I find myself running out of time.
• I schedule doctor's appointments when I am supposed to without delay. (r)
• I am more punctual than most people I know. (r)
• I do routine maintenance (e.g., changing the car's oil) on things I own as often as I should. (r)
• When I have to be somewhere at a certain time my friends expect me to run a bit late.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Internal consistency (alpha = .86) was reported in the primary study. 14-item marketing/consumer behaviour variant of the Adult Inventory of Procrastination (AIP). The original clinical AIP (McCown & Johnson, 1989) contains 15 items; this version drops the financial penalty item ("Putting things off till the last minute has cost me money") as non-essential for experimental consumer contexts. Reverse-scored items (r): Items 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12, and 13 must be inverted before computing composite. Items split evenly between direct and reverse-scored to control acquiescence bias.

Citation

Ferrari, Joseph R., Judith L. Johnson, and William G. McCown (1995), Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research, and Treatment, New York: Plenum.

Keywords