Lukas Christian Aljoscha, Berking Matthias
Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.
Internet Interv. 2017 Jul 6;12:83-90. doi: 10.1016/j.invent.2017.07.002. eCollection 2018 Jun.
Procrastination affects a large number of individuals and is associated with significant mental health problems. Despite the deleterious consequences individuals afflicted with procrastination have to bear, there is a surprising paucity of well-researched treatments for procrastination. To fill this gap, this study evaluated the efficacy of an easy-to-use smartphone-based treatment for procrastination.
N = 31 individuals with heightened procrastination scores were randomly assigned to a blended smartphone-based intervention including two brief group counseling sessions and 14 days of training with the app (MT-PRO), or to a waitlist condition. MT-PRO fosters the approach of functional and the avoidance of dysfunctional behavior by systematically utilizing techniques derived from cognitive bias modification approaches, gamification principles, and operant conditioning. Primary outcome was the course of procrastination symptom severity as assessed with the General Procrastination Questionnaire.
Participating in the smartphone-based treatment was associated with a significantly greater reduction of procrastination than was participating in the control condition ( = .15).
A smartphone-based intervention may be an effective treatment for procrastination. Future research should use larger samples and directly compare the efficacy of smartphone-based interventions and traditional interventions for procrastination.
拖延影响着大量人群，且与严重的心理健康问题相关。尽管受拖延困扰的个体不得不承受有害后果，但令人惊讶的是，针对拖延的经过充分研究的治疗方法却很少。为填补这一空白，本研究评估了一种基于智能手机的简便拖延治疗方法的疗效。
31名拖延得分较高的个体被随机分配到一种基于智能手机的混合干预组，该干预包括两次简短的团体咨询会议和使用应用程序（MT - PRO）进行14天的训练，或者被分配到等待名单组。MT - PRO通过系统地运用源自认知偏差修正方法、游戏化原则和操作性条件反射的技术，促进功能性方法的采用并避免功能失调行为。主要结果是用一般拖延问卷评估的拖延症状严重程度的变化过程。
与参与对照条件相比，参与基于智能手机的治疗与拖延的显著更大程度减轻相关（ = 0.15）。
基于智能手机的干预可能是治疗拖延的有效方法。未来研究应使用更大样本，并直接比较基于智能手机的干预和传统拖延干预的疗效。
