Role of Self-Efficacy and Negative Perfectionism in the Prediction of Procrastination of Narcissistic Personality : A Study on Non-Clinical Subjects

The present research was performed to investigate the role of self-efficacy and negative perfectionism in the prediction of procrastination of narcissistic personality. This is a descriptive research of correlational type for which performance a total of 412 students were selected via random multi-stage sampling method. In order to examine the research hypothesis and accomplish the research objective, the participants were provided with a questionnaire composed of Narcissistic Personality Inventory16, General Procrastination Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, and Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale. Collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression. Results of the research indicated significant associations between self-efficacy, negative perfectionism, and narcissism, in one hand, and procrastination, on the other hand, so that, as variables, self-efficacy, negative perfectionism, and narcissism could explain 10% of the variance in procrastination. Results of the present research indicated the importance of self-efficacy, negative perfectionism, and narcissism in the development and exacerbation of procrastination, and placed an emphasis on the necessity of paying attention to the role of such effective antecedents by mental health-related authorities, so as to reduce procrastination.

procrastination ranging between 15%-20% in the general adult population prove as evidence for the frequency of this phenomenon [17][18][19][20].Procrastination is a failure of self-regulation [16,[21][22][23], in other words, it has been viewed as a maladaptive attempt to manage behavior or emotion [24,25], that is associated with various mental health problems [26].Procrastination increases negative feelings such as shame or guilt [27], reduces well-being [20], and affects health behavior, such as deferring to seek proper care for health problems [28].Moreover, people with high level of procrastination show an intensified risk for the development, maintenance, and aggravation of mental disorders such as anxiety disorders and depression [29,30].Furthermore, Studies found links between procrastination and low selfefficacy [31,32], low self-esteem [23], and dependency on others, and defeating behaviors [33].
Self-efficacy refers to an individual's judgement about his/her own ability to achieve his/her goals, and to predict the required competences in terms of making effort, diligence, accomplishing tasks, and implementation of the required solutions to reach the goals [34][35][36][37].Introduced in Bandura's (1977) theory, this concept plays a key role in determining individuals' attitudes, feelings, and behavior in various situations [38,39].Individuals enjoying high senses of selfefficacy opt for and then exhibit a deep commitment to challenging goals and problems [40].When dealing with a failure, being well self-confident, these individuals tend to see obstacles as addressable, adopt further strategies to cope with problems, attempt to reach desired outcomes, and experience lower levels of stress and anxiety [41,42].Conversely, individuals with low senses of self-efficacy tend to avoid confronting any obstacle rather than addressing them; they quite easily quit and usually fail to exhibit any resistance and robustness.When dealing a problem, these individuals tend to concentrate on their failures and negative outcomes, rather than searching for possible workarounds, and hence become depressed readily [43,44].Therefore, individuals with higher levels of self-efficacy can better adapt to environmental circumstances and are more successful in communicating with others [37,39].
Perfectionism is another psychological variable that exhibits a significant relationship with procrastination [45][46][47][48].Perfectionism is, indeed, a personality construct characterized with such traits as attempting toward being complete and perfect, setting extreme performance criteria, and tendency toward critical evaluation [49][50][51].Based on the Hamachek's (1978) classification of perfectionism into normal and abnormal and within the framework of a theoretical model, Terry-Short, Glynn Owens, Slade, and Dewey (1995) distinguished between two types of perfectionism, namely positive and negative perfectionism.Positive perfectionism encompasses those aspect of perfectionism which are related to excellent yet realistic personal criteria, tendency toward discipline and organization, sense of satisfaction with self-performance, search for excellence, and motivation toward achieving positive rewards [51][52][53][54].This dimension of perfectionism is correlated to indicators of good adjustment such as positive affect [55], better interpersonal relationships and performance [50,56].At the other end of the spectrum, negative perfectionism involves those aspects of perfectionism which are related to unrealistically high standard levels, worries about mistakes, sense of conflict between expectations and achievement, and critical evaluation of self-performance [51,53,57].This dimension of perfectionism is known to be correlated to indicators of conflict, such as anxiety [49], depression [58], and negative affect [59].
Considering the significance of narcissism as a personality style in psychological studies, and given the promotion of narcissistic behavior across today's societies, the present research seeks, in the form a novel research based on existing experimental and theoretical works, to provide health experts and therapists with some information on consequences of narcissism, so as to draw a more accurate and comprehensive image of narcissism and use it to enhance the level of individuals' mental health.Therefore, based on what was mentioned so far, the present research aims at investigating the role of self-efficacy and negative perfectionism in the prediction of procrastination of narcissistic personality.

2-1-Participants and Procedure
In terms of variable type and data gathering methodology, the present research is a descriptive-correlational study.Statistical population of this research was composed of all students studying at Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University (Tehran, Iran) in spring semester 2018 (about 50,000 students).Using Morgan's formula, sample size was calculated as 381 students, but considering various reasons such as omission of subjects, the final sample was composed of 537 students who were selected from the statistical population via random multi-stage sampling.For this purpose, among the total of 20 faculties administered by the university, four were selected (i.e.faculties of Humanities, Basic Sciences, Engineering, and Medical Sciences).Then, five classes in each faculty were selected randomly and all of the students in the selected classes were participated in the research as subjects (n = 537).Once finished with collecting questionnaires, 125 cases were omitted due to incompleteness, ending up with a reduced research sample size of 412. Figure 1 illustrates the participant flow through the study.

2-2-1-Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 (NPI-16)
This 16-item inventory is a shortened version of the original 40-item narcissistic personality inventory which was constructed by Ames, Rose, and Anderson (2006) to evaluate narcissistic personality-related traits.This inventory has no sub-scale and evaluates narcissism following a one-dimensional approach.In terms of response range, each item in this inventory has a pair of items of which the respondent shall select one.For each item selected from the row A or B, a score of 1 or 0 is considered, respectively.Overall score of inventory is then calculated as sum of scores of all items.Accordingly, each subject ends up with a score between 0 and 16.Higher scores indicate higher levels of narcissism exhibited by the subject, and vice versa [60].In Iran, Mohammadzadeh (2010) performed a cross-sectional survey study where he tested this inventory on 342 students.Accordingly, correlation coefficient between NPI-16 and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II scores was found to be 0.77, proving discriminant validity of the inventory.Furthermore, testretest reliability coefficient, correlation coefficient of split-half reliability determination, and Cronbach's coefficient alpha in internal consistency measurement were calculated to be 0.84, 0.74, and 0.79, respectively [61].

2-2-2-General Procrastination Scale (GPS)
Constructed by Lay (1986), this 20-statement scale is used to evaluate general procrastination utilizing a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (extremely uncharacteristic) to 5 (extremely characteristic).In this scale, statements 3, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, and 20 are scored reversely, and overall score is obtained as the sum of all scores assigned to all statements.As far as this scale is concerned, a subject may end up with any score between a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 100.A higher overall score indicates higher procrastination and vice versa.Reportedly, this scale exhibits good validity and reliability [62,63].In their research, Ferrari, Johnson, and McCown (1995) confirmed construct validity and predictive validity of this scale [64].In Iran, Hosseini and Khayyer (2009) used principal components analysis as a factor analysis technique to examine validity of this instrument and obtained a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient of .78 and Chi score (as calculated per Bartlett test) of 778.80, which was statistically significant.In addition, following internal consistency method, reliability of this instrument was investigated and a Cronbach's coefficient alpha of .80 was reported [65].

2-2-3-General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-10)
The 20-item German version of this scale was constructed by Schwarzer and Jerusalem in 1979 to evaluate general and social self-efficacy [66].Later on, the two researchers evaluated the scale and reduced its items to 10 and obtained a scale whose all of items measured general self-efficacy.GSES-10 was translated into Persian by Nezami, Schwarzer, and Jerusalem (1996) [67].The items were scored based on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all true) to (exactly true), so that each subject could obtain an overall score between 10 and 40.This scale has adequate validity and reliability.Examining students in Spain, Germany, and China, Schwarzer, Bäßler, Kwiatek, Schröder, and Zhang (1997) obtained internal consistency coefficients of different versions of GSES-10 as 0.81, 0.84, and 0.91, respectively [68].In Iran, Rajabi (2006) examined reliability and validity of GSES-10 on students and obtained a Cronbach's coefficient alpha of 0.82; furthermore, when evaluated against Rosenberg's self-esteem scale, its concurrent validity coefficient was found to be 0.30 [69].positive perfectionism while the other statements examine negative perfectionism.This scale is scored based on a 5point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), so that the subject may end up with a score between 20 and 100 for each of the positive and negative perfectionism scales [53].In the Persian form of this scale, Cronbach's alpha of each sub-scale on a sample composed of 212 students was found to be 0.90 and 0.87 when all of the subjects were considered.The corresponding values to girls only were 0.91 and 0.88, respectively, while those of boys only were 0.89 and 0.86, respectively, indicating high internal consistency of this scale.Correlation coefficient among the scores attained by 90 subjects at two stages spaced by four weeks was r = 0.86 for all of the subjects, r = 0.84 for girls only, and r = 0.87 for boys only, indicating satisfactory test-retest reliability of this scale.Validity of the positive and negative perfectionism questionnaire was investigated by calculating correlation coefficients between subscales of this test and those of General Health Questionnaire [70] and Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory [71] via principal components analysis.Accordingly, coefficients of correlation between positive and negative perfectionism sub-scales, in one hand, and somatic symptoms (-0.32 and 0.33, respectively), anxiety/insomnia (-0.41 and 0.39, respectively), social dysfunction (-0.54 and 0.57, respectively), depression (-0.58 and 0.63, respectively), and overall score of General Health Questionnaire (-0.46 and 0.48, respectively), on the other hand, were calculated.Furthermore, coefficients of correlation between sub-scales of positive and negative perfectionism and self-esteem were found to be 0.44 and -0.52, respectively [72].

3-Results
In the present research, 58% (238 individuals) and 42% (174 individuals) of the subjects were women and men, respectively, (Mage = 32.40 years, age range: 19-46 years).In addition, 73% (300 individuals) and 27% (112 individuals) of the subjects were undergraduate and post-graduate students, respectively.Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and the results of Pearson's correlation coefficient between the research variables.According to Table 1, as far as the subjects of this research were concerned, a significant and positive relationship was indicated between narcissism and procrastination (r = 0.185, p < 0.01), a significant and negative relationship was indicated between self-efficacy and procrastination (r = -0.221,p < .01),and a significant and positive relationship was identified between negative perfectionism and procrastination (r = 0.207, p < 0.01).In order to determine contributions of perfectionism and self-efficacy in the prediction of procrastination of a narcissist personality, stepwise multiple regression technique was used.Table 2 provides a summary of the results of regression model of the variables considered in this study.According to Table 2, in the first step, self-efficacy could explain 5% of the variance in procrastination of the subjects.In the second step, self-efficacy and negative perfectionism could explain a total of 9% of the variance in procrastination of the subjects.Finally, in the third step, self-efficacy, negative perfectionism and narcissism could describe 10% of the variance in procrastination of the subjects.Results of the so-called analysis of variance (ANOVA) on the first (F(1,410) = 21.150,p < 0.0005, Adjusted R 2 = 0.047), second (F(2,409) = 20.402,p <0.0005, Adjusted R 2 = 0.086), and third (F(3,408) = 15.392,p < 0.0005, Adjusted R 2 = 0.095) model were indicative of significance of all results.Furthermore, based on the obtained values of Beta, self-efficacy (Beta = -0.198)played the most effective role in the prediction of the subjects' procrastination, followed by negative perfectionism (Beta = 0.182) and then narcissism (Beta = 0.109).

4-Discussion
The present research was performed to investigate the role of self-efficacy and negative perfectionism in the prediction of procrastination of narcissistic personality.Indicating a significant and negative relationship between selfefficacy and procrastination, findings of this research were in agreement with those of previous research works [25,31,32,73,74].For instance, based on the findings reported by Wäschle, Allgaier, Lachner, Fink, and Nückles (2014), selfefficacy mediates the effect of perceived goal achievement on procrastination, and students with low perceived selfefficacy are vulnerable for finding themselves in a vicious circle of procrastination [32].
Individuals with high perceived self-efficacy are well confident about their abilities for accomplishing tasks properly and exhibit adequate deals of interest and tendency [40].Furthermore, fear of failure, shyness, unstable self-esteem, and lack of courage, which are among the characteristics of procrastination, are less observed among such individuals [16,23,24,30,36,37].Persons with higher perceived self-efficacy are more successful in accomplishing tasks, feel empowered in difficult situations, and receive the required encouragements from others [34,35,39], which further adds to their self-efficacy and attenuates procrastination [31,32].On the other hand, should an individual frequently doubts about his/her own capabilities for undertaking a particular task under various circumstances, at some point, he/she will start to develop the unrealistic belief that he/she is not capable of successfully accomplishing any task [43,44].In such a case, the individual no more feels any internal control over events, thereby perceiving activities as difficult as he/she is not capable of practicing them [34,35,37,39,40].
Moreover, results of the present research showed that there is a significant and positive relationship between negative perfectionism and procrastination.This was in line with findings of previous research works [45][46][47][48].For instance, based on the findings reported by Smith, Sherry, Saklofske, and Mushqaush (2017), perfectionistic concerns had a moderate positive association with procrastination, and perfectionistic concerns generate a persistent paralytic gap between the actual and the ideal self that contributes to procrastinatory behavior [48].
Maladaptive perfectionism is significantly associated with worry, fatigue, pessimism, reduced performance, and lack of perceived self-control; these findings correspond to characteristics of those exhibiting procrastinatory behavior [16,20,23,30,49].Also, perfectionists are known to have unreasonable beliefs and extreme fear of failure; this fear encourages them to exhibit procrastinatory behavior in important situations, so as to decrease their anxiety [21,50,51].In other words, those individuals who set forth unrealistically high standards for themselves, feel extremely worried about their mistakes and personal imperfections, and perceive a large gap between their self-performance and personal standards are vulnerable to negative expectations and senses of frustration and failure [49,51,[57][58][59]; such negative senses then result in compulsory-like doubts in various tasks and keeps them from accomplishing personalized functions in a timely manner while providing a basis for further tendency toward procrastination [45,47,48].
Another finding of this research revealed a positive and significant association between narcissistic personality traits and procrastination.This finding was in agreement with explanations presented in some of the research works performed in this scope [75][76][77].Regarding antecedents of procrastination, researchers and theorists have referred to various factors such as low self-esteem [23], dependence on others and self-disabling behaviors [33], fear of negative appraisal [19], learned helplessness [29], inferiority complex, fear of failure, low tolerance and anger [16,21,23,78], negative feelings such as shame and guiltiness [27], wishful thinking [77], and tendency toward depression and neuroticism [30].Narcissistic personality exhibits similar traits.For instance, failure of regulating self-esteem makes narcissistic persons so sensitive to critic-or failure-resulted damages [7,79], and associated continuous senses of shame, humiliation, and self-criticism lead them toward social withdrawal, depressed mood, and disordered performance [3,6,13].This is on this basis that one can explain the correlation between procrastination and narcissistic personality traits.In addition, results of the present research showed that, altogether, self-efficacy (via a significant negative association), perfectionism, and narcissism (via significant positive associations) can explain 10% of the variance of procrastination.
The results of the present study indicated the importance of self-efficacy, negative perfectionism, and narcissism in the development and exacerbation of procrastination.Therefore, positive beliefs about the ability to properly carry out assignments, the constructive skill of dealing with issues despite multiple problems, and having realistic personal criteria for organizing and applying a set of actions to achieve the desired level of performance, persuade individuals to confront the challenges of life and gain valuable experiences, which increases the ability of the individual, and brings positive outcomes in different aspects of life.
The present research suffered from particular limitations, by addressing which in future studies one may achieve more comprehensive results.Among others, a limitation of this research was non-clinical nature of the subjects participating the research; accordingly, the presented results can be generalized to clinical populations only with care.Furthermore, given that the roles of demographic variables such as gender, age, education level, and marital status were not taken into consideration, there are chances that these variables affect the results undesirably.Self-reporting nature of the questionnaire used to evaluate the traits related to narcissistic personality was another limitation faced by this research.It is suggested to undertake more extensive research on larger samples, sample subjects from clinical patients, and perform similar research works on other personality styles.Based on the results of the present research, educational authorities are recommended to, with high priority, provide appropriate environmental conditions and facilities and hold workshops for enhancing self-efficacy and positive perfectionistic traits, i.e. making effort and competition for progress, self-esteem, and self-flourishing among students.Furthermore, given the antecedents referred to in relation to procrastination (e.g.anxiety, depression, fear of negative appraisal, low self-esteem, fear of failure, negative perfectionism, and narcissistic personality traits), the authorities involved with students' mental health shall further undertake to identify and investigate the antecedents contributing to procrastination, so as to be able to take the required interventions on time.

5-Acknowledgments
The students who participated as subjects in this research, and also officials of the faculties of Humanities, Basic Sciences, Engineering, and Medical Sciences at Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University (Tehran, Iran) are whole-heartedly appreciated for their close collaboration with this project.

9-1-Narcissistic Personality Inventory-16 (NPI-16)
Read each pair of statements below and place an "X" by the one that comes closest to describing your feelings and beliefs about yourself.You may feel that neither statement describes you well, but pick the one that comes closest.Please complete all pairs.

___
There is a lot that I can learn from other people

9-2-General Procrastination Scale (GPS) -For student populations
People may use the following statements to describe themselves.For each statement, decide whether the statement is 'uncharacteristic' or 'characteristic' of you using the following 5 point scale.Note that the 3 on the scale is Neutral the statement is neither characteristic nor uncharacteristic of you.In the box to the right of each statement, fill in the number on the 5 point scale that best describes you.
I often find myself performing tasks that I had intended to do days before.

2.
I do not do assignments until just before they are to be handed in.

3.
When I am finished with a library book, I return it right away regardless of the date it is due.

4.
When it is time to get up in the morning, I most often get right out of bed.

5.
A letter may sit for days after I write it before mailing it.

6.
I generally return phone calls promptly.

7.
Even with jobs that require little else except sitting down and doing them, I find they seldom get done for days.

8.
I usually make decisions as soon as possible.

9.
I generally delay before starting on work I have to do.
10.I usually have to rush to complete a task on time.
11.When preparing to go out, I am seldom caught having to do something at the last minute.
12. In preparing for some deadline, I often waste time by doing other things.
13.I prefer to leave early for an appointment.
14.I usually start an assignment shortly after it is assigned.
15.I often have a task finished sooner than necessary.
16.I always seem to end up shopping for birthday or Christmas gifts at the last minute.17.I usually buy even an essential item at the last minute.
18.I usually accomplish all the things I plan to do in a day.
19.I am continually saying "I'll do it tomorrow".20.I usually take care of all the tasks I have to do before I settle down and relax for the evening.

9-3-General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE-10)
Please read the following statements carefully.For each statement, decide whether the statement is 'not at all true' or 'true' of you using the following 4 point scale.In the box to the right of each statement, fill in the number on the 4 point scale that best describes you.

3.
It is easy for me to stick to my aims and accomplish my goals.

4.
I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events.

5.
Thanks to my resourcefulness, I know how to handle unforeseen situations.

6.
I can solve most problems if I invest the necessary effort.

7.
I can remain calm when facing difficulties because I can rely on my coping abilities.

8.
When I am confronted with a problem, I can usually find several solutions.

9.
If I am in trouble, I can usually think of a solution.
10.I can usually handle whatever comes my way.

9-4-Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale (PANPS)
Please read the following statements carefully.For each statement, decide whether the statement is 'strongly disagree' or 'strongly agree' of you using the following 5 point scale.In the box to the right of each statement, fill in the number on the 5 point scale that best describes you.
When I start something I feel anxious that I might fail.

2.
My family and friends are proud of me when I do really well.

3.
I take pride in being meticulous when doing things.

4.
I set impossibly high standards for myself.

5.
I try to avoid the disapproval of others at all costs.
6.I like the acclaim I get for an outstanding performance.

7.
When I am doing something I cannot relax until it's perfect.

8.
It feels as though my best is never good enough for other people.

9.
Producing a perfect performance is a reward in its own right.

10.
The problem of success is that I must work even harder.

11.
If I make a mistake I feel that the whole thing is ruined.
12. I feel dissatisfied with myself unless I am working towards a higher standard all the time.
13.I know the kind of person I ought or want to be, but feel I always fall short of this.

14.
Other people respect me for my achievements.

15.
As a child however well I did, it never seemed good enough to please my parents.

16.
I think everyone loves a winner.

17.
Other people expect nothing less than perfection of me.

18.
When I'm competing against others, I'm motivated by wanting to be the best.

19.
I feel good when pushing out the limits.

20.
When I achieve my goals I feel dissatisfied.

21.
My high standards are admired by others.

22.
If I fail people, I fear they will cease to respect or care for me.

23.
I like to please other people by being successful.

24.
I gain great approval from others by the quality of my accomplishments.

25.
My successes spur me on to greater achievements.

26.
I feel guilty or ashamed if I do less than perfectly.

27.
No matter how well I do I never feel satisfied with my performance.

28.
I believe that rigorous practice makes for perfection.

29.
I enjoy the glory gained by successes.

30.
I gain deep satisfaction when I have perfected something.

31.
I feel I have to be perfect to gain people's approval.

32.
My parents encouraged me to excel.

33.
I worry what others think if I make mistakes.

34.
I get fulfilment from totally dedicating myself to a task.

35.
I like it when others recognize that what I do requires great skill and effort to perfect.

36.
The better I do, the better I am expected to do by others.

37.
I enjoy working towards greater levels of precision and accuracy.

38.
I would rather not start something than risk doing it less than perfectly.

39.
When I do things I feel others will judge critically the standard of my work.

40.
I like the challenge of setting very high standards for myself.
to be a great person ___ I hope I am going to be successful 7. ___ People sometimes believe what I tell them ___ I can make anybody believe anything I want them to 8what I am doing ___ Sometimes I am not sure of what I am doing 12. ___ I don't like it when I find myself manipulating people ___ I find it easy to manipulate people 13. ___ Being an authority doesn't mean that much to me ___ People always seem to recognize my authority 14. ___ I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so ___ When people compliment me I sometimes get embarrassed 15. ___ I try not to be a show off ___ I am apt to show off if I get the chance 16.

-4-Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale (PANPS)
This 40-statement scale was developed by Terry-Short et al. (1995) Out of the 40 statements, 20 statements evaluate

Table 2 . Summary of Regression Analysis Results.
Note.Dependent Variable: Procrastination.