Dana Seymour
Carleton University
At some point or another we all procrastinate. Ferrari, Johnson, and McCown (1995) refer to the ancient Egyptians definition of procrastination as "the harmful habits of laziness in completing a task necessary for subsistence"(p. 4). Today, w ithin our goal-orientated society, chronic procrastinators are projected as being lazy and lacking motivation (Ferrari et al., 1995). The term laziness has not only been used to define procrastination, but laziness has also been treated as an equal to pro crastination, in which both are viewed in a negative context. However, the negativity may be due to the Western societal values, in which achievement is highly valued (Ferrari et al., 1995). People often use the word lazy and related it to procrastination , but where does the word originate, and what does it mean?
The historical roots of lazy probably came from Low German (Room, 1986). Lazy has been derived from the German word lasich, a variant of losich, which means idle (Skeat, 1963). Barnhart (1988) illustrates that in 1549 the word "laysy" e volved to mean slothful and to be disinclined to work. In 1568, within The Schoolmaster by Roger Ascham, laysy evolves to mean slow moving and sluggish. Shakespeare in his Midsummer Night’s Dream also uses this definition in 1590. Shakespear e’s work is the first recorded spelling of lazy with a "z." In 1612, the adjective "laze" progressed into the verb to "be lazy." Centuries later, in 1862, the verb "idleness" proceeded to evolve into the noun the & quot;act of lazing" (Barnhart, 1988).
The purpose of this paper is to provide an annotated bibliography of the term lazy as utilized in the 20th century. The construct of lazy in the psychological literature will be examined in order to understand the usage of lazy, and th e relationship between laziness and procrastination. The usage of the term will be organized chronologically and alphabetically accordingly. This organization allows the reader to follow the progression of the word lazy The paper is divided into two sect ions, psychology journal articles containing lazy, and the appearance of lazy in other languages with psychology.
Today lazy is still defined as illustrated above (idle, slothful, disinclined to work, slow moving, and slothful). The earliest 20th century psychological reference with lazy comes from Wexberg in 1930 in his paper "Concerning Laz iness." Wexberg (1930) describes laziness as resulting from a conflict within the individual. The word does not seem to be popular in the early 1900’s. It is not until the early 1970’s when the utilization of lazy becomes common in psychology. Althou gh the term is commonly used, it is seldom defined.
The majority of the psychological literature in the 20th century is nonspecific in the usage of the term lazy. Researchers fail to provide and operational definition when discussing laziness. The authors may expect the reader to unders tand the interpretation of the word. Lazy has become a folk psychology term in which the term is used so often that people no longer define it. For example, people will state "don’t mind him, he’s just lazy," in which there is no explanation for what they are trying to say. When lazy is not defined it is often used in a bipolar context. For example, hard working-lazy, ambitious-lazy, successful-lazy, motivated-lazy, industrious-lazy, and energetic-lazy. This may be the researchers way of defini ng lazy, which consists of the opposite meaning of other folk psychology words.
Laziness and procrastination have similarities between them, such as societal perception, moral dimension, and a lack of motivation. Both society and research view laziness and procrastination with a negative connotation. For the bipolar associa tions listed above the lazy pole is viewed negatively and the opposite pole is viewed positively. Within Western society, laziness and procrastination may be considered undesirable due to the emphasis placed upon achievement and success. When one is being lazy or procrastinating that individual is viewed as not being very productive, and this may suggest that they will not be successful.
Laziness and procrastination each have a moral dimension to them. Vandewiele (1980) indicates that a portion of children would not cheat on a test because of their morality. The students indicate that they were afraid they would become lazy if th ey were to resort to cheating. However, Ferrari (1995) does not find morality an important association with procrastination, but "procrastination has become somewhat inadvertently linked with the English word for sin and this coupling was very influe ntial to Medieval and Reformation philosophers and theologians" (p.8).
Both lazy and procrastination are associated with poor motivation. For example, Greenberg and Leventhal (1976) used an extrinsic reward system to motivate lazy workers to compensate for the lack of intrinsic motivation. Ferrari et al. (1995) also illustrates that when an individual delays a task it may be interpreted as poor motivation. Senecal, Koestner, and Vallerand (1995) also have suggested "that procrastination is a motivational problem that involves more than poor time management kill s or trait laziness" (p. 608). Therefore, lazy and procrastination are similar on society perception, moral dimension, and a lack of motivation. Listed below is the usage of the term lazy within the psychological domain of the 20th century .
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Psychology Journal Articles Containing Lazy
The author indicates that homemakers who use instant vs. regular coffee have changed from "laziness" to "more intense involvement in the world."
Discusses the effects of allergies on academic performance. When a child appears to be having learning difficulties but previous tests show the child is doing average or above average, the teacher assumes the child is lazy. However, this learning defic it may be a result of allergies, and laziness is a symptom of the allergies.
Discusses how the school psychologist may refer a troubled youth to an outside agent because the psychologist is too lazy to deal with the issue.
The alcoholics are characterizes as being lazy. However, the authors found contradicting evidence from working with several hundred alcoholics at Silver Hill Foundation. The authors suggest that the sober individual is different from the stereotype. In stead of being lazy, the sober alcoholic is hard working. For example, an executive states, "I always gave 110 percent. I worked at 90mph. I always worked late at the office."
Discusses the educational approach to minimize prejudice. This approach uses information or experience in order to try and change the prejudice individual attitude. A stereotype that exists for blacks is that they will not be successful because they ar e lazy and lack motivation. The educational approach would work to prove that blacks and whites equally value work.
The study evaluates the effects of hypothetical industrial consultants and workers. The consultants were asked to either maintain the equity within the workplace or they were to motivate the workers by rewarding the workers with money. The results indi cate that an extrinsic reward is needed to motivate the lazy in order to balance out the equilibrium for their lack of intrinsic motivation. The male’s consultants overrewarded the lazy workers.
A study compared the attitudes of Irish American and Jewish American families toward family members with affective or schizophrenic psychosis. The results suggest that lazy behavior is a symptom that families find distressing. Laziness is illustrated w hen the all of the patient’s time is consume by television watching. Out of the 32 families there are only five complainants of the patients laziness. Only the Irish reported the lazy behavior, there are no complainants from the Jewish.
The author evaluates the relationship between gender and racial stereotyping in terms of success and failure. The undergraduates considered females to be lazy when the job of choice was downwardly mobile (i.e. store clerk) as opposed to upwardly mobile (i.e. teacher).
Discusses the endogenous and reactive dimensions of depression. "Considering self lazy" is a symptom of endogenous depression.
High school students with a learning disability are usually regarded as lazy.
The study discusses the attitudes towards cheating in school between high school students from 1969 and 1979. The results indicated that the males in 1979 cheated on their tests because they were "too lazy to study."
The attitudes toward cheating in high school were evaluated and laziness is an excuse for not studying. Laziness is defined, as the student would resort to cheating rather than working hard. The results indicate that 47% of the students are too lazy to study the majority these students are 14–17 years old. However, on the other hand, laziness also has a moral component to it. Students mentioned laziness as a reason to refrain from cheating because the students are afraid that "I’ll grow lazy." ;
Obese people are viewed with a negative perspective because their obesity is viewed as a self-inflicted handicap. They are perceived as lazy individuals, indicating that obesity is a result of laziness.
Procrastinators are regarded as lazy because they postpone activities that need to be completed. However, procrastination is not a result of laziness, it is a result of a psychological problem that the individual is not aware (i.e. low self-esteem).
The Quay-Peterson Behavior Problem Checklist evaluates three categories of subjects: emotionally distributed, learning disabled, and mentally retarded, among various racial backgrounds. The results indicated that the 4th factor, subcultural delinquency, which includes laziness in school, appears to be race specific to blacks.
A group counseling program addresses the intellectual laziness of gifted students.
The study consists of rehabilitation counselors assessing the following disablities groups on a semantic differential scale: alcoholic, paraplegic, mentally challenged, and schizophrenic patients. The results suggest that alcoholics and schizophrenic p atients were characterisied as lazy.
Australian aborigines are evaluated in terms of their traditional beliefs and psychiartic dilemmas. The results imply that the aboriginal psychiatiriac problems are not associated with stereotypical behavior such as laziness, but are associated with ad justment difficulties.
The principle of the Scanlon plan is reviewed and indicates that workers are not intrinsically lazy.
The author illustrates that humans are lazy and that individuals will avoid cognitive exertion that requires a lot of attention or concentration. However, the cognitive lazy option is avoided when the individual does not have the option of a simple res ponse, therefore, complex information forces the individual to cognitively exert oneself to process the information.
Individuals avoid their creativity in negative space because of laziness.
The attributions to school failure are evaluated among members of the Wolof speaking group in Senegal. The results suggest that interrelational aspects of an individuals personality such as laziness, is the cause of failure.
A survey conducted on the judgement concerning male and female childcare workers. The results indicate that male childcare workers are seen to be more lazy than female workers.
Australian and British research has evaluated employed individuals explanations for unemployment. The results indicate employed people are less likely to be sympathetic to the unemployed, if the employed individuals believe that unemployment is a resul t of laziness.
The author argues that language impaired children have characteristics such as laziness, and these aspects should not be focused on. However, attention should be given to understanding the impairment.
The study consists of high school students illustrating their parent’s criticism on the student’s behaviors and attitudes. More than 50% of the students are criticized for laziness, which is defined as being unambitious. The results also suggest that l azy is associated with the students self image. For males laziness is a parental criticism in which they have indicated does not gain them parental acceptance. This is due to the lack of not meeting the parents standards.
The moral issues that accompany mentally ill patients are evaluated. The article implies that the mentally ill individual is morally to blame for the suffering they cause on their family. The mentally ill individual is characterisced as being lazy.
dimension. ReVISION, 7, 68-73.
The views of productivity and industrialization are evaluated. Working people are
viewed as lazy and their motivation for working is due to the finical rewards.
The author discusses the political thought of getting ahead in the world. For an individual to be successful one must work hard, those who are not successful are lazy.
While examining individual color preferences Turoczi indicated that people characterize prisoners as being lazy.
This study evaluates the characteristics of gifted dyslexics. The students are seen as
being smart, however, their poor academic work is associated with their laziness.
A questionnaire is administered to evaluate the eating patterns and lifestyles of males and females. The results imply that obesity was associated with laziness.
The authors characterize lazy readers as being a result of the demand to generate words as independent events. For example, the individual would have to generate the word associate with "RAPID – F_____" as opposed to reading "RAPID FAST. "
The author reviews the issue of entering psychogeriatrics because many of the elderly patients are considered to be chronically lazy.
The authors evaluate the manipulation tactics people use to influence the actions of others. Those who use the tactic of debasement are highly associated with being lazy. The individuals who are characterized as lazy and having a lack of motivation, in fluence the actions of others by subjugating themselves. Those who are ambitious refrain from self-subjugation.
Methodological and conceptual difficulties with questionnaires among Chinese respondents are assessed. The results suggest that the error in the research could be attributed to cognitive laziness.
The authors examine unemployment explanations for adults in terms of economic or social justification. Within the social explanations people justify not working by associating it with personal laziness.
Reviews the factors that the teacher incorporates when distinguishing between a lazy student and special student, when the student expresses the inability to finish their schoolwork.
While evaluating the reading process of Chinese and its association with dyslexia, the author concludes that the failure to recognize a reading disability is due to the belief that the children are lazy.
The author evaluates how the public perceives the mentally ill. A characteristic that people have associated with the mentally ill is laziness.
Discusses the attitudes of how adolescents characterize people of wealth and poverty. Previous research indicates that the rich are viewed as intelligent and the poor are viewed as lazy. This experiment provided contradictory evidence to previous resea rch findings, suggesting that 11 – 16 year olds do not perceive poor people as being lazy or not trying hard. However, the adolescents also characterized the poor as working harder than the rich.
People who do not have the perfect body or are ill, have negative characteristics within society, such as being lazy.
Laziness is a factor associated with mothers from Togo who do not take their children back to health services for their immunization.
Evaluates the intention to exercise in people who have coronary heart disease. A perceived barrier to exercise is laziness, some individuals suggest that they are just to lazy to exercise. However, the authors suggest that laziness is also part of the normal population, and that laziness was learned prior to the disease.
The study evaluates the effects of reexamining software engineers on analytic and analogical software. The results indicate that novice software engineers become mentally lazy during the reexamining. These results indicate that the novice engineers had recalled the previous examining, instead of trying to understand the analogy.
Discusses how psychology portrays the negative myths about Black people, in particular that Black’s are lazy.
Explores the positive and negative attributes associated with Gypsies, in which laziness is considered a negative attribute.
Evaluates the relationship between the queen and mole rat work activity. The queen has to initiate the lazy predisposition rat to work.
Surveys were sent to mandate reporters of child abuse (i.e. pediatricians, psychologists, social workers, principles) to evaluate the reporting strategy of child abuse and neglect. The results indicate that one of the most problematic situations in whi ch the authorities are likely to report the child abuse is when the mother is described as being lazy (i.e. too lazy to get the child’s medicine).
Discusses the effects of using paid advertisement to change the discriminatory attitudes toward Aborigines in Australia. Research indicates that Aborigines are characterized as being lazy, and incapable of holding down a job. This stereotype may effect their chances of finding employment. Post questionnaires indicate that mass media advertising can be useful to help modify stereotypes.
Theory X attitudes toward management are traditional and believe that people are disinclined to work and people are lazy.
Discusses the relationship between trait procrastination and the Big-Five personality factors. Laziness is characterized as having negative primary association with Conscientiousness and a positive secondary association with Extraversion. The results i ndicate that laziness is substantially correlated with procrastination. Procrastinators are usually viewed as being lazy.
Evaluates academic procrastination in college students. The results suggest that there are more factors involved in procrastination than laziness. A student who is intrinsically motivated to be in school is less likely to procrastinate than those stude nts who are extrinsically motivated.
Compares the writing styles of gifted and average I.Q. children. The results suggest that laziness is not essential factor that leads to poor writing in gifted children.
The Appearance of "Lazy" in Other Languages in Psychology
The author discusses how laziness is a result a conflict, because the individual does not want to exert themselves into a particular action. When the conflicts are removed and understood the individual is capable of working. The individual formulates a defense mechanism by constructing an explanation for him/herself and others for their "naturally lazy" character.
characterological studies.) Halle a. S.: Marhold, p.153.
Laziness is discussed in terms of its relationship to an individuals character and
personality.
A child is not lazy, their behavior is a result of their up bringing, it is not their fault. Laziness is viewed as a mental deficiency in which the child’s energy has been displaced and it is the physician’s responsibility to redirect the energy.
There are two kinds of laziness that exist. One kind of laziness is a result of an individuals disturbance, these people are always busy, but are not productive. The second kind is laziness of depression, which occurs often in the mentally weak.
Laziness in children has two primary causes: organic and social. The organic cause is due to an insufficient amount of secretion by the glands, this cause is not curable. However, the social cause is curable in which the teacher re-educates the child. The teachers have to be able to distinguish between a child who is lazy and a child with a low I.Q.
A students transformation from being lazy to industrious is discussed. In which courage and attitude of the student played a major role.
The lazy individual finds work a curse. Laziness arises when the individual does not want to exert energy towards work any longer.
The gifted child encounters difficulty in social relations because they are viewed as being lazy when the gifted child finds the work to easy.
The author discusses how rebellion in youth is a search for a meaning in life. Laziness is often confused with the normal path of rebellion in youth.
The study evaluates how 5th-7th grade students perceive the "bad pupil." The subjects consider the "bad pupil to be an overburdened as opposed to being lazy.
Graduate students from Zaire are asked to characterize themselves as other people from various ethnic backgrounds describe them. The results suggest the subjects believe that people from Belgium consider Zaire people to be lazy.
Narcolepsy has often been misdiagnosed as laziness.
The authors evaluated the effects of bogus feedback on individual and group task conditions where the subject experienced success or failure. The results indicate that the failure group experienced negative signs such as laziness.
utilizacion de servicios de salud. (Attributional aspects of the use of health services.)
Revista Interamericana de Psicologia, 16, 78-89.
The authors discuss the responses of Hispanic individuals regarding their poor health
service. When explaining their own behavior for not receiving proper health care they
attributed it to external factors. However, when explaining the behaviors of others, the
individuals related the attribute to internal factors such as laziness.
The author discusses the mental laziness that Italian researchers experience when dealing with autism.
Students in grades 5–8 from Brasilia are asked to rate individuals from Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, northern Brazil, and Rio Grande do Sul on 12 personality traits such as laziness.
Discusses the psychotic breakdown of a 24-year-old autistic, in which the symptoms were triggered at his work. The individual became extremely upset at his colleague and called the co-worker lazy, in which his autistic symptoms arose.
The Islamic point of view on psychiatry has been discussed, in which psychiatry
evaluates the states of mind such as laziness.
A questionnaire is administered to residents and nonresidents of Poland to assess characteristics that are associated with Poles. Resident and nonresident Poles list negative qualities such as laziness.
The authors discover the etymology of the Greek word "acedia" was discovered to mean "laziness in matters of religion." Acedia has come to be associated with depression.
Explores the positive and negative attributes associated with Gypsies, in which laziness is considered a negative attribute.
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