Academic dishonesty among university students: The roles of the psychopathy, motivation, and self-efficacy.

Lidia Baran,Peter K Jonason,Angel Blanch

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0238141

Abstract

Academic dishonesty is a common problem at universities around the world, leading to undesirable consequences for both students and the education system. To effectively address this problem, it is necessary to identify specific predispositions that promote cheating. In Polish undergraduate students (N = 390), we examined the role of psychopathy, achievement goals, and self-efficacy as predictors of academic dishonesty. We found that the disinhibition aspect of psychopathy and mastery-goal orientation predicted the frequency of students’ academic dishonesty and mastery-goal orientation mediated the relationship between the disinhibition and meanness aspects of psychopathy and dishonesty. Furthermore, general self-efficacy moderated the indirect effect of disinhibition on academic dishonesty through mastery-goal orientation. The practical implications of the study include the identification of risk factors and potential mechanisms leading to students’ dishonest behavior that can be used to plan personalized interventions to prevent or deal with academic dishonesty.

Highlights

Academic dishonesty refers to behaviors aimed at giving or receiving information from others, using unauthorized materials, and circumventing the sanctioned assessment process in an academic context [1]
We examined the relationships between facets of psychopathy, as described in the triarchic model of psychopathy, and the frequency of academic dishonesty among students
In the case of meanness, this relationship may indicate a tendency for dishonesty resulting from a lack of fear and, a diminished impact of the perceived risk of being caught cheating, sensation-seeking that involves engaging in destructive behavior regardless of possible negative consequences of such actions, and a propensity to exploit other student’s work or knowledge to pass classes [23, 54]

Summary

Introduction

Academic dishonesty refers to behaviors aimed at giving or receiving information from others, using unauthorized materials, and circumventing the sanctioned assessment process in an academic context [1]. The frequency of academic dishonesty reported in research indicates the global nature of this phenomenon. In a study by Ternes, Babin, Woodworth, and Stephens [2] 57.3% of post-secondary students in Canada allowed another student to copy their work. 61% of undergraduate students in Sweden copied material for coursework from a book or other publication without acknowledging the source [3]. Working together on an assignment when it should be completed as an individual was reported by 53% of students from four different Australian universities [4], and copying from someone’s paper in exams at least once was done by 36% of students from four German universities [5]. Research shows that academic dishonesty is a major problem at Polish universities.

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