Self-reported Cheating Behaviors Research Articles

Academic Integrity in an Online Culture: Do McCabe’s Findings Hold True for Online, Adult Learners?

This study examines how the self-reported cheating behaviors of students from a single large institution serving primarily adult students in online courses differ from those previously reported in large-scale studies of academic integrity among traditional-age college students. Specifically, the research presented here demonstrates that students at a large online university are no more likely to engage in most forms of cheating than the traditional-age students in residential institutions studied by Donald McCabe in his seminal research on academic integrity. Relatedly, our study finds that students’ age decreases the likelihood of engaging in cheating behaviors. Moreover, traditional-age undergraduates in our study were no more likely to engage in cheating behaviors than the undergraduate students McCabe surveyed. Our study offers a unique contribution to the extant literature on academic integrity, as we believe this is the largest survey of student attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors from a single institution. The research presented here confounds the common (mis)perception that cheating is more prevalent and easier to accomplish in online learning and assessment.

Understanding Academic dishonesty among business school students in France using the theory of planned behavior

In this study, we examined the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB, Ajzen, 1991) and conscientiousness as antecedents of academic dishonesty using a sample of 178 undergraduate and graduate business students in France. The results provided support to Giluk and Postlethwaite’s (2015) meta-analysis that conscientiousness was a valid predictor of academic dishonesty. Further, the three constructs of the TPB, namely subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitude mediated the conscientiousness-academic dishonesty relationship. Contrary to expectation, justification of cheating did not mediate the three constructs of the TPB and academic dishonesty relationships. Altogether, the constructs of the TPB, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitude toward cheating explained 33% of variance in self-reported cheating behavior. Conscientiousness added 4.2% of unique variance in self-reported academic cheating behavior. Implications for ethics education and research are discussed.

Capitalism and crime in the classroom: An analysis of academic dishonesty and latent student attitudes

ABSTRACTUniversity students' latent attitudes toward capitalism were quantified and used to predict self-reported cheating behaviors. Results suggest that the relationship between student academic dishonesty and attitudes toward capitalism are complex. Students indicating a strong degree of risk aversion are less likely to report cheating behaviors. Students demonstrating a preference for equality over efficiency, while no more likely to be cheaters, may cheat more often. Efficiency-minded students do not appear to be more likely to cheat, but may engage in fewer instances of cheating. Implications for curriculum development in economics and business programs are discussed.

Four Personal Achievement Goals and Self-Reported Cheating Behavior

The objective of the present study was to investigate the predictive utility of the four personal achievement goals included in the 2x2 achievement goal framework with reference to self-reported cheating behavior exhibited by female first-year University students when they were attending an Ancient Greek Language and Literature class in the last year of their Secondary Education studies. Correlation analyses revealed that performance-approach, performance-avoidance, and mastery-avoidance goals were not predictive variables of self-reported cheating behavior, while mastery-approach goals were negative predictors. The findings underline the role played by masteryapproach goals in deterring cheating behavior in academic settings. Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) was one of classical Athens’ three great tragic playwrights. In his tragedy “PHILOCTETES” (94-95), which has survived up to date in its complete form, he put the following words in the mouth of young Neoptolemos, the honest son of Achilleas, during an argumentation with cunning Odysseas: “Still I prefer, my king, to fail when doing what is honorable than to be victorious in a dishonorable manner” (Sophocles, 409 B.C.). One of the central themes of this play was the conflict between the ethics of deception and fraud and the ethics of integrity and fairness.

The Effects of Instructor Fear Appeals and Moral Appeals on Cheating-Related Attitudes and Behavior of University Students

Little attention has been paid in academic dishonesty literature to empirically testing the effectiveness of different instructor communication strategies to minimize cheating. Using a quasi-experimental design, we compared the effectiveness of instructor fear appeals and moral appeals on student cheating-related attitudes and behavior. Cheating was most strongly associated with neutralizing attitudes in the moral appeal condition. Also, the relationship between observation of others cheating and self-reported cheating behaviors was stronger in both treatment conditions than in the control condition. Although a trend toward less cheating in the treatment conditions was evident, it did not attain statistical significance.

The Relationship between Student Cheating and College Fraternity or Sorority Membership

This study examines and compares the self-reported cheating behaviors of fraternity and non-fraternily members and the relation between student cheating and the overall level of fraternity or sorority membership on campus. The influence of peer disapproval of cheating on the relationship between fraternity or sorority membership and self-reported cheating is also examined.

Study of a Cognitive Dissonance Intervention to Address High School Students' Cheating Attitudes and Behaviors

Forty-four high school students took part in focus-type group that used an induced hypocrisy paradigm developed from cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) to reduce cheating behavior. Posttesting following the intervention showed that, contrary to expectations, these students' attitudes toward cheating and self-reported cheating behaviors did not decrease relative to those of 65 control participants who did not participate in the group intervention. All participants reported a greater intention to cheat in the future at posttest as well as an increase in cheating behavior. Although participants did not view cheating favorably, a large majority admitted cheating and indicated that they had never been caught.

Changes in self-reported academic cheating across the transition from middle school to high school

Changes in early adolescents' self-reported cheating behaviors in mathematics before and after the transition from middle school to high school are examined. Students were surveyed in school regarding their cheating behaviors in math, and the motivational goal structures perceived in their math classrooms. Surveys were completed twice during the eighth grade (during middle school) and once at the end of the ninth grade (at the end of the first year in high school). Results indicated that self-reported cheating did not change in the year prior to the high school transition, but that reported cheating increased after the transition. Additional analyses indicated that across the high school transition, self-reported cheating in math increased for students who moved from high mastery to low mastery-oriented classes after the transition, and for students who moved from low performance to high performance-oriented classes; in contrast, self-reported cheating decreased for students who moved from low to high mastery-oriented math classrooms.

Examining the Decision Process of Students' Cheating Behavior: An Empirical Study

This research examines the association between attitudes on cheating and cognitive moral development. In this research, we use Rest's (1979a) Defining Issues Test, the Attitudes on Honesty Scale (Authors) and Academic Integrity Index (Authors); the last two are adaptations of the DIT. A total of 220 students from three universities participated in the study (66 psychology majors and 154 business majors). The data indicate that 66.4 percent of the students reported that they cheated in high school, college, or both high school and college. Psychology majors scored higher than business majors on both the Defining Issues Test (Rest, 1979a) and the Attitudes on Honesty Scale (AHS, Authors). Using factor analysis, we found significant associations between students' ratings of the importance considerations present in the three cheating scenarios and their estimates of whether cheating would occur (i.e., the Academic Integrity Index). Finally, using logistic regression, we found that the scores on the Attitudes on Honesty Scale and Academic Integrity Index associate with the self-reported cheating behavior of college students.

Predictors of Cheating Behavior at a University: A Lesson From the Psychology of Work

The present study investigated students’ behavior across academic departments to establish how personality, demographic, educational, attitudinal, and climate (both psychological and departmental) predicted self‐reported cheating behavior at a university. Participants were 107 students from a variety of academic disciplines. The results explain 50.5% of the variability in self‐reported cheating behavior in terms of demographic (male, school education qualifications), departmental climate, and individual differences (Lie and Neuroticism scales). We concluded that an expanded theoretical perspective (utilizing a wide range of person and situation variables) explained more variability than would otherwise be explained from any single perspective, and that findings from the literature of integrity at work generalize to educational settings. Finally, we discuss the limitations and implications of this research.

Motivation and cheating during early adolescence.

The relations of motivational variables to self-reported cheating behaviors and beliefs in science were examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely when students perceived an emphasis on performance and extrinsic incentives rather than on mastery and improvement. Results indicated that students who reported cheating in science perceived their classrooms as being extrinsically focused and perceived their schools as being focused on performance and ability. Students who believed in the acceptability of cheating also reported personal extrinsic goals and a perceived emphasis on extrinsic factors in class. Students who reported cheating also worried about school. The reported use of deep cognitive strategies was related negatively and the use of self-handicapping strategies was related positively to cheating beliefs and behaviors. Why do some adolescents engage in cheating behaviors, whereas others do not? What are the motivational variables related to cheating during adolescence? The present study examines relations between motivational variables and selfreported cheating beliefs and behaviors in a sample of early adolescents.

Attitudes about cheating and self-reported cheating behaviors of criminal justice majors and noncriminal justice majors: A research note

This paper explores the attitudes about cheating, and the self-reported cheating practices of 639 undergraduate students. Criminal justice majors are compared to other undergraduate students. It appears that much traditionally defined academic cheating behavior is not viewed as such by college students in general, or by criminal justice majors in particular. It also appears that students are participating in a rather wide range of cheating behaviors. The range among criminal justice students is almost identical with the norm. Nearly every student claimed to have participated in at least one type of cheating while in college.