Ethical Decision Making,Boundaries, and Treatment Effectiveness: A Reprise

We investigated the definition, prevalence, perceived prevalence and severity of, as well as justifications for and expected responses to, academic dishonesty at the graduate level in a sample of 246 graduate students, 49 faculty, and 20 administrators. Between 2.5% and 55.1% of students self-reported engaging in academically dishonest behaviors, depending on the nature of the behavior. Students and faculty rated 40 examples of academically dishonest behaviors similarly in terms of severity, but faculty tended to underestimate the prevalence of academic dishonesty. Students and faculty also reported how they would idealistically and realistically expect themselves to respond to cheating situations. Students rated 21 behaviors in terms of their likeliness to increase or decrease academically dishonest behavior. Suggestions are given for developing a climate or culture of academic integrity to address academic dishonesty.     

Don't cheat,be happy. Self‐control,self‐beliefs,and satisfaction with life in academic honesty: A cross‐sectional study in Poland

Academic dishonesty is dishonest behavior at school or university which is supposed to result in a passed exam or in a positive grade. Academic dishonesty is a global problem, present at every stage of education. Since the consequences of this phenomenon may be serious, such as a low level of knowledge despite receiving a diploma from a school or university or carrying dishonest behaviors over into other domains of functioning, research into this phenomenon also seems to be of high significance. Cheating, plagiarism, and falsification are the forms of academic of dishonesty. The aim of this study was to establish how academic dishonesty is related to self‐control, self‐beliefs, and satisfaction with life. The sample consisted of 631 participants, to whom we administered the Academic Honesty Scale, the Brief Self‐Control Scale, the Social Success Index, the Normalcy Feeling Scale, the Social Comparison Scale, and the Satisfaction With Life Scale. We found that academic dishonesty was linked with some of the variables. The results indicated that academic dishonesty and self‐control were negatively related to academic cheating and that social comparison was positively related to plagiarism and falsification. It also turned out that women scored lower than men on academic dishonesty. Research findings on academic dishonesty have a number of important implications for education, particularly for psychologists, teachers, and sociologists.     

Disclosing Academic Dishonesty: Perspectives From Nigerian and New Zealand Health Professional Students

Few cross-national studies have been conducted on academic dishonesty. The aim of this study was to explore students’ disclosed levels of academic dishonesty between New Zealand and Nigeria. The measures obtained included incidence, acceptability, and justification of dishonest action. It was hypothesized that there would be differences between the two groups and that differences could be explained in terms of deontology, cultural relativism, utilitarianism, rational fair exchange, and/or response bias. There were 844 medical and health science students who participated in the study and completed a questionnaire that explored incidence, acceptability, and justification of dishonest action. A binary logistic regression revealed that age and incidence were significant predictors of country allocation. Nigerian students reported more engagement in dishonest behaviors, and it is argued that these students have diverse cultural expectations, language variances, response strategies, norms, beliefs, and values. Educational interventions are essential to address concerns related to academic dishonesty such as promoting cross-cultural discourse, providing study skills programs, utilizing peer mentoring, creating formal exchange strategies, and endorsing honor codes.     

Comparing the Demographics of Students Reported for Academic Dishonesty to Those of the Overall Student Population

Only a small proportion of academically dishonest students ever receive an official report of academic dishonesty, and the sociology of deviance literature is ripe with studies illustrating disproportionalities in detecting, policing, and prosecuting crimes. This study addresses the degree to which disproportionalities exist in the application of relatively few official sanctions levied upon students for academic dishonesty. I compared the demographics of those who have been reported for cheating with those of an entire undergraduate student body and of self-reported cheaters in the literature. I found that international students are much more likely than domestic students to get reported.     

Academic Dishonesty,Self-Control,and General Criminality: A Prospective and Retrospective Study of Academic Dishonesty in a New Zealand University

Academic dishonesty is an insidious problem that besets most tertiary institutions, where considerable resources are expended to prevent and manage students' dishonest actions within academia. Using a mixed retrospective and prospective design this research investigated Gottfredson and Hirschi's self-control theory as a possible explanation for academic dishonesty in 264 university students. The relationship between academic dishonesty and general criminality was also examined. A significant but small to moderate relationship between academic dishonesty and general criminality was present, including correlations with general dishonesty, violent crime and drug offending subcategories. These findings suggested that a general criminological theory may be of use in explaining academic dishonesty, but the overall ability of self-control variables to explain academic dishonesty was not strong. Controlled logistic regressions indicated that a significant positive association with academic dishonesty was only present for one of 6 self-control subscales (self-centeredness), and even this association was only present in the prospective study component. A strong relationship between past and future academic dishonesty was present. Implications of the study for institutions are discussed.     

College Students’ Perceptions of and Responses to Cheating at Traditional,Modified, and Non-Honor System Institutions

To address growing concerns about academic integrity, college students (n?=?758) at honor system and non-honor system institutions were presented with eight scenarios to determine the influence of an honor system on their perceptions of and responses to academic dishonesty. Main effects for honor code status emerged. Students from traditional honor system schools considered the behaviors to be more dishonest, and were more likely to respond that they would report the incident when compared to students attending modified and non-honor system institutions. Findings suggest traditional honor systems, with specific rules and regulations in place, are more effective at cultivating academic integrity among students; modified honor systems may not be as effective as previous research suggests.     

What behaviours do students consider academically dishonest? Findings from a survey of Canadian undergraduate students

This paper identifies those behaviours that students perceive to be academically dishonest and sheds light on several demographic, academic and situational factors that predict students’ perceptions of academic dishonesty. Data for this investigation were obtained through self-administered questionnaires from a sample of 321 undergraduate students attending university in a western Canadian city during the academic year 2007–2008. There was a high extent of leniency in students’ definitions of what behaviours constitute academic dishonesty, particularly for situations involving plagiarism and helping somebody else cheat. Sex, importance of academic ethic, strength of academic ability, deep learning strategy, and frequency of witnessing peers cheat made unique contributions to the prediction of students’ perceptions of dishonesty. Implications of these findings for institutional interventions are discussed.     

Plagiarism,Integrity, and Workplace Deviance: A Criterion Study

Plagiarism is increasingly evident in business and academia. Though links between demographic, personality, and situational factors have been found, previous research has not used actual plagiarism behavior as a criterion variable. Previous research on academic dishonesty has consistently used self-report measures to establish prevalence of dishonest behavior. In this study we use actual plagiarism behavior to establish its prevalence, as well as relationships between integrity-related personal selection and workplace deviance measures. This research covers new ground in two respects: (a) That the academic dishonesty literature is subject to revision using criterion variables to avoid self bias and social desirability issues and (b) we establish the relationship between actual academic dishonesty and potential workplace deviance/white-collar crime.     

Workplace Integrity: Differences in Perceptions of Behaviors and Situational Factors

Pre-employment integrity tests assume differences between honest and dishonest individuals in their perceptions of the degree of dishonesty of given behaviors. This exploratory study investigated whether individuals classified as dishonest by an overt integrity test had different perceptions of the honesty of behaviors than those classified as honest. Differences in perceptions of situational factors promoting or deterring honesty were also examined. Dishonest individuals had different perceptions of behaviors and situations than honest individuals, suggesting that the relative influence of situational interventions may vary with the general integrity of a workforce.     

A Survey of the Views of College Students on Academic Dishonesty

The purpose of the study was to examine students' views on dishonest academic behaviours. First year students from Mkoba Teachers' College in Zimbabwe's city of Gweru (n = 152) responded to an open-ended questionnaire that was used to collect data. Knowing examination questions or assignment answers in advance was rated as the worst dishonest academic behaviour engaged in at the college. Lack of preparation was put forward as the main reason why some students engage in academic cheating. Popular proposals for dealing with academic dishonesty included; encouraging students and lecturers to maintain their integrity, severely punishing perpetrators and enforcing security of examination materials. The findings have implications on how responsible authorities communicate appropriate norms to students.     

School Interventions for Dishonest Behavior

Cheating, lying, and nonconfrontative stealing (i.e., theft which does not involve use of force with a victim) are dishonest behaviors that cause much concern and occur quite extensively in educational settings. These behaviors have long been acknowledged by mental health and special service practitioners to be predictive of later social and emotional maladjustment. Issues pertinent to effective diagnosis of dishonest behavior in school settings are initially discussed. Published behavioral intervention approaches are reviewed. Finally, school environment factors that contribute to dishonesty in children and suggestions for school-based prevention strategies are presented.     

Validity Evidence for the Different Item Styles of Overt Honesty Measures

Overt honesty measures have been shown to be multidimensional. The multidimensionality of those tests rests, in part, on the different kinds of item styles that make up the measures such as items referring to admissions of dishonesty, temptations to be dishonest, and rationalizations about dishonest behavior. The purpose of the study presented here was to determine the extent to which these item styles measure the same underlying construct by examining their intercorrelations and their differential ability to predict actual dishonest behaviors. The results suggest that the different item styles found in overt honesty measures may not be measuring the same construct.     

A Comparison of Academic Dishonesty Among Business Students in a Public and Private Catholic University

A questionnaire on academic dishonesty was administered to junior and senior business administration majors at a public and a private Catholic university. Students were asked their extent of participation in 16 dishonest academic practices; their ratings of the ethical levels of the practices; their ratings of the likelihood of reasons for participation in the practices; and their sex, grade point average (GPA), and class rank. Though the catalog of the Catholic university indicated a greater emphasis on ethics and values education than did the catalog of the public school, the two groups of students reported very similar levels of academic dishonesty. Possible reasons for the disconnect between the emphasis on values and morals at the Catholic university and the students' academic behavior are discussed.     

Volunteers Versus Non-Volunteers��Which Group Cheats More, and Holds More lax Attitudes About Cheating?

Academic dishonesty has been a frequent topic of research and discussion. In this article, we examine the differences between student volunteers and student non-volunteers in terms of their attitudes towards academic dishonesty as well as their cheating behaviors. We found that student volunteers held more serious attitudes towards cheating and academic dishonesty than did student non-volunteers; however there were not many significant differences between student volunteers and student non-volunteers when it came to cheating behaviors. We finally provide some suggestions for future research in the topic of academic dishonesty.     

Are students' perceptions of parental acceptance of academic dishonesty associated with its occurrence?

The study explored the association between the perceptions 175 Chilean business students held about their parents' acceptance of academic dishonesty and their self-reports of academic dishonesty. Regressing scores for parental acceptance onto self-reported academic dishonesty indicated it accounted for a small (2.2%) but significant amount of variance beyond demographic and academic performance variables. Effect size analysis based on structure coefficients indicated that parental acceptance was the second best predictor in the equation, suggesting that parental acceptance is a correlate that merits further study.     

Relationship between religious commitment and academic dishonesty: is self-efficacy a factor?

ABSTRACT

Academic dishonesty has been found to be on the increase globally, affecting the quality of education, ethics of professional practices and career outcome. Substantial literature exists on the role of religious commitment (RC) in reducing academic dishonesty (AD), but few or no studies have examined the pathways explaining this link. The present study examined whether self-efficacy mediates the relationship between RC and AD. Undergraduates of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (N = 350, Mean age = 22.18 years) completed the Academic Dishonesty Scale (ADS), Religious Commitment Inventory (RCI-10) and New General Self-Efficacy Scale (NGSES) and also provided relevant demographic information. Results of statistical analysis indicated that RC was negatively associated with AD. Self-efficacy was also a partial mediation in the relationship between RC and AD. This implies that self-efficacy contributes to the pathways through which RC influences AD among students. Our findings suggest that consideration of students’ level of self-judgment on their ability to cope with academic demands may be an important target toward enhancing the influence of RC in reducing academic dishonest behaviors among students.     

Forced-Choice Personality Measures and Academic Dishonesty: a Comparative Study

Extant research (e.g., Wilks et al. 2016; Williams et al. 2010) has shown personality to be a predictor of engagement in academic dishonesty. The current study seeks to determine whether the type of personality measure affects predictive efficacy by comparing single stimulus and forced-choice measures of personality using a sample of 278 undergraduate students in two U.S. universities. Students scoring high on conscientiousness reported as engaging in fewer academic cheating behaviors than those scoring low on conscientiousness regardless of whether conscientiousness was measured using the forced-choice or single stimulus scale format. In addition, the forced-choice and single stimulus measures each contributed significant unique variance to prediction of academic dishonesty. For agreeableness, scores on the single stimulus measure were negatively correlated with academic dishonesty whereas there was a positive relationship found for the forced-choice measure. Overall, the forced-choice format of the Occupational Personality Questionnaire 32r (OPQ32r) did not show higher validities than the single stimulus IPIP counterpart in predicting self-reported academic dishonesty. Implications for future research and management education are discussed.     

Do economic equality and generalized trust inhibit academic dishonesty? Evidence from state-level search-engine queries

What effect does economic inequality have on academic integrity? Using data from search-engine queries made between 2003 and 2011 on Google and state-level measures of income inequality and generalized trust, I found that academically dishonest searches (queries seeking term-paper mills and help with cheating) were more likely to come from states with higher income inequality and lower levels of generalized trust. These relations persisted even when controlling for contextual variables, such as average income and the number of colleges per capita. The relation between income inequality and academic dishonesty was fully mediated by generalized trust. When there is higher economic inequality, people are less likely to view one another as trustworthy. This lower generalized trust, in turn, is associated with a greater prevalence of academic dishonesty. These results might explain previous findings on the effectiveness of honor codes.     

Too tired to taint the truth: Ego‐depletion reduces other‐benefiting dishonesty

Numerous studies indicate that ego‐depletion increases the occurrence of self‐benefiting dishonest behavior by undermining resistance to short‐term temptations associated with dishonesty. Turning this phenomenon around, we examined whether ego‐depletion can, counterintuitively, reduce dishonest behavior in a context where dishonesty serves to benefit others. Specifically, based on the notion that ego‐depletion reduces commitment to long‐term/abstract goals and interferes with self‐control, we proposed and found in an experiment that ego‐depleted people are less likely to display dishonest behavior that spares another person from an unpleasant truth. These findings have implications for the study of dishonesty and moral dilemmas in interpersonal settings. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is risk-taking propensity associated with unethical behaviors? An experimental study

Are risk-takers more likely to engage in unethical behaviors? We examined the relationship between risk-taking propensity and cheating in two experimental studies. In Study 1, we examined the relationship between subjects’ risk-taking propensity and their actual self-serving dishonesty using a gambling-like task. The results suggested that risk-taking propensity, measured using a behavioral approach, was positively correlated with actual self-serving dishonest behavior. In Study 2, we measured participants’ performances using a matrices test and found that the positive correlation still held. We found that participants with high risk-taking propensity reported a lower perceived probability of being detected, which might drive their dishonest behavior.