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Psychological determinants, prediction and prevention of academic dishonesty among university students
Lidia Natalia Baran
Abstract
Academic dishonesty is a common phenomenon among students of universities and colleges, involving behaviors aimed at obtaining, receiving or conveying information from others, using unauthorized materials or information and bypassing the adopted assessment process. Multifactorial determinants of committing fraud by students in the academic environment make it very difficult to predict academic dishonesty and taking action to prevent it. This fact makes distinguishing profiles of people, who in certain situations are more likely to undertake academic fraud, an important element in developing effective programs to prevent dishonesty among students. This paper is devoted to the analysis of selected psychological determinants of committing fraud by students, correlates of making decision to cheat, as well as possible actions leading to reduction of academic dishonesty among students. These objectives were achieved by carrying out three separate studies, the first of which was devoted to psychological determinants, the second one to prediction and the third one to possible way of prevention of academic dishonesty among students. The first study, conducted on a group of 390 students of Polish universities using cross-sectional design, was devoted to analyzing the relationship between declared academic dishonesty and selected personality traits, factors related to motivation, explicit attitude towards academic dishonesty, moral orientation, the field of study and perceived contextual factors. The strongest predictors of the declared academic dishonesty were: mastery-oriented motivation, disinhibition and explicit attitude towards dishonesty. The obtained data allowed also to distinguish four profiles of people committing academic fraud: motivated idealists, ineffective idealists, psychopathic relativists and unmotivated relativists. The conducted analysis of mediation and moderation made it possible to describe the relationship between factors related to the declared academic dishonesty. In the second study, conducted on 64 students of Silesian universities and colleges, to predict the likelihood of committing four types of cheating on the test or exam model of planned behavior was used, extended by measurement of the implicit attitude towards cheating on a test or exam. The obtained results indicate that the applied model explains from 57% to 59% of the variance in intention to cheat on the test or exam and from 13% to 43% of the variance in the probability of cheating on the test or exam. The strongest predictors of intention were: behavioral control over cheating and moral obligation towards honest behavior, and the strongest predictors of the likelihood of cheating on a test or exam were: cheating in the past, intention to cheat and behavioral control over cheating. In addition, the probability of cheating on the test or exam turned out to be the highest in the case of helping another person who asks for the right answer, and in situations where other students do not cheat, the risk of cheating is low, and the difficulty of the task is high. In the third study, the impact of signing honor codes on the declared frequency of committing academic fraud in a group of 320 psychology students was experimentally verified. The results of the conducted analysis indicate no significant differences between persons who do not sign and sign honor codes in the declared frequency of committing dishonest behavior. Regarding the expected differences in declared academic dishonesty between students signing different types of honor codes, there was a significant difference between groups that signed structured and unstructured codes, indicating a lower level of declared dishonesty among students belonging to the first of the above groups. Conclusions from the conducted research can be used while planning ways and conditions for the verification of students' knowledge during the course of studies, during the creation of programs aimed at counteracting academic dishonesty at universities and colleges, as well as during the intervention after detecting unfair behavior of students.- Record ID
- USL85ff53c1538945b18df613a50904649b
- Diploma type
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Author
- Title in Polish
- Psychologiczne uwarunkowania, przewidywanie oraz przeciwdziałanie nieuczciwości akademickiej wśród studentów
- Title in English
- Psychological determinants, prediction and prevention of academic dishonesty among university students
- Language
- pol (pl) Polish
- Certifying Unit
- Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology (FPP) [Not active]
- Status
- Finished
- Year of creation
- 2018
- Defense Date
- 05-07-2018
- Supervisor
- External reviewers
- Pages
- 296
- License
- Handle.net URL
- hdl.handle.net/20.500.12128/5236 Opening in a new tab
- Keywords in Polish
- nieuczciwość; studenci; oszustwo; etyka
- Abstract in English
- Academic dishonesty is a common phenomenon among students of universities and colleges, involving behaviors aimed at obtaining, receiving or conveying information from others, using unauthorized materials or information and bypassing the adopted assessment process. Multifactorial determinants of committing fraud by students in the academic environment make it very difficult to predict academic dishonesty and taking action to prevent it. This fact makes distinguishing profiles of people, who in certain situations are more likely to undertake academic fraud, an important element in developing effective programs to prevent dishonesty among students. This paper is devoted to the analysis of selected psychological determinants of committing fraud by students, correlates of making decision to cheat, as well as possible actions leading to reduction of academic dishonesty among students. These objectives were achieved by carrying out three separate studies, the first of which was devoted to psychological determinants, the second one to prediction and the third one to possible way of prevention of academic dishonesty among students. The first study, conducted on a group of 390 students of Polish universities using cross-sectional design, was devoted to analyzing the relationship between declared academic dishonesty and selected personality traits, factors related to motivation, explicit attitude towards academic dishonesty, moral orientation, the field of study and perceived contextual factors. The strongest predictors of the declared academic dishonesty were: mastery-oriented motivation, disinhibition and explicit attitude towards dishonesty. The obtained data allowed also to distinguish four profiles of people committing academic fraud: motivated idealists, ineffective idealists, psychopathic relativists and unmotivated relativists. The conducted analysis of mediation and moderation made it possible to describe the relationship between factors related to the declared academic dishonesty. In the second study, conducted on 64 students of Silesian universities and colleges, to predict the likelihood of committing four types of cheating on the test or exam model of planned behavior was used, extended by measurement of the implicit attitude towards cheating on a test or exam. The obtained results indicate that the applied model explains from 57% to 59% of the variance in intention to cheat on the test or exam and from 13% to 43% of the variance in the probability of cheating on the test or exam. The strongest predictors of intention were: behavioral control over cheating and moral obligation towards honest behavior, and the strongest predictors of the likelihood of cheating on a test or exam were: cheating in the past, intention to cheat and behavioral control over cheating. In addition, the probability of cheating on the test or exam turned out to be the highest in the case of helping another person who asks for the right answer, and in situations where other students do not cheat, the risk of cheating is low, and the difficulty of the task is high. In the third study, the impact of signing honor codes on the declared frequency of committing academic fraud in a group of 320 psychology students was experimentally verified. The results of the conducted analysis indicate no significant differences between persons who do not sign and sign honor codes in the declared frequency of committing dishonest behavior. Regarding the expected differences in declared academic dishonesty between students signing different types of honor codes, there was a significant difference between groups that signed structured and unstructured codes, indicating a lower level of declared dishonesty among students belonging to the first of the above groups. Conclusions from the conducted research can be used while planning ways and conditions for the verification of students' knowledge during the course of studies, during the creation of programs aimed at counteracting academic dishonesty at universities and colleges, as well as during the intervention after detecting unfair behavior of students.
- Thesis file
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- File: 1
- Psychologiczne uwarunkowania, przewidywanie oraz przeciwdziałanie nieuczciwości akademickiej wśród studentów, File Baran_Psychologiczne_uwarunkowania_przewidywanie_oraz_przeciwdzialanie_nieuczciwosci_akademickiej.pdf / 4 MB
- Baran_Psychologiczne_uwarunkowania_przewidywanie_oraz_przeciwdzialanie_nieuczciwosci_akademickiej.pdf
- publication date: 06-02-2024
- Psychologiczne uwarunkowania, przewidywanie oraz przeciwdziałanie nieuczciwości akademickiej wśród studentów, File Baran_Psychologiczne_uwarunkowania_przewidywanie_oraz_przeciwdzialanie_nieuczciwosci_akademickiej.pdf / 4 MB
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- Uniform Resource Identifier
- https://opus.us.edu.pl/info/phd/USL85ff53c1538945b18df613a50904649b/
- URN
urn:uni-kat-prod:USL85ff53c1538945b18df613a50904649b