Academic success is determined by many factors; effort, ability, and time to name a few. But one factor, one that not many consider, can drastically change the outcome of an individual’s success. Cheating persists throughout all levels of education, whether administrators want to admit it or not. The problem with cheating is that it commonly goes unnoticed, and there are many factors that influence the probability of this occurring. One of the most influential factors is an individual’s attitude towards the act. Of course, the amount of risk and perceived reward affects how likely a person is to cheat, but the motivation must be present.
Using someone else’s written work for assignment …show more content…
This section will present the most relevant research pertaining to the study being conducted. Much of the research looks at related variables but involves different age ranges, specific points of cheating, and time periods.
Paulhus and Dubois (2015) wanted to determine what factors lead to cheating behavior by looking at all the previous work. The researchers looked at multiple studies that involved students and cheating behavior. This meta-analysis focused on a few situational variables that generally affect cheating, procedures for all studies involved vary. Each study looked at varying correlations including; high-tech vs. traditional classes, education level, contrived or not, etc. All studies focused on the occurrence of cheating within a sample. The more situational variables an individual is exposed to prior to testing increases the predictability of an individual cheating. They concluded that the level of exposure to situational variables that predict cheating behavior increase the likelihood that an individual will engage in cheating (Paulhus & Dubois, …show more content…
He asked the question: Does actively engaging in or avoiding cheating behavior affect an individual’s attitude on cheating? Participants were placed in either a control group, a number-circling task group, or a dot-counting task group. Each group had three levels for cheating; high motivation/low restraint, low motivation/low restraint, and high motivation/high restraint. The task was followed by an attitude questionnaire. Researchers randomly assigned students to one of three groups (Control, Number-Circling task, and Dot-Counting task), each group contained three levels (high motivation/low restraint, low motivation/low restraint, and high motivation/high restraint). Attitude towards cheating behavior was recorded before and after the tasks. The severity score of attitudes towards cheating for those that cheat was different from that of those who don’t cheat. The study concluded that actively avoiding an opportunity cheat increases one’s disapproval of cheating (Mills,