educations e-book

The Anatomy of Cheaters

WHO ARE ALL THESE CHEATERS?
CHARACTERISTICS OF ACADEMICALLY DISHONEST STUDENTS

ANGELA D. MILLER, TAMERA B. MURDOCK,
ERIC M. ANDERMAN, AND AMY L. POINDEXTER


INTRODUCTION
In the 2000 John Stockwell film, Cheaters, students from an underprivileged, underfunded, rundown public school steal a test in order to win an academic decathlon title that has consistently been defended by an uppity private school. Although talent got them to the state competition, they resort to cheating in this final competition to guarantee a win and then are plagued with investigations, media, and a lawsuit, all in an attempt to obtain glory for the underdog. If the ability to win was apparent, why would students resort to cheating? Certainly this act is aggrandized and sensationalized for the big screen; however, cheating is more than a film topic and far too serious and extensive for it to be considered as only a subject of entertainment. In life, as in the film, many students who are capable of
achieving high grades through their own efforts are cheating as a way to get ahead.


Cheating is also in the news, garnering special segments on major network news programs explaining the elaborate schemes and technological aids used by cheaters. With the arrival of David Callahan's (2004) book The Cheating Culture, discussion of a moral compass and a cheating society has emerged across the country from the classroom to the boardroom.Cheating can be considered an epidemic according to many statistics available on the prevalence of cheating behaviors; one-third of elementary-age students admit to cheating (Cizek, 1999), and approximately 60 percent of middle school students cite cheating as a major problem in schools (Evans
& Craig, 1990). Seventy-four percent of high school students admit to cheating on tests (McCabe, 2001), and among college students cheating rates are as high as 95 percent (McCabe & Trevino, 1997). Cheating rates appear to be increasing because these numbers are substantially higher than those in earlier studies; however, it could be that students are just more willing to admit to cheating these days, perhaps owing to changes in social norms.

This chapter examines the demographic, academic, behavioral, and personality characteristics of students who are either self-identified or observed cheaters in recent research. Studies that examine the personal characteristics of students who engage in cheating behaviors constitute a large portion of the research on academic cheating. Following a large-scale study of academic integrity (Bowers, 1964), most of the research in this area has focused on students' individual factors including gender, GPA, competition, self-esteem, and work ethic. Beginning in 1990, the literature shifted to studies that focused more on contextual factors such as classroom characteristics (Murdock, Miller, & Kohlhardt, 2005; McCabe & Trevino, 1993; McCabe, Trevino, & Butterfield, 2002) and peer group norms (Robinson, Amburgey, Swank, & Faulker, 2004). Across all of the extant research, the majority of the studies have concentrated on students at the college level, including a comprehensive review of the literature in which both prevalence and correlates of cheating were examined (Whitley, 1998).

Reports of cheating behavior vary greatly; Whitley (1998) reported prevalence statistics from 5 to 95 percent across 46 studies of cheating. The variation in these numbers is most likely due to varied definitions of cheating as well as to measurement methods; however, across the studies reviewed, Whitley found that although cheating behavior could be predicted by certain contextual variables, individual characteristics also increased the odds of cheating. Another, more recent, review of the literature reached similar conclusions: even though much of the research has turned to contextual factors, there are still many individual difference variables that are related to cheating behaviors (McCabe, Trevino, &
Butterfield, 2001). These variables, which have been prominent in the last decade of cheating research, are the focus of this chapter.

Each of the first four sections of this chapter discusses one of the categories of characteristics that have been examined in relation to cheating: demographic, academic, motivational, and personality characteristics. Within these sections, we selected those factors that either have been the most studied (i.e., age) or are just starting to emerge in the literature as having promise for predicting cheating (i.e., impulsivity). Our fifth and final section provides suggestions for educators and future research in the field.

Download E-Book Lengkap