Reports that Kansas psychologist Stephen F. Davis found 40 to 60
percent of college students today would cheat on tests rather than fail.
First study of academic dishonesty counted 23 percent of undergraduates
as cheaters, 1941; Students' perceptions of college; Men versus women;
Factors; More.
By
PT Staff, published on November 01, 1992
DISHONESTY
You stayed up late last night watching movies with your fraternity
brothers instead of tooling for your physics mid-term. Now it's test time
and you're bound to fail unless you manage to crib a few answers off your
classmate's answer sheet. What do you do?
Forty to 60 percent of college students today would cheat, reports
Kansas psychologist Stephen F. Davis, Ph.D. The number has skyrocketed
since 1941, when the first study of academic dishonesty counted 23
percent of undergraduates as cheaters.
Part of the reason for the jump may be the perception by students
that college is "a glorified vocational tech school," says the Emporia
State University professor. "Students are not hem for knowledge, just for
a meal ticket-their diploma. And if cheating helps them got it, why
not?"
But the attitude seems to carry over to real life. Those who admit
to cheating in high school and college may also wind up taking illegal
shortcuts through life-cheating on income taxes or expense accounts,
using a fuzzbuster, or plumping up credentials on a resume.
In a survey of 2,153 juniors and seniors from colleges across the
nation, over 70 percent of men and women confessed to cheating during
high school, Davis reported to the American Psycological
Association.
In college, nearly halt the students used their newly learned
cribbing skills to cheat on four separate occasions during their
undergraduate careers. More men reported transgressions than
women.
Why the discrepancy? More men than women believe that cheating
improves exam scores, though 90 percent of both male and female
undergraduates believe that an instructor who announced penalties at the
beginning of the academic term would deter cheating.
Penalties or not, poor pressure, unrealistic parental expectations,
and the burden of maintaining a high grade point average for graduate
school often make cheating a too-tempting option, especially for those
who may be naturally drawn to it. Explains Davis: "Heavy duty cheaters
are people motivated by externals--that grade on the paper, not the
knowledge they got writing it."
There's very little professors can do to stop the cheating rage,
besides distributing different test versions and monitoring aisles-unless
says Davis, "they're ready to get a good lawyer."
PHOTO: Cheating as a life-long achievement. (ARCHIVE PHOTOS)
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