Examining the Cheats: The Role of Conscientiousness and Excitement Seeking in Academic Dishonesty

Abstract

This study examines the relationships of the personality traits of conscientiousness and excitement seeking with self-reported frequency of premeditated cheating in tests and exams among university students. The results show that the two traits combine to account for a statistically and practically significant proportion of variance in academic cheating. It appears that a lack of effort and a need for high excitement seeking may serve as predisposing traits with regard to academic cheating. A model of the role that the two traits may play in explaining academic cheating is presented.

Keywords

academic dishonesty Big Five model cheating conscientiousness excitement seeking procrastination self-control

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bolin

A. U.

(2004). Self-control, perceived opportunity, and attitudes as predictors of academic dishonesty. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary & Applied, 138, 101–114

Chamorro-Premuzic

Furnham

(2003). Personality predicts academic performance: Evidence from two longitudinal university samples. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 319–338

Costa

P. T.

Jr. McCrae

R. R.

Jónsson

F. H.

(2002). Validity and utility of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory: Examples from Europe. In de Raad

Perugini

(Eds.), Big Five assessment (pp. 61–77). Seattle, WA: Hofgrebe & Huber

Dawkins

R. L.

(2004). Attributes and statuses of college students associated with classroom cheating on a small-sized campus. College Student Journal, 38, 116–129

de Bruin

G. P.

Schepers

J. M.

Taylor

(2005, June). Construct validity of the 16PF 5th Edition and the Basic Traits Inventory. Paper presented at the 8th annual SIOPSA conference, Pretoria

de Raad

(2000). The Big Five personality factors: The psycholexical approach to personality. Groningen: Hofgrebe & Huber

de Raad

Perugini

(2002). Big Five factor assessment: Introduction. In de Raad

Perugini

(Eds.), Big Five assessment (pp. 1–26). Groningen: Hofgrebe & Huber

Eysenck

H. J.

Eysenck

M. W.

(1985). Personality and individual differences: A natural science approach. New York: Plenum

Eysenck

S. B. G.

Eysenck

H. J.

Barrett

(1985). A revised version of the psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Differences, 6, 21–19

10.

Ferrari

J. R.

Beck

(1998). Affective responses before and after fraudulent excuses by academic procrastinators. Education, 118, 529–537

11.

Fritzsche

B. A.

Young

B. R.

Hickson

K. C.

(2003). Individual differences in academic procrastination tendency and writing success. Personality and Individual Differences, 35, 1549–1557

12.

Glicksohn

Ben-Shalom

Lazar

(2004). Elements of unacceptable risk taking in combat units: An exercise in offender profiling. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 203–215

13.

Goldberg

L. R.

(1990). An alternative ‘Description of personality’: The Big Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1216–1229

14.

Gottfredson

M. R.

Hirschi

(1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press

15.

Horvath

Zuckerman

(1993). Sensation seeking, risk appraisal, and risky behavior. Personality & Individual Differences, 14, 41–52

16.

Jensen

L. A.

Arnett

J. J.

Feldman

S. S.

Cauffman

(2002). It's wrong, but everybody does it: Academic dishonesty among high school and college students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27, 209–228

17.

Johnson

J. L.

Bloom

(1995). An analysis of the contribution of the five factors of personality to variance in academic procrastination. Personality & Individual Differences, 18, 127–133

18.

McCabe

D. L.

Trevino

L. K.

(1997). Individual and contextual influences on academic dishonesty: A multicampus investigation. Research in Higher Education, 38, 379–397

19.

McCabe

D. L.

Trevino

L. K.

Butterfield

K. D.

(2001). Cheating in academic institutions: A decade of research. Ethics & Behavior, 11, 219

20.

McCrae

R. R.

Costa

P. T.

(1985). Updating Norman's adequate taxonomy: Intelligence and personality dimensions in natural language and in questionnaires. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 710–721

21.

Nonis

Swift

C. O.

(2001) An examination of the relationship between academic dishonesty and workplace dishonesty: A multicampus investigation. Journal of Education for Business, 77, 69–77

22.

Ones

D. S.

Viswesvaran

Schmidt

F. L.

(1993). Comprehensive meta-analysis of integrity test validities: Findings and implications for personnel selection and theories of job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 679–703

23.

Paunonen

S. V.

Ashton

M. C.

(2001). Big Five predictors of academic achievement. Journal of Research in Personality, 35, 78–90

24.

Piedmont

R. L.

(1998). The Revised Neo Personality Inventory: Clinical and research applications. New York: Kluwer

25.

Pino

N. W.

Smith

W. L.

(2003). College students and academic dishonesty. College Student Journal, 37, 490–500

26.

Ramsay

Taylor

de Bruin

G. P.

Meiring

(2005, May). The Big Five personality factors at work: A South African validation study. Poster presented at the International Symposium of Personality at Work, Luneburg, Germany

27.

Roberti

J. W.

(2004). A review of behavioral and biological correlates of sensation seeking. Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 256–279

28.

Roberts

B. W.

Chernyshenko

O. S.

Stark

Goldberg

L. R.

(2005). The structure of conscientiousness: An empirical investigation based on seven major personality questionnaires. Personnel Psychology, 58, 103–139

29.

Roig

DeTomasso

(1995). Are college cheating and plagiarism related to academic procrastination?. Psychological Reports, 77, 691–698

30.

Sackett

P. R.

DeVore

C.J.

(2001). Counterproductive behaviors at work. In Anderson

Ones

D. S.

Sinangil

H. K.

Viswesvaran

(Eds.), Handbook of industrial, work and organizational psychology, Volume 1: Personnel psychology (pp. 145–164). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

31.

Salgado

J. F.

(2003). Predicting job performance using FFM and non-FFM personality measures. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 76, 323–346

32.

Taylor

de Bruin

G. P.

(2003, September). Development of a South African Five Factor Personality Inventory. Paper presented at the 10th PsySSA conference, Kempton Park

33.

Taylor

de Bruin

G. P.

(2004, June). Personality across cultures: The case of the Basic Traits Inventory. Paper presented at the 7th Annual Industrial Psychology Conference, Pretoria

34.

Wanek

J. E.

Sackett

P. R.

Ones

D. S.

(2003). Towards an understanding of integrity test similarities and differences: An item-level analysis of seven tests. Personnel Psychology, 56, 873–894

35.

Whitley

B. E.

Jr. (1998). Factors associated with cheating among college students: A review. Research in Higher Education, 39, 235–274

36.

Zuckerman

(1979). Sensation seeking: Beyond the optimal level of arousal. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum

37.

Zuckerman

(1994). Impulsive unsocialized sensation seeking: The biological foundations of a basic dimension of personality. In Bates

J. E.

Wachs

T. D.

(Eds.), Temperament: Individual differences at the interface of biology and behavior (pp. 219–255). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association