title: Personality, attitude, and demographic correlates of academic dishonesty: A meta-analysis

The article, Personality, attitude, and demographic correlates of academic dishonesty: A
meta-analysis, is founded on a stud that examined how demographic characteristics, values, and
personality of students are related to the engagement in academic cheating. The tendency to
justify inappropriate behavior, morality, and impulsivity has had the largest effects on academic
cheating. Academic dishonesty is one of the unethical behaviors that affect the quality of
assessments and education in general. The researchers wanted to find out causes of academic
dishonesty despite students knowing that it is unethical (Lee et al., 2020). They found out that
students engage in academic cheating for academic self-efficacy. Since assessments are aimed at
grading, placement, and generally showing a student’s academic level and ability, students
engage in cheating to show that they are doing good academically. Student attitudes also make
them susceptible to academic cheating. If the students value honesty and openness or are high
conscientious learners, then they are likely to refrain from academic dishonesty. This is because
these quotes are associated with following laid down rules and are negatively associated with
cheating. They support moral obligations that go against academic cheating. However, those that
do not subscribe to religiosity and moral values would openly engage in academic cheating
because it would boost their academic standing. Thus, while assessment is aimed at informing

the academic abilities of students and for academic progression to higher levels, its effectiveness
is affected by academic dishonesty.
Reflection
One of the things that I found interesting while going through the article is that a
student’s background influences their decision to either engage in academic dishonesty or refrain
from it. Academic cheating is an unfair practice. One of the characteristics of educational
assessments, according to Lefrançois (2013), is fairness. This entails both fairness of opportunity
and fairness of treatment. When students engage in academic cheating, then fairness of
opportunity is not guaranteed in such an educational assessment. This is because the educator or
administrator of the test failed to safeguard against academic cheating. Students who manage to
get away with academic cheating obtain an unfair advantage over the rest. It also affects the
reliability and validity of educational assessments. Based on the reading, I think that the validity
and reliability of results of educational assessment rely largely on n the fairness of the exercise.
If the exercise was conducted in an unfair manner such that some students engaged in academic
cheating, then the results do not give a true reflection of the student’s educational abilities. The
reading also made me think about the importance of educational assessments, specifically
summative assessments. Since students feel the pressure of such tests and exams to the extent of
engaging in academic dishonesty, then maybe educational assessments of this nature should be
eliminated. Formative assessments inform the process of learning and instructing and are not
formally structured. These assessments do not have instances of academic cheating. In contrast,
the summative one’s prompt students to cheat so that they do not miss the chance to proceed to a
higher grade or even transition to higher education. As such, the pressure tempts students to
engage in academic dishonesty. The need to engage in unethical academic practices produces

unethical leaders who feel insufficient and thus need to engage in dishonest practices to succeed.
The impact of academic dishonesty goes beyond the walls of the classroom. When students start
to view academic cheating as normative behavior, they transfer such attitudes to the real world
outside the learning environment. Academic cheating is thus a vice that affects not only the
quality of educational assessments but also societal values as cheating may extend to become
commonplace and acceptable within society.

Question

What is the relevance of educational assessments if they cannot be guarded completely from
academic dishonesty? Is it possible to have assessments that are fair, valid and reliable, and thus
devoid of academic cheating?

References

Lee, S. D., Kuncel, N. R., & Gau, J. (2020). Personality, attitude, and demographic correlates of
academic dishonesty: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(11), 1042–1058.
https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1037/bul0000300.supp (Supplemental)
Lefrançois, G. R. (2013). Of learning and assessment. Retrieved from
https://content.ashford.edu/