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Making our Measures Match Perceptions: Do Severity and Type Matter When Assessing Academic Misconduct Offenses?

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Abstract

Traditional approaches to measurement of violations of academic integrity may overestimate the magnitude and severity of cheating and confound panic with planned cheating. Differences in the severity and level of premeditation of academic integrity violations have largely been unexamined. Results of a study based on a combined sample of business students showed that students are more likely to commit minor cheating offenses and engage in panic-based cheating as compared to serious and planned cheating offenses. Results also indicated there is a significant interaction between severity and type (planned vs. panic) of cheating. We hypothesized serious and planned cheating offenses would be related to justifications and found the largest differences were between panic and planned. Finally, panic and minor cheating were associated with two self-control-related personality traits. Implications for cheating research are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers who provided a number of suggestions that helped improve the paper.

Conflicts of Interest

There were no conflicts of interest apparent in the current study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Oklahoma State University, 417 Business Building, Stillwater, OK, 74078, USA

    Thomas H. Stone

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, 4502 East 41st Street, Tulsa, OK, 74135, USA

    Jennifer L. Kisamore

  3. Office of the Provost Illinois State University, 401 N. Hovey Hall, Normal, IL, 61790-4000, USA

    I. M. Jawahar

  4. Department of Educational Psychology, Ball State University, Teachers College (TC)-Room 505, Muncie, IN, 47306, USA

    Jocelyn Holden Bolin

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  1. Thomas H. Stone
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  2. Jennifer L. Kisamore
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  3. I. M. Jawahar
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  4. Jocelyn Holden Bolin
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Correspondence to Thomas H. Stone.

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Stone, T.H., Kisamore, J.L., Jawahar, I.M. et al. Making our Measures Match Perceptions: Do Severity and Type Matter When Assessing Academic Misconduct Offenses?. J Acad Ethics 12, 251–270 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-014-9216-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-014-9216-0

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