Self-Control, Injunctive Norms, and Descriptive Norms Predict Engagement in Plagiarism in a Theory of Planned Behavior Model

Guilt, Shame and Academic Misconduct

Moral and self-conscious emotions like guilt and shame can function as internal negative experiences that punish or deter bad behaviour. Individual differences exist in people's tendency to experience guilt and shame. Being disposed to experience guilt and/or shame may predict students' expectations of their emotional reactions to engaging in immoral behaviour in the form of academic misconduct, and thus dissuade students from intending to engage in this behaviour. In this study, students' (n = 459) guilt and shame proneness, their expectations of feeling guilt and shame if they engaged in academic misconduct, and their intentions to engage in academic misconduct were measured. Three of the four facets of the guilt and shame proneness scale [GASP: Guilt-Negative-Behavior-Evaluation (NBE), Guilt-Repair, Shame-Negative-Self-Evaluation (NSE)] had significant negative correlations with academic misconduct intentions, and these relationships were mediated by anticipating shame and guilt related to engaging in academic misconduct. These results suggest that for some students expecting to experience negative moral emotions when engaging in academic misconduct may protect them from breaching ethical assessment rules.

The effects of personality traits and attitudes towards the rule on academic dishonesty among university students

Academic dishonesty is becoming a big concern for the education systems worldwide. Despite much research on the factors associated with academic dishonesty and the methods to alleviate it, it remains a common problem at the university level. In the current study, we conducted a survey to link personality traits (using the HEXACO model) and people’s general attitudes towards the rule (i.e., “rule conditionality” and “perceived obligation to obey the law/rule”) to academic dishonesty among 370 university students. Using correlational analysis and structural equation modeling, the results indicated that both personality traits and attitudes towards the rule significantly predicted academic misconduct. The findings have important implications for researchers and university educators in dealing with academic misconduct.

Faculty Members' Perceptions and Attitudes Towards Anti-Plagiarism Detection Tools: Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate predictors of the use of anti-plagiarism detection tools (APTs) in higher education institutions.

METHODS

An online survey based on the theory of planned behavior was sent to members of science faculties in Jordan. Multivariate Logistic regression was conducted to determine predictors of previous use of APTs, and multivariate linear regression to predict future intentions.

RESULTS

A total of 173 faculty members completed the survey, with 78.13% indicating previous APTs use. Turnitin® (43%) and Ithenticate® (32.8%) were the most commonly used APTs. These tools were mainly used to evaluate papers before sending them to journals (65.5%) and to detect plagiarism in theses/dissertations (50.4%). Predictors of previous use were academic rank (p  =  0.02) and perceived understanding of APT use (p  =  0.043). Intentions for future use were predicted by attitudes (p < 0.001) and perceived behavioral control (p  =  0.036).

CONCLUSION

The theory of planned behavior successfully predicted intentions to use APTs. The use of APTs should be encouraged to all faculty members and students.

A Systematic Review of Factors Associated with Sport Participation among Adolescent Females

Sport participation provides a direct means to attain health-enhancing physical activity; however, sport participation declines during adolescence, and over 85% of adolescent females fail to meet the recommended 60 min of moderate-vigorous physical activity daily. Given the importance of overcoming barriers to sport and increasing equity in women’s sports, the purpose of this systematic review was to identify factors associated with sport participation among adolescent girls and operationalize those factors into theoretical constructs to guide future research. Six databases were systematically searched, and 36 records were included for review. Factors impacting girls’ sport participation were categorized as personal, peer, family, socioeconomic, environmental, or other factors. Of these categories, personal factors, including self perceptions and desirable personal outcomes related to sport, were most frequently associated with sport participation. Most research on girls’ sport participation lacks theoretical framework, so to aid future studies, this review categorized important participatory factors into the constructs of the theory of planned behavior. Future research would benefit from theory-driven prospective approaches to make clear and consistent predictions about factors impacting sport participation, as well as mixed-method approaches aimed to provide more robust understanding of girls’ experiences with and perceptions of factors impacting their participation in sports.

A Content Analysis of Living Organ Donation Materials from Certified Transplant Centers

Despite the fact that living organ donation has the great potential to reduce the shortage of transplantable organs, it is still surrounded by many misconceptions, ethical concerns, and myths. Research conducted to understand factors contributing to public misconceptions related to living organ donation is rare. This research takes a content analytic approach to uncover how living organ donation is portrayed in materials developed and delivered by transplant centers across 11 regions. A total of 332 unique materials were analyzed. The results revealed that living kidney donation dominated the corpus of data whereas other living organ donations were largely overlooked. Benefits and risks associated with living organ donation were relatively evenly presented; however, social support necessary to donors and recipients and available resources to obtain social support were not sufficiently addressed. Embedded in these materials were 46 personal narrative stories. Analysis of these stories showed a focus on undirected living organ donation and revealed a wide range of emotional experiences. Significant regional differences were found in several themes, such as benefits and risks, and social support. Inconsistent information regarding living organ donation was present. Practical implications are discussed.

How does paradoxical leadership promote bootlegging: a TPB-based multiple mediation model

Purpose

This study aims to explore the antecedents of bootlegging from the perspective of paradoxical leadership. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), it examines a multiple mediation model with harmonious innovation passion, role breadth self-efficacy and perceived error management culture as mediators, to interpret why paradoxical leadership influences employee bootlegging.

Design/methodology/approach

To test the theoretical model, data were collected from 218 full-time employees from enterprises in Chinese cities using a three-wave time-lagged design. Path-analysis and a bootstrapping approach in Mplus7 were used to examine the hypotheses of the theoretical model.

Findings

The results show that paradoxical leadership has a positive influence on bootlegging. In the multiple mediation model, the effect paths of harmonious innovation passion and role breadth self-efficacy are significant but there is an insignificant difference in their power, while the effect path of perceived error management culture is insignificant, although it has a significant simple mediating effect and sequential mediating effect.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to show the influence of paradoxical leadership on bootlegging, responding to the research call to use the paradoxical factors to capture the antecedents of innovative behaviors. Second, this study enriches the outcomes of paradoxical leadership, that of bootlegging. Third, this study provides a TPB-based mechanism of how paradoxical leadership promotes bootlegging by increasing employees’ harmonious innovation passion, role breadth self-efficacy and perceived error management culture. This provides a new theoretical perspective to explain the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee bootlegging. It also responds to the call for exploration of the multiple pathways of leadership.

Academic Integrity Education Across the Canadian Higher Education Landscape

The purpose of this article is to understand how academic integrity educational tutorials are administered across Canadian higher education. Results are shared from a survey of publicly funded Canadian higher education institutions (N = 74), including universities (n = 41) and colleges (n = 33), across ten provinces where English is the primary language of instruction. The survey contained 29 items addressing institutional demographic details, as well as academic integrity education questions. Results showed that academic integrity tutorials are inconsistent across Canadian higher education, with further differences evident within the university and college sectors.

Academic dishonesty among university students: The roles of the psychopathy, motivation, and self-efficacy

Academic dishonesty is a common problem at universities around the world, leading to undesirable consequences for both students and the education system. To effectively address this problem, it is necessary to identify specific predispositions that promote cheating. In Polish undergraduate students (N = 390), we examined the role of psychopathy, achievement goals, and self-efficacy as predictors of academic dishonesty. We found that the disinhibition aspect of psychopathy and mastery-goal orientation predicted the frequency of students' academic dishonesty and mastery-goal orientation mediated the relationship between the disinhibition and meanness aspects of psychopathy and dishonesty. Furthermore, general self-efficacy moderated the indirect effect of disinhibition on academic dishonesty through mastery-goal orientation. The practical implications of the study include the identification of risk factors and potential mechanisms leading to students' dishonest behavior that can be used to plan personalized interventions to prevent or deal with academic dishonesty.

Why Students Do Not Engage in Contract Cheating

Contract cheating refers to students paying a third party to complete university assessments for them. Although opportunities for commercial contract cheating are widely available in the form of essay mills, only about 3% of students engage in this behaviour. This study examined the reasons why most students do not engage in contract cheating. Students (n = 1204) completed a survey on why they do not engage in contract cheating as well as measures of several individual differences, including self-control, grit and the Dark Triad traits. Morality and motivation for learning received the greatest endorsement for why students do not engage in contract cheating. Controlling for gender, individual differences predicted students' reasons for not contract cheating. This study supports the use of criminological theories relating to rational choice, self-control and opportunity to explain why students do not engage in contract cheating. Practically, this study may inform academic policies and assessment design that may reduce contract cheating.