Academic Dishonesty - Essay Example

In this regard, the aim of the current essay is to proffer pertinent issues affecting academic dishonesty, as a behavior that young people often choose to participate in with their peers, knowing full well that it comes with specific risks, side effects, or hazards. Specifically, one intends to determine how young people justify their decision to participate in academic cheating and the factors that influence this choice. The essay hereby aims to prove that academic dishonesty is the effect of different factors impinging on the performance of students placing the blame on the external factors more than the individual students’ desire to manifest exemplary academic performance.

Definition of Terms.The Missouri State’s policy defines academic dishonesty as encompassing any of the four specific acts, to wit: (1) “ Cheating: The term “cheating” refers to using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise; (2) Fabrication: The term “fabrication” refers to unauthorized falsification or invention of any information (including research data) or any citation in any academic exercise; (3) Plagiarism: . ndicates, any or all of the abovementioned acts are considered maladjusted behavior and are usually dealt with the stiffest penalties and sanctions imposed by different schools and universities depending on the extent, degree, level, and frequency of the acts committed.

Factors Influencing Academic Dishonesty The study conducted by Lambert, Hogan and Barton (2003) aimed to identify various rationales for cheating. From among those that were revealed through the support of previous researches and studies on the subject, the following factors actually influence academic dishonesty: alienation, low levels of commitment between learning orientations and ideals of higher education, failure to emphasize and recognize ethical implications of the behavior, past cheating behavior, and other crucial variables such as “competitiveness of their major, course difficulty, the need for professional success, cynicism, and that other students cheat” (Lambert, Hogan and Barton par. 19). Other crucial factors that reveal increased propensities to cheat focus on gender, where males have higher tendencies to indulge in academic dishonestly than females.

According to Lambert, et al (2003), “women are socialized differently and view cheating more negatively” (Lambert, Hogan and Barton par. 8). Further, the impact of age was found to be inversely related to cheating behavior. The younger the students, the more they are inclined to cheat due to immaturity and lack of responsibility and accountability for one’s actions. In addition, students with lower GPAs justify the need to cheat hopefully to attain higher grades, if dishonesty is not detected.

Finally, the imposition of deterrent sanctions affects the level and extent of academic dishonesty. Schools and universities with strict