Revista
de la
Universidad
del Zulia
Fundada en 1947
por el Dr. Jesús Enrique Lossada
NÚMERO ESPECIAL
DEPÓSITO LEGAL ZU2020000153
Esta publicación científica en formato digital
es continuidad de la revista impresa
ISSN 0041-8811
E-ISSN 2665-0428
Ciencias
de la
Educación
Año 12 N° 35
Noviembre - 2021
Tercera Época
Maracaibo-Venezuela
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Galina Epanchintseva et al. /// Academic student fraud in longitudinal research design, 322-340
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.35.19
322
Academic student fraud in longitudinal research design
Galina Epanchintseva *
Lydmila Zubova**
Tatyna Kozlovskaya***
Nonna Volosova****
Aleksei Lebedenko*****
Nikolai Bukaev******
ABSTRACT
The authors emphasize the importance of studying academic fraud among students. This
phenomenon takes on large-scale dimensions. The authors are convinced that the solution of the
problem depends on the scientific knowledge of the psychological portrait of students. Within
the framework of the personalist approach, the authors present a review of the scientific
literature. The authors identified a problematic field of empirical research that would reveal the
dynamics of students' subjective perceptions of a person who resorts to academic fraud. A sample
of the study was formed, the author's questionnaire was presented. The results of a longitudinal
study of the dynamics of subjective perceptions of cognitive characteristics, emotional
manifestations, and behavioral patterns of a student's personality are presented for discussion.
To complete the psychological portrait of the students, valid psychodiagnostic techniques were
used in the study. The stages of the study are presented. The analysis of empirical data is based
on the evidence-based methods of the statistical thesaurus. The findings of the study revealed
the students’ ideas about the person resorting to plagiarism. In conclusion, the authors
formulated step-by-step programs of psychological support for students to refuse to use various
schemes of academic fraud.
KEYWORDS: longitudinal study; subjective representations; cognitive characteristics;
emotional manifestations; behavioral patterns.
*Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russian Federation, Orenburg. E-mail: galinamar@mail.ru
**Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russian Federation, Orenburg. E-mail: zubowa@yandex.ru
***Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russian Federation. E-mail: kozlovskajatn@mail.ru
****
Orenburg State University, Orenburg, Russian Federation, Orenburg. E-mail:
vasilii_vasiliev@rambler.ru
*****Orenburg Branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public
Administration under the, Orenburg, Russian Federation.
******Orenburg branch of Kutafin Moscow State Law University, Russia. E-mail:
vasilii_vasiliev@rambler.ru
Recibido: 05/08/2021 Aceptado: 10/10/2021
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Fraude de estudiantes académicos en el diseño de investigación
longitudinal
RESUMEN
Los autores señalan la importancia de estudiar el fraude académico entre los estudiantes. Este
fenómeno adquiere dimensiones a gran escala. Los autores están convencidos de que la
solución del problema depende del conocimiento científico del retrato psicológico de los
estudiantes. En el marco del enfoque personalista, los autores presentan una revisión de la
literatura científica. Los autores identificaron un campo problemático de investigación
empírica que revelaría la dinámica de las percepciones subjetivas de los estudiantes sobre una
persona que recurre al fraude académico. Se formó una muestra del estudio, se presentó el
cuestionario del autor. Se presentan para discusión los resultados de un estudio longitudinal
de la dinámica de las percepciones subjetivas de las características cognitivas, las
manifestaciones emocionales y los patrones de comportamiento de la personalidad de un
estudiante. Para completar el retrato psicológico de los estudiantes, en el estudio se utilizaron
técnicas de psicodiagnóstico válidas. Se presentan las etapas del estudio. El análisis de datos
empíricos se orienta por los métodos basados en evidencia del tesauro estadístico. Los
hallazgos del estudio revelaron las ideas de los estudiantes sobre la persona que recurre al
plagio. En conclusión, los autores formularon programas paso a paso de apoyo psicológico
para que los estudiantes se negaran a utilizar varios esquemas de fraude académico.
PALABRAS CLAVE: estudio longitudinal; representaciones subjetivas; características
cognitivas; manifestaciones emocionales; patrones de conducta.
Introduction
At the beginning of the XXI century, the scientific community became involved in the
controversy over the concept of "double norms" proposed by D. Zyman, where the
synchronous coexistence of the norms of academic ethics and their violations – "antinorm" is
noted. In connection with this scientific controversy, a decline in the quality of higher
education is openly noted all over the world. One of the important reasons for the loss of
prestige of higher education is called academic fraud in the form of cheating and plagiarism.
Sociologists, educators, and cultural scientists are actively involved in the study of this
phenomenon. A large array of empirical data is accumulating, all kinds of projects are being
formed that are aimed at eradicating this phenomenon. Years go by, but the phenomenon of
academic fraud in the educational process is becoming more frequent. Psychologists often
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reduce the phenomenon of fraud to the study of the phenomena of lies and deception. We
have departed from this tradition. The purpose of our study is to identify the dynamics of
changes in the subjective attitude to the student's personality and to recreate the
psychological portrait of the respondent using the techniques of academic fraud. The study
was conducted within the framework of a personological approach. We have clarified the
main applied methods of the phenomenon under study. These methods include a survey and
a cross-sectional experiment. In our study, survey methods are used, as in previous studies.
Nevertheless, our study differs in that the main experimental data were revealed by the
method of longitudinal experiment. It is this body of empirical data that will help interested
researchers to turn to the study of academic fraud in a new scientific interpretation.
1. Literature review
The study of the psychological phenomenon of fraud is most often reduced to the
study of the phenomena of lies and deception.
The main components of fraud-lies and deception are presented in countless foreign
and domestic works of philosophers, lawyers, cultural scientists, sociologists, teachers: D.
Diderot, I. Kant, F. Nietzsche, I. Feuerbach, I. Fischer, A. Schopenhauer, M. Weber, H. Ortega
y Gasset, M. Heidegger, R. Merton (Chirikov, Shmeleva, Loyalka, 2019). Paul Ekman's classic
research has made it possible to understand the nature of fraud (Ekman, 2013). Research
Becker D., Ulstad I., (Becker, Ulstad, 2007), Stone T., Jawahar I., Kisamor J. (Stone, Jawahar,
Kisamore, 2010), Adebayo S. (Adebayo, 2010), Anderman E. (Anderman, Griesinger,
Westerfield, 1998), Freiburger T., Romain D., (Freiburger et al., 2017), Brandao M., (Brandao,
Teixeira, 2005), Peled Yu., (Peled et al., 2019), Shmelevoy E., (Chirikov, Shmeleva, Loyalka,
2019), Dremovoy O. (Dremova, Maloshonok, Terentev, 2020), Efimova G., Golunova S.
(Maloshonok, Shmeleva, 2019) expanded the concept of a psychological portrait of a person
prone to fraud.
At the beginning of the XXI century, the scientific community became involved in the
controversy over the concept of "double norms" proposed by D. Zaiman, which notes the
synchronous coexistence of the norms of academic ethics and their violations –"antinorm".
The emergence of the cognitive dissonance of the need to comply with the norms of scientific
ethics actualized the birth of various applied research in foreign and domestic science (Ajzen,
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2002; Grijalva, Nowell, Kerkvliet, 2006; Harding, Carpenter, Finelli, 2012). We will focus on
a brief analysis of well-known psychological studies that focus on academic fraud in the
student environment. First of all, we will note the research that describes the frequency of
this phenomenon. Such studies include Bunn D., Caudill S.,Gropper D. (Bunn, Caudill,
Gropper, 1992); Graham M., Monday J., (Graham et al., 1994); Grimes P. ( Grimes, 2004);
Brandao, Teixeira (Brandao, Teixeira, 2005); McCabe, Trevino (McCabe, Feghali, Abdallah,
2008); Adebayo (Adebayo, 2010); Jones (Jones, 2011), Giluk T.( Giluk, Postlethwaite, 2015).
Empirical evidence from these studies has revealed threats to the quality of modern
education, in which students are increasingly resorting to academic fraud. The main factor
of academic dishonest behavior Grimes P., (Grimes, 2004), Stone, Jawahar, Kisamore (Stone,
Jawahar, Kisamore, 2010); the conformity factor was named. This conclusion was confirmed
by the data of subsequent studies by Harding T., Carpenter D., Finelli C. (Harding,
Carpenter, Finelli, 2012). Grijalva, Kerkvliet, Nowell (Grijalva, Nowell, Kerkvliet, 2006) have
identified unintended fraud (panic cheating), which, in all likelihood, is quite common than
planned. The cross-cultural research conducted by J. Magnus, V. Polterovich, D. Danilov, and
A. Kolesnikov turned out to be somewhat undeservedly unnoticed. Savvateev (Grimes,
2004), ("Tolerance of Cheating: An Analysis across Countries"), Lupton, Chapman (Hard,
Conway, Moran, 2006), Radaeva, Chirikova, (Chirikov, Shmeleva, Loyalka, 2019).
Cross-cultural studies, so rare for our science, have revealed the peculiarities of the
attitude of students to students who use cheating; the peculiarities of the attitude to students
who support cheating, the peculiarities of the attitude to students who talk about cheating
to teachers (Hensley, Kirkpatrick, Burgoon, 2013). Russian students turned out to be more
tolerant than American and European students towards cheating by other students, but
absolutely intolerant of reporting cheating by other students to teachers (Eremeva, 2018).
Researchers Dremova O., Shmeleva E., Moloshonok N., Terentyev E. we found that
academic fraud is quite popular among Russian students: two-thirds of students admitted
that they have ever cheated, and their fellow students resort to academic fraud in 94-95%.
Efimova G. Z. and Kicherova M. N. when analyzing the causes of academic fraud, they point
to the lack of motivation for original works and applied research among students, which
leads to plagiarism, falsification and other forms of academic fraud (Chirikov, Shmeleva,
Loyalka, 2019). Dremova O., Shmeleva E. in their study of the psychological and pedagogical
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determinants of academic fraud in students ' research papers, they emphasize that students
entering an educational institution are usually not ready for independent intellectual,
thinking and analytical activities. They often do not have the skills to work with literature
and correctly cite sources. They also raise the problem of "clip thinking" (Dremova,
Maloshonok, Terentev, 2020).
Studies by Becker D., Ulstad I. (Becker, Ulstad, 2007), Hensley L., Kirkpatrick K.,
Burgoon J. (Hensley, Kirkpatrick, Burgoon, 2013) revealed that the level of general academic
fraud among students was not found by gender, but young men resort to plagiarism in
student papers more often.
The results of studies of the comparative correlation between academic fraud and the
course of study are contradictory. Studies by Hensley L., Burgoon J. (Hensley, Kirkpatrick,
Burgoon, 2013) found a positive association of the course with participation in academic
fraud. An earlier study by Harding T., Carpenter D. (Harding, Carpenter, Finelli, 2012)
revealed the presence of a negative relationship.
Studies by Anderman, Griesinger, and Westerfield (Anderman, Griesinger,
Westerfield, 1998); Brandäo, Teixeira (Brandao, Teixeira, 2006), Rettinger, and Kramer,
(Rettinger, Kramer, 2009) show a strong association between academic fraud rates and
academic motivation. Students with a dominant external learning motivation are more likely
to use dishonest techniques when passing exams and defending a diploma than students
with an internal learning motivation.
Studies by Stone T., Jawahar I., Kisamore J. (Stone, Jawahar, Kisamore, 2010); Kunts
J., Batler C (Kuntz, Butler, 2014) are devoted to identifying links between certain personal
characteristics and academic fraud.
Giluk T., Postlethwaite B. (Giluk, Postlethwaite, 2015) in the tradition of Goldberg's
Five-factor Personality Model, presented a meta-study that found that students with high
levels of conscientiousness and friendliness are less likely to engage in academic fraud in the
educational space. Further, we found links between the fear of incompetence, high
motivation to avoid failure, low self-esteem, and the test of internal uncertainty with the
frequency of participation in academic fraud. The studies of McCabe D., Feghali T., Abdallah
H. (McCabe, Feghali, Abdallah, 2008), Ozdemir O., LaneJ., MichouA have found the greatest
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appreciation and popularity in foreign psychology (Ozdemir, Lane, Michou, 2016), which
confirm the importance of having a code of academic integrity in an educational institution.
It is worth noting the research of E. D. Shmeleva, which can claim a high professional
level of meta-research on such an urgent topic about academic fraud (Chirikov, Shmeleva,
Loyalka, 2019; Maloshonok, Shmeleva, 2019).
2. Results and discussion
In our study, the main methods are the longitudinal method, the survey methods are
presented by the author's questionnaire "Subjective perception of a fraudster", online surveys,
statistical methods: A. Bormatov's questionnaire "Honesty", the Machiavellianism Test
(Mach-IV), which was developed by American psychologists Richard Christie and Florence
Geis (Christie, Geis, 1970) (adapted by V. V. Znakov (2000).
We also present an experimental method. Our experimental method is represented by
cross-sections and the longitudinal method. This study was conducted for the first time in
our country on a representative sample of students of 11 classes (31 students, 19 boys, 12 girls),
students of Orenburg State University. The first experiment by the method of longitude was
conducted from 2017-2020. with students of the full-time department of Orenburg
universities (bachelor's degree), 43 students took part in it (according to gender
characteristics-25 boys,18 girls). The second experiment was conducted using the
longitudinal method from 2017-2020. with students of the full-time department of the
specialty of Orenburg universities (specialty), 28 students took part in it, including 11 young
men,17 girls. More than 700 students took part in online surveys, and more than 200 full-time
and part-time students took part in open surveys.
Our research was based on the following hypotheses:
The purpose of the study: To identify the dynamics of changes in the subjective
attitude to the personality of a student using the methods of academic fraud, using the
method of longitudinal observation.
Hypotheses: 1. The personality of a student who uses academic fraud techniques
becomes more positive according to subjective assessments in the reference group during
longitudinal observation.
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2. The personality of a student who uses academic fraud techniques becomes less
positive according to subjective assessments during longitudinal observation.
The pilot study was conducted using the author's questionnaire "Subjective
perception of the identity of a fraudster", which consisted of 12 personal characteristics of
students who resort to academic fraud. The pilot study was performed in the tradition of the
Campbell D. quasi-experiment (Campbell, 1958). The study was conducted in the tradition
of a longitudinal experiment. This questionnaire was offered to students in grades 1-4, every
year. The study involved 67 students (31 boys, 36 girls), as well as 31 students of 11 classes (19
boys, 12 girls). Below we present the data from this study. Respondents were asked to
identify the most characteristic personality traits of a student who resorts to academic fraud.
Table 1. "Subjective view of the identity of the fraudster" in %
Personal qualities
Students
of the 11th grade
2nd year
students
3rd year
students
4th year
students
1 Hypocrisy
78
58
43
24
2 Cynicism
79
54
34
21
3 High intelligence
56
75
79
90
4 Ingenuity
63
78
86
89
5 Isolation
76
34
23
19
6 Communication
difficulties
85
56
37
23
7 Flexibility of
thinking
45
67
78
94
8 Readiness for
unexpected situations
85
87
86
89
9 Acting skills
78
86
91
98
10 Ability to
manipulate
67
78
73
69
11 Deceitfulness
65
51
32
16
12 Emotionality
76
54
46
43
We see that the subjective perception of the identity of a student who resorts to
academic fraud changes with age. If the students of the 11th grade are called hypocrisy,
cynicism, emotionality, isolation and difficulty of communication leading in the portrait of a
fraudster, then the senior students of these qualities were singled out among the
insignificant, and noted the flexibility of thinking, high intelligence, ingenuity. It should also
be noted that such a quality as "acting ability" was noted by all participants of the study. Also,
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the respondents ' opinion regarding such qualities as "readiness for unexpected situations",
"ability to manipulate" did not change. As for lying, this quality was noted by students of the
11th grade in more than half of the cases, but among senior students this quality is in last
place.
We formed the survey according to three clusters: cognitive characteristics (3,4,7,8),
emotional-volitional characteristics (5,6,10,12), and behavioral characteristics (1,2, 9,11).
Figure 1. Cognitive characteristics in the compared groups
Figure 1 clearly shows the differences in the perceptions of the cognitive
characteristics of a cheating student among different groups of respondents. High
intelligence, ingenuity, and flexibility of thinking are rated higher with age.
The portrait of a student resorting to academic fraud, through the eyes of most
students of the 11th grade, is a person, in most statistical values, characterized by low
intelligence, average values of ingenuity, inability to think outside the box. However, there is
a clear contradiction in the cognitive cluster. The personality shows high abilities when
making decisions in a situation of uncertainty. For school students, the desire to be non-
deceptive, to get out of it if necessary, to be ready for an unexpected situation ("I will come
up with something to justify", "I will ride", "I will act according to the circumstances") is still
leading.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
High intelligence Ingenuity Flexible thinking Ready for unexpected
situations
Students of the 11th grade 1st year students 2nd year students
3rd year students 4th year students
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The portrait of a student resorting to academic fraud, through the eyes of most
students studying in the first year, is similar in all respects to the portrait presented by
students of the 11th grade. Students of the 1st year also "deny" high intellectual development
of students who resort to academic fraud. There is an undisguised disapproval of a rather
unattractive type of cynical and deceitful personality. The perception of students resorting
to academic fraud in the minds of the 2nd year is changing dramatically. A student who
resorts to academic fraud is endowed with good intellectual abilities, this is a person who
knows how to cope with any unusual situation.
Perhaps this is due to the personal experience of the students. The educational process
is organized in the university in such a way that simple cheating is easily determined with
the help of modern programs, for example, anti-plagiarism. And in order to raise the
originality of the text, you have to resort to various manipulations, invent methods of
bypassing programs. Efimova G. Z. and Kicherova M. N., when analyzing the causes of
academic fraud, point to the lack of motivation for original works and applied research
among students, which leads to plagiarism, falsification and other forms of academic
dishonesty (Eremeva, 2018).
Figure 2. Emotional and volitional characteristics in the compared groups
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Isolation
Difficulties in communication
Ability to manipulate
Emotionality
4th year students 3rd year students 2nd year students
1st year students Students of the 11th grade
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Another characteristic difference of modern university education is project activity,
which requires the student to have the knowledge, skills and abilities to achieve the project
goal and complete the tasks set. However, this trend is sporadic and does not affect all
educational programs.
Dremova O., Shmeleva E. in their study of the psychological and pedagogical
determinants of academic fraud in students ' research papers, they emphasize that students
entering an educational institution, as a rule, are not ready for independent intellectual,
thinking and analytical activities. Often, they do not have the skills to work with literature
and correctly cite sources. It also raises the problem of "clip thinking" (Chirikov, Shmeleva,
Loyalka, 2019; Eremeva, 2018).
In emotional terms, high school students have high emotionality, high ability to
manipulate, but high isolation, unsociability is revealed. From Figure 2, we can see that such
a quality as "ability to manipulate" was identified by all groups of respondents. I.e., a fraudster
necessarily turns a communication partner into an object, a thing, a means of achieving his
own benefit through manipulative influence. In the responses of students, we see a
contradiction. 6 On the one hand, they note "isolation" as a quality of a fraudster, and on the
other hand, "emotionality", "difficulty in communication" and "ability to manipulate".
Figure 3. Behavioral characteristics in the compared groups
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Hypocrisy
Cynicism
Acting skills
Deceitfulness
4th year students 3rd year students 2nd year students 1st year students Students of the 11th grade
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The behavioral patterns of 11th grade students are characterized by hypocrisy,
cynicism, possession of manipulative techniques, and deceit.
Lying in the student environment, as we can see from the diagram, is not the leading
characteristic of fraud. A comparative analysis of the results of student research in 2006 and
2010, conducted by experts in the field of academic fraud in America-Aushra A. (Aushra,
2006), D. Mccabe,T. Fegnali (McCabe, Feghali, Abdallah, 2008) shows that copying several
sentences from the Internet when performing written tasks is the norm for 40.0% of students
(out of 14,000 respondents). During this period, the number of those who believe that
copying from the Internet is a "serious fraud" decreased-from 34.0% at the beginning of the
decade, to 29.0% in 2010 (Chirikov, Shmeleva, Loyalka, 2019)
Our results also confirm the self-justification among students: "this will not make
anyone worse", "everyone does it", "I couldn't send you a job", "I didn't have time", the belief
in the formality of the violated norms, the routine of such actions, etc.
An interesting fact is that among students, in particular senior courses, a very low
percentage of those respondents who identified among the behavioral qualities of a fraudster
"hypocrisy, "cynicism" and "deceitfulness" in contrast to schoolchildren (Freiburger et al.,
2017).
It is noted that this is a more sociable person than a closed one, but able to hide their
emotions, having the ability to any kind of manipulation. In the behavioral field, a positive
personality is more likely than a negative one. Moderately hypocritical, moderately ready to
lie (Eremeva, 2018).
We specify that the same students took part in the survey. But in the second year,
there are clear changes in the views of students who resort to academic fraud. The
characterization of a person who resorts to academic fraud is becoming more and more
lenient, and the attitude towards this person is becoming more and more tolerant. The
personality is characterized by high intelligence. The qualities of intelligence are manifested
in flexibility, ingenuity, and the ability to be active in non-standard social situations. The
emotional characteristic changes qualitatively. The emotional person becomes more and
more secretive, less sociable, rather closed, and has high manipulative skills. The personality
reveals the average values of cynicism, deceit, has good acting skills. 3rd-year students report
very high intelligence in students who resort to academic fraud. These students are inventive,
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creative, and unconventional. Rather, they are not inclined to emotional actions, but they are
very good at manipulating techniques, very secretive, and are not open to communication.
They have rather low values in the characteristics of deceit and hypocrisy. Behavioral
characteristics deserve quite positive assessments.
Students studying in the 4th year note that students who resort to academic fraud are
highly intelligent, inventive, and ready to make non-standard decisions. The personality is
characterized by sufficient restraint, closeness, often experiencing problems with
communication. Behavioral patterns are represented by rather low values of the qualities of
hypocrisy, deceit, and cynicism.
To assess the reliability of the shift of values after a longitudinal study, we used the
Friedman criterion in the SPSS program, which allows us to establish the level of statistical
reliability of differences in several dimensions at once, and at the same time, not the absolute
values of the shifts are ranked, but the individual measurement values themselves.
We assume that there are only random differences between the results obtained in the
longitudinal study. The results of the calculation of the Friedman criterion are presented in
Table 2.
Table 2. Results of the evaluation of the reliability of the shift of the values of the longitudinal study conducted
using the Friedman criterion
The indicator of the Friedmna criterion x2emp.
1 Hypocrisy
12,18
2 Cynicism
12,12
3 High intelligence
12,08
4 Ingenuity
11,92
5 Isolation
12,025
6 Communication difficulties
12,23
7 Flexibility of thinking
12,46
8 Readiness for unexpected situations
6,89
9 Acting skills
11,64
10 Ability to manipulate
7,36
11 Deceitfulness
12,09
12 Emotionality
12,02
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To determine the reliability of the shift of the results, we used a table of critical values
depending on the level of significance of α and the degree of freedom, the value of which is
x2cr.: x2cr. = 7.815 at α = 0.05 and χ2cr. = 11.345 at α = 0.01.
The obtained empirical values of the Friedman criterion on the scales "readiness for
unexpected situations" and "ability to manipulate" fell into the zone of insignificance.
Therefore, with respect to these scales, a hypothesis is accepted about the similarity of ideas
among students of 1-4 courses about the presence of these qualities in the portrait of a
student who resorts to academic fraud. All other scales received differences according to the
Friedman criterion, i.e., respondents assess the personality of a student who resorts to
academic fraud to varying degrees. The orientation of such representations can be seen in
Figures 1-3.
Longitudinal studies of the subjective perception of the personality of a student who
is prone to academic fraud were accompanied by a study of the level of honesty, openness,
and ability to manipulate students ' interpersonal relationships. Next, we present the results
of the study on the A. Bormatov questionnaire "Honesty".
The purpose of this study is to identify the level of honesty, openness of students,
participants of the experiment.
The study of the phenomenon of honesty was also conducted as part of a longitudinal
study in which 50 students participated.
The collection of empirical data was carried out sequentially for the training of these
students in 1, 2, 4 courses. The diagram shows the results of the average values of the honesty
phenomenon for the group in each course of study of students.
Figure 4. Results of the "Honesty" questionnaire»
17.3
12.984
15.03
1 cours 2 cours 3 cours
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Based on the results of the study, we came to the conclusion: 91% of students have
average values of lie indicators according to the "Honesty" questionnaire. Such aggregated
data indicate the threshold values of the level of honesty; some of the respondents are prone
to lying. It is revealed that the majority of students like to embellish their achievements, their
statements, and their lives. The share of probability that the interviewed students are prone
to lying not only in everyday life, but also in educational activities is quite high. Only 8 % of
students showed high values according to the results of the "Honesty" questionnaire, such
results are interpreted as the absence of a tendency to lie. These respondents may
occasionally embellish themselves or some facts related to their lives. But this happens within
the normal range. It was found that only 1 % of the students surveyed have a low result on
the "Honesty" questionnaire, which indicates a strong, pronounced tendency to lie
Next, we present the results of a study on the Machiavellianism Test (Mach-IV),
which was developed by American psychologists Richard Christie and Florence Geis
(Christie, Geis, 1970) (adapted by V. V. Znakov (2000). This scale is presented in the
"Questionnaire for identifying the severity of Machiavellianism". We, following the concept
of Richard Christie and Florence Geis, considered Machiavellianism as a personal
characteristic that reflects the subject's lack of faith in the fact that most people can be relied
on, that most people are altruistic, independent, and have a strong will.
It was the Mac scale that allowed us to identify the tendency of a person to manipulate
other people in interpersonal relationships. Such a research line was planned by us to
understand the portrait of the personality of students who are tolerant of the phenomenon
of academic fraud.
At this stage, 75 respondents, 37 girls, 38 boys took part. All respondents were first -,
second -, and fourth-year students of Orenburg universities. Age limits from 17 to 21 years.
We present the following results. 22 (29%) of respondents revealed a low level of
Machiavellianism, which characterizes them as open, sincere individuals who do not know
how and do not want to manipulate other people. 45 (60%) of the respondents have an
average level of Machiavellianism. Such indicators indicate the presence of sincerity and a
desire to manipulate others, but due to their openness, they do not allow this action. A lower
number of students, only 8 (11%) of the respondents, can be attributed to a high level of
Machiavellianism. This result characterizes the respondents as people with the highest
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336
degree of manipulation skills. Such people are able and often resort to manipulation as a way
to achieve their goals.
Conclusions
1. A review of cultural, sociological and psychological studies has allowed us to
identify the phenomenon of academic fraud among students as one of the reasons for the
decline in the quality of higher education. The scale of this phenomenon is so great that it
requires a scientific understanding of its causes and factors. The authors propose to resort to
longitudinal studies of subjective ideas about the personality of a student who resorts to
academic fraud. A point study of the psychological portrait of the personality of a student
who resorts to academic fraud is presented.
2. To understand the personality of a student who resorts to academic fraud or
translates tolerance to this phenomenon, we selected the following targets: subjective ideas
about cognitive characteristics, emotional manifestations, behavioral patterns of a person
who resorts to academic thinking, as well as the level of honesty and the level of
Machiavellianism.
3. Subjective representations of the cognitive characteristics of a cheating student
differ from different groups of respondents. Students of the 11th grade note that such students
have low intelligence, average values of ingenuity, inability to think outside the box. High
intelligence, ingenuity, flexibility of thinking by students of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th courses is
rated much higher.
4. Students of the 11th grade note the isolation and difficulty of communication by the
presenters in the portrait of a student who resorts to academic fraud. In the subjective view
of students, the qualitative emotional assessment of students who resort to academic fraud
is changing. It is noted that these students are rather not inclined to emotional actions, but
they are very good at manipulating techniques, very secretive, not open to communication.
5. Students of the 11th grade note hypocrisy, cynicism, deceit as the main behavioral
patterns of a student's personality who resorts to academic fraud. The characterization of a
person who resorts to academic fraud, in the views of fellow students, is becoming more and
more lenient; the attitude towards this person is becoming more and more tolerant. The
assessment of behavioral manifestations becomes even more tolerant. Respondents of the 4th
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year note rather low values in the characteristics of falsehood, hypocrisy among students who
resort to academic fraud, refuse to condemn the behavior of these students.
6. The empirical values according to the Friedman criterion on the scales "readiness
for unexpected situations" and "ability to manipulate" fell into the zone of insignificance,
which indicates that there is a similarity of ideas among students of 1-4 courses in the portrait
of a student who resorts to academic fraud. All other scales received significant differences
according to the Friedman criterion. We assume that the more tolerant attitudes towards
the phenomenon of academic fraud and the characteristics of a person who resorts to fraud
are explained by the subjective experience of our respondents.
7. We found that only 8 % of students have high values according to the results of the
"Honesty" questionnaire, such results are interpreted as the absence of a tendency to lie; In
the majority( 91%) of students resort to lying quite often, more than 90% demonstrate
tolerance to the manifestation of lies in their comrades. Only 1 % of the surveyed students
have a low result on the "Honesty" questionnaire, which indicates a strong, pronounced
tendency to lie
8. 29% of respondents have a low level of Machiavellianism, which characterizes them
as open, sincere personalities who do not know how and do not want to manipulate other
people. It was revealed that 11% of students have high indicators in terms of the severity of
machiviallism, which indicates the skillful use of manipulative techniques in the process of
interpersonal interaction. This group of students is characterized by detachment and
coldness towards people, lack of inclination to maintain friendly and social contacts
selflessly.
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