In today's fast-paced, instant-gratification-oriented society, everyone is looking for quick fixes. We want it all and we want it now! This mindset is in conflict with the overall process of education and learning which requires time, reflection, and practice. More and more students are entering colleges and universities with weak academic preparation and deficient life skills. This often leads them to engage in unethical practices in order to compete, get ahead and survive academically. Declining academic integrity is a significant issue on almost all college campuses. The purpose of this study was to gain deeper insight into student nurses' perceptions of the concept of instant gratification in general and in nursing education in particular. The implications of the Trinity Paradigm of Intelligence in developing a culture of integrity were also explored. The emerged data supports the notion of "academic disintegrity" as a social problem with a long history of development.

A review of literature documents that higher education faculty are likely to be the target of student harassment. A scenario in which a person of lesser power in an organization harasses a person of greater power is known as contrapower harassment. Students' acts of harassment range from mild incivilities to aggressive and threatening behaviors. The purpose of this quantitative web-based survey study is to document (a) the prevalence of contrapower harassment in a sample of U.S. pharmacy school faculty (n = 110), a previously unstudied population, (b) gender differences in faculty experiences of contrapower harassment, (c) faculty characteristics which may predict harassment, and (d) differences in the level of contrapower harassment associated with accusing a student of academic dishonesty. It was proposed that contrapower harassment is the result of the college environment in which the student is treated as an entitled consumer. Critical systems, emancipatory, and organizational theories were used to help understand the environment that fosters faculty harassment. Analysis of quantitative data employed MANOVA, chi-square, and multiple linear regression. Results confirmed 94% of pharmacy faculty have experienced at least one of the harassing behaviors. Males reported greater levels of incivility and females experienced greater distress from sexual attention. The act of confronting a student for academic dishonesty increased student harassment including incivility, bullying, and sexual attention. Positive social change may result from identifying the prevalence of contrapower harassment in pharmacy schools, leading to changes in the university environment that foster student harassment of faculty.

Academically dishonest behaviors pose a major threat to education. High rates of cheating have been reported at all levels of education, and by most accounts seem to be on the rise. Classroom environment research has demonstrated that environments created by classroom teachers have a significant impact on many aspects of education. Using a mixed methods approach, the current study investigated the relationship between cheating and the high school classroom environment. Quantitative data were collected from two surveys. The Academic Integrity Survey (AIS) asked students to self report cheating behaviors, and the Classroom Environment Scale (CES) asked students about their perceptions of the classroom environment. Qualitative data were collected from classroom observations and student interviews. The results of this study indicate that the classroom environment is significantly related to student cheating; the more positive the environment, the less students will cheat. Regression analyses indicated that 2 CES subscales, order and organization and involvement, were negatively related to student cheating and explained 40% and 23% of the variance respectively. The regression analyses also indicated that 3 other study variables, school sports participation, after school employment, and grade level were positively related to student cheating and explained 15%, 12%, and 11% of the variance, respectively. Qualitative analyses yielded 5 major findings. It was found that students cheat more in environments where students are not involved, that lack order and organization, and that lack teacher control. Students cheat more when their teachers are oblivious and are not respected, and larger systemic issues are related to student cheating behaviors. This study represents rare attempts to access the student perspective on cheating as well as to understand teachers’ role in student cheating. This study concludes that teachers can reduce the rates of cheating in their classes by improving their classroom environments, especially in the areas of order and organization and student involvement, and by increasing their use of authentic standards based assessments. However, most of these improvements will only impact students’ opportunity to cheat. Educators will have a difficult time affecting students’ desire to cheat until larger systemic problems with the current educational system are addressed.

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The purpose of this study was to examine engagement in academic dishonesty in traditional and online college courses and the perceptions of online students toward academic dishonesty. Students enrolled in the Tennessee Regents Online Degree Program (RODP) who had taken both online and traditional courses were invited to participate in the study. The study included 635 valid surveys submitted electronically for a 15% response rate. The electronic survey was designed based on previous research studies. The survey collected data concerning rates of student engagement for academic dishonesty behaviors in traditional courses and in online courses, student perceptions of deterrence of academic dishonesty, student perceptions of the seriousness of academic dishonesty, and demographic data. Survey results were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tests. Analysis of variance tests were conducted for the research questions that addressed differences in the rates of academic dishonesty in online courses and traditional courses based on the demographic factors of age, gender, academic standing (GPA), classification, and field of study. Chi-square procedures were conducted to determine differences in academic dishonesty in four types of cheating. Linear regression was conducted to determine relationships between demographic factors and rates of academic dishonesty. Findings indicate that students reported significantly higher overall rates of academic dishonesty in traditional courses than in online courses. Significant differences were not found in the rates in traditional courses based on age, gender, academic classification, or intended field of study; however, rates were higher for respondents with lower grade point averages. Students reported more frequent engagement in cheating on tests than cheating on written assignments, cheating on out-of-class assignments, or using technology to cheat. Regression tests found a weak relationship between intended field of study and rates of academic dishonesty. A personal code of integrity was perceived to be the most effective deterrent, and cheating was considered only a moderate problem in higher education. Information from this study can benefit online students, instructors, and college administrators who deal with issues related to academic dishonesty and online learning. As online learning increases, further research on academic dishonesty is recommended.

Most prior research and scholarship views cheating as an individual failing rather than a sociological or organizational phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to identify the challenges students face in graduate education and the factors that affect ethical beliefs towards academic dishonesty. This study used a mixed method research approach including an online survey with approximately 1,250 responses from graduate students representing each of UCF's colleges and fifteen interviews with students in fourteen different disciplines. Results of the online survey indicated no significant differences between international and domestic students. Survey and interview data indicate that graduate students' perceptions of the perceived norms and expectations related to academic honesty are impacted by the culture of the academic program. Analyzing these data through three sociological theories of deviance - anomie, labeling, and rational choice - shows that graduate students' understanding of appropriate academic behavior depends on their academic socialization. The data also reveal that graduate students struggle with subtleties of cheating, such as misrepresentation or "fudging" of data. Especially for the doctoral students in the sample, their views were highly influenced by viewing themselves as teachers and independent researchers. This sociological analysis emphasizes the role of culture in graduate programs and students' socialization into those cultures. This doctoral dissertation also provides a deeper understanding of the social and organizational factors affecting graduate students and re-frames students' perspectives on appropriate academic behavior.

Academic dishonesty and academic entitlement plague many college campuses. This research applies the theory of cognitive dissonance to the classroom in an attempt to curb academic dishonesty. Hypocrisy, a branch of the theory of cognitive dissonance, has been induced with regards to health and pro-social causes, but has not been applied to the field of higher education. In order to apply the concept of hypocrisy to academic dishonesty, a two-part experiment was conducted. The first portion of the experiment was an in-class manipulation and the second portion was an online survey conducted one month after the manipulation. Two hundred two students participated in both portions of the experiment. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (e.g., hypocrisy, commitment only, mindfulness only, control) and participated in two activities. One month after the manipulation took place, students were sent a link to the online survey with a cover story indicating that the survey was part of a research study. After the survey was closed, participants were debriefed and the data was cleaned. Upon analyzing the data, no significant results were detected. The lack of statistical significance was likely due to the month time lapse and the single dose of the manipulation treatment. Overall, this study pioneers the application of hypocrisy in the field of education and provides guidance for future hypocrisy induction studies.

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