Short-Term Predictive Validity of Demographic, Affective, Personal, and Cognitive Variables in Relation to Two Criterion Measures of Cheating Behaviors

Abstract

For a sample of 148 community college students, the short-term predictive validity of each of 18 variables was examined in relation to each of two criterion measures of cheating behavior: (a) incidence (presence or absence) of cheating on an objective final examination in an introductory psychology course and (b) the amount of cheating on this examination. The following conclusions became evident: (1) level of academically related anxiety does exhibit a small but statistically significant correlation with each indicator of cheating, whereas the constructs of locus of control, need for approval, and achievement motivation do not; (2) self-reported grade point average displays an inverse relationship with cheating behavior; (3) each measure of cheating is negatively associated to a moderate degree with the actual score earned on a final examination; and (4) optimally-weighted combinations of selected predictor variables do yield slightly more valid forecasts of cheating behavior than does any one predictor variable alone.