Achievement Goals and Academic Dishonesty in Undergraduate Students: Longitudinal Relationships and Moderators

• In Event: Looking Beyond Achievement Behaviors in Motivation Research: Additional Antecedents and Consequences

Abstract

Students’ achievement goals have frequently been associated with academic dishonesty, but most studies are cross-sectional, report mixed findings for performance goal, and little is known about relevant context factors. Across two consecutive semesters, we investigated associations and a set of theoretically derived moderators of students’ achievement goals and academic dishonesty in 860 German undergraduates. Performance-approach and work-avoidance goals were positively, and performance-avoidance goals were negatively linked to exam cheating and plagiarism. Strong descriptive norms and positive attitudes towards cheating significantly lead to stronger associations between performance-approach goals and exam cheating, but not plagiarism. These findings indicate differential effects between performance approach and avoidance goals on academic dishonesty and point to differing context factors for the two types of academic dishonesty.

Authors

• Tanja Fritz, University of Augsburg
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hernán González Cruz, University of Mannheim
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stefan Janke, University of Mannheim
  Non-Presenting Author

• Martin Daumiller, University of Augsburg
  Presenting Author