Academic Misconduct: An Educational Consequence of Psychopathy

Abstract

Academic misconduct has long been an issue plaguing academic institutions. The trait of psychopathy has remained consistently linked to academic misconduct; however, the influences underlying this relationship are not well known. Therefore, the current study aimed to first replicate a past study that showed a facet of academic entitlement to mediate this relationship. In addition, it aimed to contribute to the literature by investigating academic motivations (extrinsic, intrinsic, amotivation) as additional mediator variables between psychopathy and academic misconduct. One hundred and sixty undergraduate students completed a survey measuring psychopathy, academic entitlements, academic motivations and academic misconduct. Psychopathy significantly predicted academic misconduct; however, neither facet of academic entitlement mediated this relationship, nor did any of the motivational variables. Overall, although psychopathy remains highly predictive of academic misconduct, the lack of influence of the other variables may suggests that academic misconduct, as well as the beliefs and culture surrounding it, have shifted within the campus community.