S. Thomas Friedman

Classroom Cheating: Consistent Attitude, Perceptions, and Behavior

A number of successful attempts have been made to identify psychological, situational, and/or demographic variables which differentially characterize groups of college students identified as cheaters and noncheaters (e.g., David, 1967; Hetherington and Feldman, 1964; Jacobson, Berger, and Millham, 1970; Knowlton and Hamerlynck, 1967). Such studies have tended to be based on admitted, projected, or inferred cheating behavior rather than on observed cheating behavior. As a consequence of the application of any one of a number of cognitive consistency models (cf., Feldman, 1966), situation-specific attitude and perceptual differences between behaviorally-defined cheater/noncheater groups would be predicted. Moreover, the assumed dynamics of the consistency motive encourage directional predictions. For example, in a classroom setting, students who cheat should be more favorably predisposed toward cheating than those who do not cheat. That is to say, attitudes toward cheating of students who cheat should

RELATION OF PARENTAL ATTITUDES TOWARD CHILD REARING AND PATTERNS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN MIDDLE CHILDHOOD

76 Ss who spent 4 wk. in a private camp setting were ranked by peers and participant observers on a variety of social behavior characteristics, leadership, conformity, anxiety, aggression, etc. Parents of the 76 children completed Herefords 75-item, 5-scale parental attitude form. Scores for mothers, fathers, and agreement scores between each set of parents were correlated with childrens social behavior as assessed in the camp setting. Leadership was significantly related to parental agreement on the child trust scale, the degree to which the parents agreed on their perception of the child as an autonomous individual. While other correlations approached significance, no important patterns of relationships emerged.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN'S ATTITUDES TOWARD THE DUAL ROLE OF WOMEN

This study examined the structure of professional womens attitudes toward the dual roles encompassed in motherhood and occupational career. A dual-role scale of 19 items was constructed and with other scales given female faculty members each with at least one child at home. Factor analytical techniques produced a three-dimensional attitudinal model: the career as enriching family life, role equality, and primary role priority. Relationships between these anitudinal components and other measures of feminine involvement and demographic variables are presented.

Seating Aggregation as an Index of Contagion.

UNDER conditions of repeated opportunity, classroom cheating has been characterized as a contagious form of student behavior (Walker, Wiemeler, Procyk, and Knake, 1966). Herein, the index of seating aggregation (Campbell, Ihuskal, and Wallace, 1966) is applied as a test of the dynamics of the contagion phenomenon. Where seating in a classroom is voluntary, the index of seating aggregation can be considered a measure of the extent to which dichotomized student subgroups segregate themselves from one another as opposed to integrating themselves in a random manner. Such subgroups might be defined in terms of any one of a number of dimensions-sex, ethnic origin, socio-economic status, behavioral tendencies, etc. With respect t o classroom cheating, the dichotomy is one of “cheater-noncheater,’J and the index is a comparative measure of the degree to which cheating is evidenced by clusters of students voluntarily seated adjacent to one another as opposed to being evidenced by students scattered randomly, throughout the classroom. Over time, if cheating is in fact contagious, the index of aggregation would reflect the nature of its “spread.”

Internal-External Control: Studied through the Use of Proverbs

This study investigated the factorial structure and the construct validity of the factors based on responses to a 25-item Internal-External Control Proverbs Test. 488 university students were given the series of proverbs in a battery that included the Rotter Internal-External scale. Responses to proverbs were factor analyzed, the factors subjected to analysis of variance by sex and year in school of S, and the factors correlated with the total external score from Rotters scale. The results point to a single construct, internal control, and two broad types of subconstructs under the aegis of external control, situational and behavioral potential.

Factor Analytic Study of Social Behavior in Children

The purpose was to use adult participant observers to create a scale for assessing some salient personality variables of children and young adolescents living together in close quarters. The 91 children were summer campers of both sexes (8 to 15 yr.). Counselors of these children were the adult participant observers. At least two counselors rated each camper on a 49-item rating scale. Interrater reliability was determined and composite ratings of the campers were factor analyzed. Seven factors accounted for the behaviors on the rating scales. These factors were consistent with and comparable to the constructs that were introduced into the items on the rating scale, e.g., Peer Orientation, Ego Strength, Interaction Potential, Adult Orientation, Rebelliousness, and Rigidity.

Temporal Stability and Change in Attitudes toward the Kennedy Assassination

Temporal distance from a catastrophic social event, e.g., the killing of President John Kennedy, might be expected to result in a de-differentiation (simplification) of the configuration of attitudes surrounding the event. In a factor-analytic sense, this would be seen through the identification of fewer attitude dimensions a year after the killing and after the original study. Present results disconfirm the simplification hypothesis, showing instead, the same attitude factors as originally identified for Ss sampled in the same four American universities. Analyses for various subgroups of undergraduates show some interpretable changes in factor-scale profiles.