Cheating Critique, Case Study Example

The paper, “Under Reporting of Cheating in Research in Using Volunteer College Students” addresses a key topic in educational policy: student cheating. The paper addresses two topics: 1) The (perceptibly) increasing phenomenon of students cheating on schoolwork; 2) The difference in detecting cheating based on different types of surveys.  The research hypothesis of this study is that current estimates of cheating may be underestimated due to bias introduced by volunteer sampling. The dependent variable in the study was the percentage of students who cheated; the independent variables was the survey method, gender, age, GPA.

Overall, there were two main methods of choosing students to participate in the survey.  First, participants for the full and short questionnaire were solicited via email (1000 undergraduates, 1000 graduates).  Second, there was a web survey set up for students enrolled in Introductory Psychology and the Senior Seminar in Psychology.

There are a number of potential biases that might affect the results of this study.  As the authors point out in the introduction, the survey might suffer from voluntary response bias and non-response bias; that is, the answers of those who fill out the survey might differ from those who choose not to participate resulting in incorrect results.  These biases are particularly insidious in surveys that ask individuals regarding socially risky behavior.[1] Finally, there are questions pertaining to whether the survey was conducted in a random way- by selecting only students that selected in psychology classes the results may not be generalizable to all students across the student body.

There were a number of statistical tests used in this study.  Regarding the potential difference in baseline differences in the sample population, the authors conducted a chi-square test.   The authors conducted ANOVA analysis to analyze whether the age of the subject was related to the sample and whether the grade point average was related to the sample.

There are no explicit ethical concerns regarding this study; all participants voluntarily chose to fill out the survey either as received through email or through class promotion. The only issue that would bring up the specter of ethical issues would be compulsory participation.

The main limitations of the study lie in two areas: 1) the use of self-report data; 2) external validity.  The veracity of self-report data in surveys has traditionally been seen as a sub-optimal to collect data and infer certain characteristics about the population. This study bases its conclusions on exclusive self-reported data without (at least in the study) conducting a validity study on the results.  While this does not invalidate the study persay, it does limit the inferences that can be drawn.  Second, there are questions regarding external validity. The authors of this study hope to use it as a foundation to explore shy cheating is “underreported” in the student population.  The study does a sufficient job of showing how different incentives in participation can lead to different estimates of the cheating population.  However, the problems they cite in their introduction, voluntary bias, still exist in this study and effect the ultimate conclusions that can be drawn.

Citations

Miller, A., Shoptaugh, C., Parkerson, A. (2008).  Underreporting of cheating in research using volunteer college students.  College Studies Journal.  42(2),  326-339.