Literature Review #4

College Cheating: Immaturity, Lack of Commitment, and the Neutralizing Attitude

MLA Citation:

Haines, Valerie J, George M Diekhoff, Emily E LaBeff, and Robert E Clark. "College cheating: Immaturity, lack of commitment, and the neutralizing attitude." Research in Higher Education25.4 (1986): n. pag. SpringerLink. Web. 26 Oct. 2013.

Summary:

This article breaks down cheating into many the many different forms and shows how and why it happens. One of the stand out points of this article is the fact that it talks about a 'Neutralizing attitude'. The neutralizing attitude is basically just the rationalization that a student uses to feel better about cheating. The types of neutralization that are talked about are the denial of responsibility, denial of a victim, denial of an injury, condemnation of the condemner, and appeal to higher loyalties. The article also discusses the types of people who cheat and the reasons as to why they cheat.

Authors:

Valerie J. Haines, George M. Diekhoff, Emily E. LaBeff, and Robert E. Clark

Key Terms:

Neutralizing Attitude: The way that students rationalize their decision to cheat so that they can live with a clear conscience

Fundamental Factors: Some of the most important factors that determine why a student would cheat and the demographic that they fit in.

Quotes:

"In each case, the individual professes to support a particular societal norm or law but also recognizes the special circumstances which allow or even require the individual to violate the norm or law. This neutralization process is presumed to free the individual to deviate without considering himself or herself a deviant, thus eliminating or reducing the sense of guilt or wrongdoing" pg 346

"The use of such techniques conveys the message that students recognize and accept cheating as an undesirable behavior; however, its occurence can be excused in certain instances" pg 353

"A second factor related to cheating is the cheater's lack of investment in his or her education. The students in this study who admitted cheating were less likely to have paid for their own tuition and books than were non cheaters" pg 352

Value:

This article has a good amount of value for my paper especially since it talks about the idea of neutralization which has yet to have been discussed in my other articles. It also approaches the demographic side, causes of cheating, and how to prevent it in a different way from my other articles. It tries to make a link between the neutralizing effects and the cheating deterrents. I plan on using this article in my paper to particularly discuss the neutralizing effect.