ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND PERSONALITY: AN ANALYSIS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Academic dishonesty that involves the use of any prohibited means for gaining unfair advantage academically has become a global problem in educational institutions. Limited studies have been conducted to explore the significance of personality with reference to academic misconduct. The present study was conducted to find out the different personality correlates as well as predictors of Academic Dishonesty. For this purpose 232 students of undergraduate and graduate courses from different faculties of University of Karachi, Pakistan, with ages ranging between 18-35 years (`X =21.55, SD = 2.44) participated in the study. Big Five Inventory (BFI-44)1 was used to measure personality and English version of Academic Dishonesty Tendency Scale2 was used to measure academic dishonesty. Also five questions were developed to measure one more dimension of academic dishonesty which has been observed in local universities i.e., the tendency towards influencing teachers. For statistical analysis, correlation and regression analysis were conducted. Some personality types were found to be associated, and predictors of different dimensions of academic dishonesty.