Cheating in College: Ethical Dilemma Between Morality and Efficiency
Cheating is an issue that can be determined as a characteristic of every educational system and is a problem damaging the process of a students’ studying. Generally speaking, the aspect of cheating is predominantly considered an attempt of a person to plagiarize or use the idea of another person or paying someone for writing essays for developing answers at college exams. Those may be ideas heard from peers, or papers created by experts — bought online or received for free. In any case, here we are talking about academic help not accepted as ethical in the academic world.
Cheating in college is often associated with a sphere of ethics and morality because such stealing of information is not a professional approach to education. Here, we address both the habitual and scientific background of what is perceived as academic cheating.
Students often do not estimate the education process as an opportunity to gain knowledge and simplify their tasks through cheating. The moral campaign against cheating is considered as one of the most effective and useful tools for dealing with this problem. The moral campaign can include different elements such as the incorporation of moral code in testing, spreading of information regarding the negative nature of cheating, and explanation of that, this aspect refers to disrespect of the author. As a result, morality is an inalienable element for cheating elimination, but it requires specific values and morality from students. Such a campaign cannot be effective for all students because it relies on their already existing principles.
Determination of cheating as deviant can influence the general extension of social norms. In fact, the majority of Ohio students do not consider cheating as a deep problem or immoral behavior. As follows, spreading the idea that cheating is beyond morality can make extension of such categories. College cheating is a deviant behavior because it is not officially claimed as a method of education and can be estimated as an inappropriate technique for studying — you need to write an essay, for example, but instead you hire some science writer to do it for you. As a result, an interconnection of cheating with a code of morality can be effective in case it is detailed developed.
How Even One Cheating Case Can Change Your Life
Being determined as a college cheater, a student can experience a stressful situation, and further education can become a challenge for a person. They are going to be labeled as cheaters or people who have an irresponsible attitude toward gaining new knowledge. The case of Avery is quite complicated to forecast because specifications of a person’s character are not known for a researcher. Generally speaking, the stigma of cheaters can damage the reputation of Avery and make it complicated for her to renew the effective process of studying.
First of all, Avery should accept that she is similar to quite a large amount of students in different colleges of the USA. “Authoritative numbers are hard to come by, but according to a 2002 confidential survey of 12,000 high school students, 74 percent admitted cheating on an examination at least once in the past year,” states the research conducted by ABC News. Psychologically a person can experience a sense of guilt and affiliation to a negative social group. Avery will feel guilty and will face the necessity to solve problems expected to appear in communication with other students and professors. However, she should understand that cheating is not favorable for receiving appropriate knowledge and practice. As a result, it is significant for Avery to consider this situation as an experience and gain the maximum possible benefits from such a mistake.
Hence, defining the person as a cheater can be a complicated challenge for further effective education due to the psychological discomfort of a student. Avery is expected to feel guilty and face condemnation from other college students and a professor. Finally, there are effective ways on how to deal with such stress and gain experience from the situation.
How Group Psychology Affects Individual Tendency to Cheat
The researchers state that students often cooperate regarding the issue of cheating in college, deciding to make it honest regarding their knowledge. Defining the cheating as a deviant can controversially influence relations between students because the majority of them understand the nature of such activity. Therefore, cheating as deviance can cause inequality between students that will adhere to such ideas and those who will accept cheating as a method of education.
The research represented by ABC News states that the position of other students regarding cheating can influence the decision of an individual about cheating. “There’s other people getting better grades than me, and they’re cheating,” stated one of the respondents. This statement proves that the decision of one person to cheat can initiate such willingness in others. The same effect can be used for the implementation of cheating as deviant because it also requires spreading among students. For example, in case a group of students accepts cheating as a deviant and irresponsible activity, their position can be spread on others.
However, this process is quite complicated because cheating simplifies the education process, and its exclusion will require students to pay more effort to study. This issue can cause the emergence of inequality because students convinced in the deviance of college cheating can feel restricted or even condemn other students. In this context, social inequality can become a challenge to the organization of teamwork and positive relations in the group of students. As a result, it is necessary to implement acceptance of cheating as deviance more systematically considering different kinds of college students who study in Ohio.
