Relationship Between University Students’ Cheating Behaviours and their Perceptions of Teacher and Student Characteristics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationhips of self-efficacy, self handicapping, perfectionism, students’s perceptions of instructors and learning environment to cheating behaviors among university students. For this purpose, 232 students attending Pamukkale University during 2004-2005 education year responded to the subscales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Work Evaluation, Goal Orientations and Self Handicapping Scales. Regression results indicated that cheating was predicted by both students’s level of perfectionism, self-efficacy and self handicapping, and perception of instructors. In addition, there were interactions between both self efficacy and perception of instructors and self handicapping and perception of instructors. These results also indicated that students’ characteristics and cheating behaviours changed based on their perceptions of instructors.