A Naturalistic and Experimental Investigation of Cheating in High Schools

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Gail Heyman博士和Kang Lee博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金奖项支持一位早期职业科学家，调查青少年对学术不诚实的评价和参与，以及指导他们的社会因素。在青春期这一关键的发展时期，解释促进诚信的心理机制，可以支持培养我们社会下一代公民成员的努力。目前的研究采用了一种新的理论方法来解释作弊：在他们认为作弊是可以接受的特定案例中，学生更有可能作弊，而这些评价是由老师和同龄人关于作弊的社会信息形成的。为了了解这些社会信息对学业作弊和诚信的内容和后果，本项目对青少年围绕学业诚信的经历进行了多方法调查。具体地说，该项目考察了：(1)学生从老师和同龄人那里接触到了哪些关于学术诚信的信息？(2)这些社交信息是否指导学生对具体作弊案例的评估？(3)学生的评价是否与他们是否作弊的决定有关？研究一利用自然主义的课堂观察和关于作弊的对话来捕捉学生的生活经历，并确定相关的相关性。研究2通过调整自然产生的信息来影响学生对行为任务中作弊的评价和决定，从而实验地测试了这些相关性。这项研究通过揭示青少年对作弊的信念是否指导他们的行为，在关于判断-行动关系的辩论中取得了重要进展。该项目还为未来促进诚信的研究(例如，干预研究)提供了经验基础，并增加了我们对青少年身份发展、社会学习和道德发展的更广泛知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Drs. Gail Heyman and Kang Lee at The University of California, San Diego, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating adolescents’ evaluations of and engagement in academic dishonesty, and the social factors that guide them. Explaining psychological mechanisms that promote integrity during adolescence, a crucial developmental period, can support efforts to foster the next generation of civic members in our society.The present research takes a new theoretical approach to explaining cheating: That students are more likely to cheat in specific cases where they evaluate cheating as acceptable, and those evaluations are shaped by social messages from teachers and peers about cheating. To understand the content and consequences of these social messages on academic cheating and integrity, this project implements a multi-method investigation of adolescents’ experiences surrounding academic integrity. Specifically, the project examines: (1) What messages about academic integrity are students exposed to from their teachers and peers? (2) Do these social messages guide students’ evaluations of specific cases of cheating? and (3) Do students’ evaluations relate to their decisions about whether to cheat? Study 1 employs naturalistic classroom observations and prompted conversations about cheating to capture students’ lived experiences and identify relevant correlations. Study 2 experimentally tests these correlations by adapting the naturally-occurring messages to influence students’ evaluations and decisions about cheating in a behavioral task. This research makes important advances in the debate about judgment-action relations by shedding light on whether adolescents’ beliefs about cheating guide their actions. This project also provides an empirical foundation for future research on promoting integrity (e.g., intervention studies), and adds to our broader knowledge on adolescent identity development, social learning, and moral development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.