Effective Factors on Academic Cheating with Motivational Approach: Testing a Causal Model

The aim of present study was to survey of relation between goal orientations¡ personal beliefs about cheating and neutralizing attitudes with cheating behaviors. The participants were 335 students selected from Semnan university using multistage cluster sampling method. For assessing the research variables¡ the participants completed two measures: Academic Cheating Questionnaire (2007) and Achi- evement Goal Questionnaire (Elliot & McGregor¡ 2001). The relationships between variables were
examined by a causal model. The results of path analysis by using LISREL software¡ showed direct and indirect effects of goal orientations on cheating behaviors¡ personal beliefs about cheating and neutralizing attitudes. Also beliefs about cheating and neutralizing attitudes directly and indirectly predicated cheating behaviors. The most important results of this research was influence of neutralization of responsibility on
cheating behaviors and indirectly by mediating personal beliefs about cheating. And this variable predicted the most variance of cheating behaviors than others.