چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
Academic dishonesty is a common immoral behavior in educational
settings (Jowkar & Haghnegahdar, 2016), helping people achieve desired
but unfair, illegal and inaccurate results such as lying, hiding the truth,
cheating, deceiving and so on (Oran, Can, Şenol, & Hadımlı, 2016). In
general, academic dishonesty involves two types of cheating: cheating on
examinations and cheating on assignments. Cheating on assignments
involves, for instance, tasks that should be done as individual work but are
in a group with the help of others; it could further include plagiarism, or
using someone else’s ideas without citing the sources. Cheating on
examinations, which involve copying from another student during a quiz
or examination, or attempting to illegally obtain questions and answer
keys, are also instances of cheating on assignments (Pincus & Schmelkin,
2003; Rettinger & Kramer, 2009).
Academic dishonesty is considered an illegal (Jowkar &
Haghnegahdar, 2016), detrimental (Kashkoli, 2017) and
counterproductive (Mahbod & Fouladchang, 2017) behavior, and
according to Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement
emotions, metacognitive states and emotions plays a key role in
determining academic behavior. Accordingly, in this study mindfulness,
as a metacognitive state, and hopefulness, as an achievement emotion,
were examined in a casual model, correspondingly as the far and near
antecedents of academic dishonesty.
In Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory, hopefulness has been
proposed as a positive prospective outcome emotion that negatively
evaluates failure and has a positive estimation of success and thus
motivates the individual in achievement path. Previous research has
demonstrated a negative relationship between hopefulness and academic
dishonesty (Farid, 2017), procrastination (Hicks & Yao, 2015), and
academic avoidance (Barani, Rahpeima & Khormaei, 2019). The necessity
of hope for changing the future is to perceive the present moment and to
own it. If it isn’t done, it will lose the next moment and so on (Munoz et
al., 2018). Therefore, mindfulness is a quality which can help people to
live in the present. Mindfulness as a state of awareness, is associated with
purified or revised attention skills, and judgmental attitude of internal and
external events. (Malinowski & Lim, 2015). The review of the literature
shows that mindfulness has a positive impact on hope (Ghasemi-Jobaneh,
Zahrakar, Hamdami, & Karimi, 2016; Malinowski & Lim, 2015;
Movahedzade & Shahveisi, 2017).
Research Hypothesis
The present study aims to investigate the hypothesis that hopefulness
has a mediating role in the relationships between mindfulness and
academic dishonesty.
Methods
A correlational design and structural equation modeling were used to
test the research hypothesis. The population encompassed all the middle
school students studying during 1397-98 in Darab, a city in Fars province,
Iran. All the participant (N=295, Male=141 and Female=154) were
selected through random cluster sampling. They were within the age range
of 12-14, with a mean of 13.28 and a standard deviation of 0.96.The
students answered the mindfulness, hopefulness and academic dishonesty
questionnaires.
Results
The correlation between all variables was significant, making it
possible to analyze the model. Mindfulness had a positive significant
relationship with hopefulness (β = 0.47, p = 0.002). On the other hand,
hopefulness had a negative significant relationship with academic
dishonesty (β = 0.38, p = 0.003). Hopefulness did not have a direct effect,
but it was found to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and
academic dishonesty (β = 0.18, p = 0.002).
Discussion and Conclusion
In the results of the study, mindfulness had a positive and significant
effect on hopefulness. Mindfulness, by focusing on the people’s present
awareness and attention (Wampold, et al., 2010), can help them to accept
their feelings without any judgment or suppression (Baer, Smith, Hopkins,
Krietemeyer, & Toney, 2006). This immediate acceptance empowers the
individual to deal with various situations, especially challenges and
educational opportunities. In other words, one can understand the situation
well by understanding and accepting one's own emotions and thoughts, as
well as considering and accepting one's own abilities. Additionally, he/she
will be able to reflect on his/her feelings and emotions about the goal, see
the obstacles on the way to the goal, create multiple ways to deal with the
challenges they face, and thus plan to meet the goal. This ability to
understand obstacles and devise and plan multiple ways to deal with them
constitutes navigator thinking part of the hopefulness variable (Snyder,
2000), and will the individual to gain more positive energy to deal with
the challenges. On the other hand, the results further suggested a negative
and significant effect for hope on academic dishonesty. Hopefulness
increases the students’ positive emotions about and attitude toward the
future, creates a supportive atmosphere, and increases their adaptability
(Barani et al., 2019; Feldman & Kubota, 2015); thereby, it allows them
not to regard their academic performance as an indication of their own
self-worth and thus not to display undesirable behaviors such as academic
dishonesty to enhance their academic performance.
On the other hand, the results of the study revealed a mediating role for
hope in the relationship between mindfulness and academic dishonesty. In
addition, mindfulness was found to enhance navigator thinking abilities
by giving the individual information about themselves, increasing their
understanding of their emotions, thoughts, and abilities. Accordingly,
navigator thinking can increase the individual’s hope of finding multiple
ways to deal with challenges, and can enhance their agent thinking by
empowering them to overcome academic difficulties and challenges,
hereby reducing chances of academic dishonesty.
