Psychopathy: A disease of the brain, a mental instability.
Plagiarism: Using somebody else’s works/ideas and stating that it is theirs.
Summary:
To find out the personality of plagiarizers, Delroy Paulhus conducted a research on college students from the University of British Columbia. Part of the study found that students who admit plagiarizing in the past had traits of the “Dark Triad,” which composes of psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism. In a second experiment, the scientists took actual essays written by 114 college students and compared them with online documents to check for cheating. Similarly, the 16 students who had plagiarized had personalities from the Dark Triad, mainly psychopathy. In a third and final test, 223 college students took an online test to rate themselves with a “Self-Report Cheating Scale. ” Not surprisingly, psychopathy was a trait that was linked with these students.
Discussion:
I decided to settle on this article because personalities of different types of people have always fascinated me. Similarly, the functions of the brain also intrigue me, causing me to settle on this topic. Also, when I was in elementary school, I was always tempted to take shortcuts and directly copy a couple of sentences from other works. (hopefully I don’t have psychopathy) to be able to finish my essays quicker. This research showed me that most plagiarizers do not know better than to cheat. By understanding what type of people plagiarizes, teachers in school may solve this ongoing problem by focusing in on them and having conversations with them.
Questions:
Why don’t psychopathic students understand the dire consequences of plagiarism?
Would the results be different if the scientists had tested students from a different college?
Source:
American Psychological Association. "Personality Predicts Cheating More Than Academic Struggles, Study Shows. "ScienceDaily 8 September 2010. 23 September 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100907163523.htm>.
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