The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong To Get Ahead

The Right Path to Success

For most students, grades are important for deciding their success in life. However, there are two different types of motivated students that determine their path to mastery. One type of motivation leads to high achievement while the other leads to less satisfying grades and poor decisions. These two types of motivated students for academic achievement corresponds to Daniel Pink’s claim in Drive that to find success, Type X must become Type I. Type X students are not as capable as Type I because they are focused more on their performance than learning. Pink reinforces this idea when he states that Type X are extrinsically motivated people that have a narrow view and focus of work ethics. These students believe

Isakov and Tripathy quote Callahan, the author of “The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong To Get Ahead” on why students may be extrinsically motivated. He reveals that outside motivators such as parents, teachers, and other students cause the enormous pressure to do well in school. This affects many students and leads to stress and unethical behaviors such as cheating (Isakov and Tripathy). Here, Callahan demonstrates that not only can students be personally motivated to cheat, but also be externally motivated to cheat by their environment. Pressure from society, parents, even friends and other students can have a negative impact on students because of social conformity. Society’s drive to be better, be more successful affects students everywhere and can cause students to take shortcuts. Friend groups especially have a hand in inciting either extrinsic or intrinsic motivation. Nazzar uses research from psychologists Brown and his colleagues, saying the people students surround themselves with most often will have a negative or positive impact depending on whether they have high intrinsic or extrinsic motivation (Nazzar). Those students who have friends that are high achievers and intrinsically motivated will eventually influence them to be similar in motivation. It is the same with extrinsically motivated students. Students seek to fit in within their social groups so when most are extrinsically motivated, their own motivation will decrease too. Classroom environment may also play a role in students’ motivation. The same study by Brown and his colleagues, showed that “motivation was highly affected by feelings of class belongingness” (Nazzar). When students are in a friendly environment, they are more likely to do well because they feel supported and cared for. Positive interactions between teachers and other students are