1. University of Mount Union
Academic Entitlement Lowers While Right-Wing Authoritarianism Increases Student Engagement
Rachel L. Horseman, Amanda M. Glorioso, Dekota C. Toot, Erin K. Bell, & Michael M. Knepp
University of Mount Union
INTRODUCTION
MEASURES
RESULTS
Previous research has explored the relationship between academic entitlement, performance, and noncompliance in the classroom.
Academic Entitlement and the factors found within this trait can influence both engagement with the material and perceptions about the classroom environment.
One variable that might influence the entitlement to engagement outcome is the intersection of conservative and liberal values and ideology in the classroom.
This study aimed to explore entitlement through engagement in and out of the classroom and perceptions of faculty incivility.
Authoritarianism-Conservatism-Traditionalism Scale
Three distinct and named subscales consisting of 36 questions (12 per subscale) using a 9-point Likert scale
Seating Preferences and Territorial Behaviors in Classrooms Measure
Eight item scale exploring territoriality in the classroom with two distinct subscales (Kaya & Burgess, 2007)
Student Perceptions of Professors’ Classroom Behaviors Scale
52 potentially offensive behaviors and asks students to consider any possible professor, not just ones they have previously had (Stork & Hartley, 2009)
Academic Entitlement Scale
15 item scale used to determine entitlement issues for students with two subscales: externalized responsibility and entitled expectations (Chowning & Campbell, 2009)
Student Engagement Questionnaire
22-item questionnaire covering four subscales: agentic; behavioral; emotional; and cognitive (Reeve & Tseng, 2011)
Schoolwork Engagement Inventory
9-item scale examining student’s engagement in academic achievement
Figure 1. Higher entitlement students perceive more offense to various instructional behaviors
HYPOTHESES
H1: Students who are higher in academic entitlement will report being less engaged both in the classroom and with their schoolwork and students reporting greater right-wing authoritarianism beliefs will be more likely to be both classroom and schoolwork engaged.
H2: Students with higher entitlement would note greater offense to grading and feedback related incivilities since these would relate to final outcomes in the course.
H3: Subscales of right-wing authoritarianism would impact perceptions on faculty incivility.
RESULTS
Academic Entitlement (AE)
Increased AE predicted decreased student engagement (R2 =.17, F (1, 164) = 33.10, p < .001).
Increased AE predicted both decreased student engagement (R2 =.26, F (1, 164) = 56.22, p < .001) and schoolwork engagement (R2 =.09, F (1, 164) = 16.18, p < .001).
Authoritarianism-Conservatism-Traditionalism
Higher Authoritarianism was found to be significantly related to lower behavioral (F (1, 90) = 12.02, p < .005) and emotional engagement scores (F (1, 90) = 5.73, p < .02).
Higher conservatism students reported significantly higher emotional engagement (F (1, 82) = 5.25, p < .05) and a trend toward significance with behavioral engagement (F (1, 82) = 3.82, p = .054).
In the case of all of the scales and findings, a higher ACT score was related to increased offense taken by perceived professors’ classroom behaviors.
Figure 2. Higher authoritarianism and conservatism but not traditionalism lead to increased engagement.
CONCLUSIONS
Academic entitlement resulted in decreased engagement both in and out of the classroom.
The authoritarianism and conservatism higher groups reported increased behavioral and emotional engagement but did not differ from the lower groups on cognition and the agentic subscale.
The findings on increased entitlement support previous work by Pryor et al. (2008) as these students were more likely to be territorial in the classroom and find more offense in faculty behaviors.
Greenberger et al. (2008) was also supported in that these students were more likely externally motivated and had externalized responsibilities.
PARTICIPANTS
One hundred seventy four college students from a small Midwestern university
Predominately women (72.3%) ranging from ages (M = 19.37, SD = 1.17)
Correspondence to:
Presented at the 27th American Psychological Science Annual Convention, New York, NY May 21-24, 2015