Plagiarism Psychology Theories

There is always a drive for everything, certain mental and emotional factors governing a situation or activity. Every action, decision and thought has a cause and effect. Plagiarism is no different and is also associated with many such factors in reality.. The director sitting at the back of all this is psychology. In order to understand the psychology of plagiarism, it is important to first understand psychology itself enough to have baseline knowledge.

Psychology Meaning

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word psychology is used with two meanings. The first is its use as a field of study such as those why study psychology in academics. The other psychological meaning is it being the collection of mental or behavior related traits and characteristics of an individual or group of people. For us this is the most applicable since we want to understand and highlight the psychology of those who plagiarize essays or any other written material.

Psychology Types

This is a vast area too because there are many psychology types. Even if we mention just a few the list is long. Here are some of them:

1. Psychology of stress
2. The psychology of color
3. Psychology of personality
4. Psychology in education
5. Psychology of emotions
6. Psychology of fear
7. Psychology of human behavior
8. Psychology of Plagiarism

The interesting part is that the many different psychology types have a [part to play in the psychology of plagiarism because there are elements of fear, lack of confidence, the inferiority complex, and other emotions involved.

Psychology of Plagiarism

Let’s take a look in detail at the Psychology Behind Plagiarism.

The psychology of plagiarism and its associated scenario works in a dual mode. One is the personal psychology of human behavior behind copying others, wanting to take the easy way or the shortcut. Second is the third-party behavioral pressure we put on our peers to copy others.

Reasons Behind Psychology of Plagiarism

There are several reasons that step from the psychology of human behavior, which then contribute to the psychology of plagiarism, that can drive a person to plagiarize others’ work. These are a few of those reasons that form the basis of the psychology plagiarism:

• Fear of failure
• Inability to write well
• Lack of time management skills and planning abilities
• Commitment issues
• Lack of prioritization and work vs leisure delegation such as more time going into recreational activities than tasks with a deadline and grade.
• Disinterest in work or apathy
• Unexpected assignment of work leading breakdown of planned activities
• Taking Plagiarism too lightly and downplaying its importance in academic writing as well as the importance of avoiding plagiarism.

All these factors might vary in situations and give different outcomes but, all in all, if we can generally tackle these factors, we can make sure to be less-motivated towards copy-pasting and plagiarism types.

While these issues arise from the plagiarizer himself. There are many other surrounding pressures and psychology theories that enforce a person to attempt plagiarism such as the pressure by fellow classmates or college friends to just copy and get it over with.. We may not realize but we could be demotivating someone so much that they seek refuge in copying someone else instead of putting in the effort to keep improving their written expression. A takeaway from that is that it is better to support and build someone up then harshly criticize and bring them down. .

As per the observations, it is also evident that lack of confidence or inferiority complex regarding one’s own work can lead to mimic others. When one feels less or no acceptance of their own work, they feel more need to copy those whose works are widely accepted over the workplace. So, we should also keep in mind not to discourage anyone openly as it might do more bad than good.

Avoiding Plagiarism

With an understanding of the psychology behind plagiarism, rather than saying ‘your work is bad or not up to the mark,’ talk to them about how they can improve. Tell them the tips towards good writing. Also, you can recommend Plagiarism Checker X to analyze their work for duplicate content easily and accurately. This will surely help them in avoiding plagiarism.