Unveiling negative behaviors in the academic arena

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that the appearance of negative behaviors is omnipresent not only at the secondary but also at the academic institutions. The aim of the present study is the investigation of inclinations in terms of practicing and being a target of three negative behavioral phenomena; verbal aggressiveness, bullying and Machiavellianism among university students. A sample of 17 classes of totally 783 undergraduate students (405 females and 378 males) from Physical Education and Sports Science, Veterinary and Business Administration academic departments in Greece was scrutinized with social network analysis as far as the afore mentioned three destructive behaviors as structural phenomena were concerned. Standardized questionnaires composed of non-network and network parts were distributed. Visone software was implemented for calculating network variables (network analysis algorithms were used: In/outdegree, Katz status, PageRank, authority). Social Network Analysis and Spearman test (SPSS) have been applied in order to reveal any reliance among departments, behaviors and general characteristics in question. According to the basic results of the present study, there is a noticeable variation among the three academic fields concerning their value system. Physical Education department seems to be characterized by a spirit of competitiveness and great discipline fulfilling athletic achievements. Veterinary department appears to be depicted by scientific and selflessness standards while Business Administration department seems to be devoted to its sole aim regarding the dominance of the market. To combat these negative behaviors, it is necessary to detect their specific determinants in order to formulate effective tactics for nipping such behaviors in the bud at the educational settings. © 2020 Common Ground Research Networks. All rights reserved.