Date of Publication
8-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology
Subject Categories
Educational Sociology
College
College of Liberal Arts
Department/Unit
Behavioral Sciences
Thesis Advisor
Diana Therese M. Veloso
Defense Panel Chair
Myla M. Arcinas
Defense Panel Member
Dennis S. Erasga
Crisanto Q. Regadio, Jr
Czarina C. Labayo-Prieto
Michael Eduard L. Labayandoy
Praxis A. Miranda
Abstract (English)
The Filipino collectivist culture accentuates collective action and cooperation toward a shared goal. However, despite its positive attributes, the shared goals sometimes satisfy negative intentions. Ingroups having shared mutually beneficial collaboration can run the risk of engaging in silent structured collective cheating. Thereby, this dissertation investigates the culturally embedded phenomenon of collective cheating among student ingroups in a collectivist-oriented society during individualized online examinations as prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on Bourdieu’s habitus, Sykes and Matza’s neutralization theory, and Erasga’s pakiramdaman, the study examines how Filipino university students in Northern Luzon organized, neutralized, and normalized collective cheating within a collectivist culture that prioritizes relational harmony, loyalty, and group survival. Using convergent parallel mixed methods design, 843 respondents from different colleges participated in the survey using criterion sampling, and 15 ingroups with 75 participants joined the ginabayang talakayan. The quantitative findings revealed a moderate level of collective cheating and neutralization, with significant differences across ethnic affinity, family income, and college affiliation, but not in gender and academic performance. Qualitatively, pakiramdaman constructs lapit, galang, hiya, and lusot uncovered culturally specific justifications that reframed cheating as tulungan, motivated by trust, compassion, and social obligation. The alignment between neutralization techniques and pakiramdaman-based lusot themes offers a powerful sociological insight that collective cheating is merely cognitively justified but morally harmonized within culturally shared values. Thereby, collective cheating in collectivist societies like the Northern Luzon, Philippines cannot be reduced to individual deviance but must be understood as a culturally intelligible, relationally negotiated practice during the onslaught of COVID-19. The study shows that collective cheating was not merely a moral lapse, but a culturally rationalized survival strategy reinforced by students’ ingrained dispositions and shared habitus. These findings contribute to the sociological discourse on collective cheating as a deviant behavior by illustrating how cultural values intersect with educational practices, especially in collective societies, calling for institutions to integrate culturally sensitive approaches to promote ethical collaboration and integrity in academic settings that harness Filipino values as ethical anchors rather than constraints.
Abstract Format
html
Abstract (Filipino)
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Abstract Format
html
Language
English
Format
Electronic
Keywords
COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023; Cheating (Education)--Philippines; Habitus (Sociology)
Recommended Citation
Jamoral, R. (2025). The pandemic-induced operationalization and neutralization of collective cheating among ingroups of university students in Northern Luzon, Philippines: A sociological inquiry. Retrieved from https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdd_behsc/6
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Embargo Period
9-3-2028
