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My grade, my right: linking academic entitlement to academic performance

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Abstract

The identification of determinants and correlates of academic entitlement is of particular interest for researchers and (academic) tutors alike. Whilst personality traits have been linked to academic entitlement in the past, the relative importance of familial influence remains unclear. Hence, to address this deficit, this study utilizes a sample of business and psychology undergraduates (N = 170) in the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, the impact of academic entitlement on students’ misestimation of coursework grades was assessed in a subsample of psychology undergraduates (N = 92). Multiple regression analyses revealed honesty–humility as the strongest predictor of academic entitlement, indicating lower entitlement of more honest students. In contrast, familial influences were unrelated to academic entitlement. Interestingly, higher entitled expectations were associated with larger overestimation of grades. Our findings indicate honesty–humility as an important driver of academic entitlement, whilst entitled expectations appear to be associated with misperceptions of students own academic performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Bianca Bertl, Denise Andrzejewski, Lynda Hyland & Anita Shrivastava

  2. Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Australia

    Douglas Russell

  3. Department of Applied Psychology: Health, Development, Enhancement and Intervention, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Jakob Pietschnig

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  1. Bianca Bertl
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  2. Denise Andrzejewski
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  4. Anita Shrivastava
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  5. Douglas Russell
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  6. Jakob Pietschnig
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Correspondence to Bianca Bertl.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Middlesex University Dubai Ethics Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Bertl, B., Andrzejewski, D., Hyland, L. et al. My grade, my right: linking academic entitlement to academic performance. Soc Psychol Educ 22, 775–793 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09509-2

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