A Study of Professional Skepticism PDF Download
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Author: Carmen Olsen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319498967
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 62
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Book Description
This book describes how auditors exercise different levels of professional skepticism and how they are exposed to different types of affective information on clients’ behavior. Based on the author’s empirical study of 56 auditors, it shows that auditors’ skepticism and affective reactions towards a client interact to influence their appraisal of valuation problems. It also suggests that the effects of auditors’ affective reactions on their skeptical judgments depend on the level of risk in the audit engagement.
Author: Carmen Olsen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319498967
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 62
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Book Description
This book describes how auditors exercise different levels of professional skepticism and how they are exposed to different types of affective information on clients’ behavior. Based on the author’s empirical study of 56 auditors, it shows that auditors’ skepticism and affective reactions towards a client interact to influence their appraisal of valuation problems. It also suggests that the effects of auditors’ affective reactions on their skeptical judgments depend on the level of risk in the audit engagement.
Author: Kristina Yankova
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3658088710
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321
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Book Description
Kristina Yankova addresses the question of what role professional skepticism plays in the context of cognitive biases (the so-called information order effects) in auditor judgment. Professional skepticism is a fundamental concept in auditing. Despite its immense importance to audit practice and the voluminous literature on this issue, professional skepticism is a topic which still involves more questions than answers. The work provides important theoretical and empirical insights into the behavioral implications of professional skepticism in auditing.
Author: Tiffany D. Schuster
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Auditors
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
This qualitative study sought to understand challenges to Louisville, Kentucky Certified Public Accounting firms and the development of auditor professional skepticism. The research considered the problem of the lack of professional skepticism and the importance of the skill in the auditor's role. The study focused on three levels of auditing roles, their experience in auditing, education levels, and overall experience in their current role. The research methodology was a single case study design and interviewed participants through gaining insight from their experiences in the auditing field, and the challenges faced. The research deepened the understanding of problems and contributing factors for professional skepticism development and identified potential solutions.
Author: Dominic Mertz
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Professional skepticism is a combination of an auditor's innate abilities, personal characteristics, professional experiences, education, and training (Nelson, 2009; Hurtt, 2010; Liu, 2018). A key question is whether professional skepticism can be enhanced by classroom assignments. This study attempts to measure professional skepticism in audit students before and after a classroom assignment designed to enhance skepticism. The assignment is an intervention or simulated audit, which gives students the opportunity to exercise skepticism. Using Hurtt's (2010) survey instrument, I examine a questioning mind, the suspension of judgement, search for knowledge, interpersonal understanding, self-determination, and self-confidence. The findings show that students do not exercise a questioning mind, and instead, put too much trust in authority figures (e.g., clients). The students do suspend judgement, search for knowledge, seek interpersonal understanding, and have self-confidence during audits. The findings also show that rather than exercising self-determination, the students engage in groupthink. These results suggest that classroom assignments that simulate real-life audits may be able to improve certain aspects professional skepticism.
Author: Mary C. Parlee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Auditing
Languages : en
Pages : 152
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Book Description
"The objective of this dissertation is to examine professional skepticism in the audit environment and identify methods to promote professional skepticism in an overall effort to improve auditor judgment and decision making. This dissertation is made up of three studies, and each study’s purpose, methodology, and findings are summarized below.
Author: Seth E. Sikkema
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Auditing
Languages : en
Pages : 232
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Book Description
The value of an audit is in part based on the degree of professional skepticism exercised by an auditor. Indeed, the importance of professional skepticism has been stressed by regulators and practitioners since the earliest stages of the auditing profession. Recent scrutiny of the audit profession, however, indicates that auditors occasionally lack the ability to exercise an appropriate level of professional skepticism. The concern over the issue suggests a need for greater research and understanding of the determinants and dimensionality of professional skepticism. This research examined the individual trait component of professional skepticism and also introduced a new antecedent, personal values, into a revised model of professional skepticism. Understanding antecedents to skeptical behavior is important because the ability to measure individual differences in trait skepticism improves the precision of predictive models of skeptical behavior. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether differences in students exist among the level of trait skepticism, major choice, and personal values. As a result, the primary goal is not to study the factors causing trait professional skepticism, but rather whether the result of skeptical personality trait is associated with different combinations of specific characteristics among a set of students. The methodology used in the research employs independent t-tests, ANOVAs, and Chi-square tests to identify whether significant differences were present. The data used in the study comes from student participants at two universities located in Western Oregon. Each participant provided demographic data, completed a trait skepticism survey, and ranked personal values by importance. The results showed that the level of trait skepticism is associated with different categories of GPA, class standing, and age. Furthermore, high trait skeptics tended to choose different majors than low trait skeptics, more skeptical students opting for liberal arts majors. The results also showed that high and low trait skeptics placed different preferences among ten personal value sets. As a result, this study was able to show that skeptical personality trait is associated with different combinations of specific characteristics among a set of students.
Author: Sandra C. Holley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Author: Mark W. Nelson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This paper reviews research that examines professional skepticism (hereafter, PS) in auditing. Consistent with much research and with recent regulatory concerns, the paper defines PS as ''indicated by auditor judgments and decisions that reflect a heightened assessment of the risk that an assertion is incorrect, conditional on the information available to the auditor.'' In many circumstances the assertion in question will be a client's assertion that the financial statements are free of material misstatement, but the definition could apply to other assertions as well (e.g., attesting to the effectiveness of a client's internal controls). This definition reflects more of a ''presumptive doubt'' than a ''neutral'' view of PS, implying that auditors who exhibit high PS are auditors who need relatively more persuasive evidence (in terms of quality and or quantity) to be convinced that an assertion is correct. Depending on how an auditor's decisions are evaluated, it is possible under this definition for an auditor to exhibit too much PS, in that they could design overly inefficient and expensive audits.
Author: Gerd Bohner
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317715543
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
Attitudes - cognitive representations of our evaluation of ourselves, other people, things, actions, events, ideas - and attitude change have been a central concern in social psychology since the discipline began. People can - and do - have attitudes on an infinite range of things but what are attitudes, how do we form them and how can they be modified? This book provides the student with a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the basic issues in the psychological study of attitudes. Drawing on research from Europe and the USA it presents up-to-date coverage of the key issues that will be encountered in this area, including attitude formation and change, functions of attitudes, attitude measurement, attitudes as temporary constructs, persuasion processes and prediction of behaviour from attitudes.
Author: Erin Burrell Nickell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 75
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Book Description
The third general standard of fieldwork requires auditors to maintain a skeptical mindset with regards to the collection and critical assessment of audit evidence. While professional skepticism is frequently referenced by professional standards, a lack of precision in defining the concept presumably leads to variation in how skepticism is exercised in practice. Drawing on theories from the fields of psychology, economics and organizational justice, this dissertation considers different perspectives of what constitutes sufficient professional skepticism and examines how those perspectives differ between audit practitioners and regulators. First, I consider competing perspectives of professional skepticism--neutral versus presumptive doubt--and whether asking auditors to adopt alternative perspectives of skepticism may have implications for audit efficiency and effectiveness. While, too little skepticism may endanger audit effectiveness and lead to audit failure or enforcement action, too much skepticism may arguably lead to unnecessary costs and inefficiency. Second, I consider whether the nature of the auditor-client relationship threatens an auditor's ability to maintain an attitude of professional skepticism. For example, theoretical perspectives from the fields of psychology and economics suggest that auditors may, consciously or unconsciously, be less skeptical of clients with whom they have developed close, positive working relationships or financial dependencies. More specifically, I consider whether skeptical behavior is impeded by management who display low-risk attitudes towards fraud or by client's who are considered to be highly important to the profitability of the local office. Finally, I examine how professional skepticism is defined from a regulator's perspective. When a public company is accused of fraudulent financial reporting, regulators may determine that the audit performed on the fraudulent financial statements was deficient. Prior research has suggested that in such cases, insufficient skepticism is often a leading cause of alleged audit failure. Within a fairness theory framework, this study examines enforcement actions against auditors between 1999 and 2009, and identifies certain factors that are associated with a citation for a lack of professional skepticism. Overall, results suggest that regulators approach the issue by determining whether auditors should have been more skeptical. Factors found to affect this determination include whether the auditor was perceived as having been aware of an elevated risk of fraud or whether the client was accused of having provided the auditor with false or misleading information during the course of their investigation.
