Little Liars

Soojin 

EAP1-B

04/27/11

Core(RRJ#5)

1. Reference

Lamiell, T. J. (2011, January). Little liars.  The Psychologist, 24, 1, 72-74.

2. Summary

This article tells us that the essential features of lies are the awareness of falsehood and intention to deceive another. And it classifies lies into pseudo-lies and genuine lies. The former refers to lies which are full of awareness of falsehood but without the intention to deceive, the latter refers to true lies which have both features. Finally the author suggests that it is necessary to understand children’s natural tendencies, how those tendencies converge with environmental factors, and introception to prevent children’s habitual lying.

  

3. Reaction

I was very impressed by the topic of the article and regretful that I didn’t give my daughters good guidelines when they told lies. The author emphasized that playful fantasy in childhood is very important as an integral and significant aspect of his or her psychological development. I absolutely agree with that now. But when my daughters were young, I didn’t really understand their fantastic lies because I was quite realistic and strict. Also, I realized that an exaggerated commitment to truth-telling may make children more guilty and regretful; as a result, it has an negative effect on stable emotions of children. If I could go back to that time again, I would be willing to allow them to tell fantasy lies, and furthermore sometimes encourage them to make interesting playful fantasies to raise creative and imaginative thinking. In addition to that, I would tell them the criteria of true lies and help them to build moral standards.