The Psychological Roots of Lying - Literature review Example

Psychological Roots of Lying Psychological Roots of Lying Introduction The habit of lying is recognized as being a part of everyday life that was developed in the process of socialization. Its roots and goals differ to the great extent and depend on a person who resorts to lying. Being viewed as a normal practice, lying has been mostly neglected by psychologists during the past decades while all the discussions of the topic were given into the hands of theologians and ethicists. Today, however, psychologists show the great interest in the issue of lying, being concerned with the scope of questions and controversies surrounding this habit. An important step in this regard was made with the recognition of the existence of psychological roots of lying that offer a deep insight into the issue and cast the light on various implications of lying. Approaching lying from a psychological perspective, it became possible to associate a variety of psychological disorders with lying and arrive at the conclusion that, often, lying is not an independent phenomenon, but in many cases - a sign or a symptom of serious psychological problems that underlie this habit. Explanations of Lying Although lying is viewed as a common component of social life and interpersonal relationships, it is essential to make a distinction between the different types of lying and reasons standing behind this phenomenon. Lying can take different forms, such as trivial untruths or mere exaggeration as well as serve all possible goals – to protect oneself, gain social appreciation, or hide some inconvenient truth. Therefore, it is possible to differentiate between different kinds of lying on the basis of the frequency of occurrence, aims, severity, degree to which a person controls lying, and its consequences. Subsequently, not all kinds of lying constitute a specific interest for psychologists, but those which go beyond an ordinary lie, common for everyone and become pathological. To start with, depending on the aim and consequences of lying, it is possible to differentiate between the white lies and harmful lies. Looking at the definition of a lie, one will reveal that it can be in short described as “an intentionally false statement”, however, its reasons and goals are various. (Dike, 2007) For instance, white lies are those which people commonly tell in order to spare discomfort. One can resort to white lies to minimize embarrassment, harm, or comfort others. It can benefit both a person who produces lies and a recipient as well as serves the aim of sustaining friendly and warm relationships. As a whole, according to Dolly Withrow, an English professor, (2014), it can be characterized as minor and unimportant, especially when serves the “interest of tact or politeness.” (Withrow, 2014) In contrast to the white lies, harmful lie is not intended at making people feel better or avoiding harm, which telling a blatant truth can produce. Its goal is to avoid consequences of telling a truth. It is self-centered and promotes interests of a liar, protecting one from disapproval or conflict. (DePaulo, 2004) By this, the interests of other people are not viewed as significant As a result, a person who is lied to becomes hurt. He/she can suffer due to being deprived of the possibility to be fully informed about an issue concerned, or to make informed choice as well as feel manipulated, doubt the ability to assess truth, and other. In any case, the harmful lie presupposes viewing interests of a liar more important than those of others. While the mentioned above types of lying are recognized as common constituents of human behavior and social relationships, the focus of psychologists is placed on more complex and severe form of lying, which goes beyond the occasional lying. As it was mentioned above, lying is regarded as a normal habit, meaning that it is common for every person, who can resort to either the white of the harmful lies from time to time. In both cases, lies serve some specific goal, which is to protect the third party or self. This is what understood under the term “occasional lying”. It is natural for people of all ages. What is more, the formation of the ability to lie in children is viewed by psychologists as a marker of normal mental growth and development of white lie-telling is said to have important implications for making an insight into the process of social development. (Talwar, Murphy & Lee, 2007) Subsequently, occasional lying differs to the great extent from more severe form of lying – the pathological one. While there are no difficulties in understanding implications of occasional lying, pathological lying remains a controversial topic within the study of psychology. Although pathological lying has been recognized in the psychiatric community for over a century, there is still no agreed consensus on the definition of the term. (Dike, 2007; Dike, 2008) At the same time, essential elements of pathological lying have been investigated. For instance, in contrast to occasional liar, who is internally or externally motivated, pathological liar acts having no apparent motive or benefit. Such lying seems purposeless and is characterized by a long history. (Dike, 2008) Even more, the lie can be damaging and self-incriminating as well as can appear incomprehensible and abnormal to an ordinary person. Thereof, pathological lying should be regarded not as a disorder or self-rewarding phenomenon, but rather as a symptom of deeper psychological problems and mental health disorders. Categories of pathological liars. Commonly associated with pathological lying are Antisocial personality disorder, Borderline, Factitious, and Histrionic personality disorders. On the basis of the similarity of symptoms, all four are grouped under Cluster B personality disorders. Such patients display erratic, unstable, dramatic and overly emotional behavior. Also, it was revealed that a characteristic of all Cluster B disorders is the propensity for lying. (Ford, 1999) It follows that availability of cases when patient were recognized as overly prone to lying, but had different diagnoses, exemplifies that pathological lying is often a marker of a serious psychological problem that has its specific set of features and characteristics. Antisocial personality disorder can be characterized by persistent disregard for the rights and interest of other people, which makes it easy for a person to manipulate, lie, and selfishly violate rights of others. Such people are prone to pathological lying due to several reasons. Firstly, they lack empathy and remorse needed to shun hurting others. Secondly, they are often cynical and prone to have an increased and arrogant image of self and self-appraisal. Thereof, they can resort to lying simply because they know they can do it. In addition, such persons are often successful in manipulating and lying because of their ability to make good impression, be witty and charming. (Parens & Akhtar, 2009) Among other symptoms should be named unreliability and absence of the feeling of responsibility which together with considerable egocentricity create no boundaries for deceit. People diagnosed with the given disorder do not conform to social norms and do not care about possible consequences of lying. Apart from that, pathological liars are also found among individuals suffering from borderline personality disorder. Such patients experience unstable and intense emotions as their moods change very quickly. They found it difficult to come down and view the world in polarized terms, which becomes either all black or white. Furthermore, the feeling of uncertainty and confusion about personal identity, values, goals, and attitudes towards others and facts of reality are also characteristic features of this type of personality disorders. ("Borderline personality disorder,") The question of the connection between the borderline personality disorder and lying triggered discussions in the scientific circles. In the 2011 article for the Psychology Today Randi Kreger resorts to the observations of Clarence Watson, JD, MD, to explain that persons with BPD can lie due to impulsivity and tendency to act without thinking (Kreger, 2011) Moreover, being too sensitive to rejection and afraid of loneliness and abandonment, they may try to hide mistakes, or maintain some specific image of self. By this, patients often do not intend do harm and do not realize the gravity of their actions. Instead of it, their emotional sufferings push them to lying that seems to be the only right option in a situation. To the next category of pathological liars belong people suffering from the histrionic personality disorder which makes people overly emotional and attention seeking. Such individuals feel uncomfortable when they are not in the center of attention. (Treanor, 2012) Thereof, they try to attract attention in any possible way: dressing defiantly, changing subjects to themselves, playing drama, behaving outrageously, or sobbing over insignificant issues. In this context, lying is often used as a significant aid in this process of gaining attention and being in the center of events. Furthermore, for people with histrionic personality disorder, lying is often a cover of their emotional shallowness and threatened self-esteem. It is a tool of game-playing and manipulation and is needed to guarantee constant flow of dramatic issues, problems, conflicts, and everything that keeps them in the center of events. A specific place among pathological liars, who suffer from cluster B personality disorders obtain individuals displaying factitious disorder. Its essence lies in pretending having illness, physical or mental, and consciously inventing symptoms of imagined diseases. Suffering from the given personality disorders, a person can not only deliberately lie about symptoms, but even hurt themselves to actually cause these symptoms, or fabricate diagnostic tests. The goal of patients is to fulfill the inner necessity to look sick and injured. At the same time, specialists agree that external incentives, such as material benefits, in such cases are absent. Patients do not chase any particular, concrete goal and their behavior is often self-damaging. (Gordon & Randy, 2013) For instance, it would be common for a person with factitious personality disorder to agree to undergo unpleasant and even risky medical procedures and operations. They are obsessed with the idea to gain compassion and sympathy which truly ill people are usually given. Cases and Controversies Taking into consideration all the available data concerning different roots and implications of pathological lying, it becomes clear that the given phenomenon is quite complex and complicated. From one side, it is recognized that pathological lying can be a symptom of different disorders, such as the ones belonging to the cluster B personality disorders. (Parens & Akhtar, 2009) In these cases, patients resort to different kinds of lies as well as do it due to different incentives. For instance, Gordon and Randy (2013) report a case of a woman, who intentionally manipulated her serum glucose levels and lied about the history of her illness and symptoms in order to look sick. The following is an example of the factitious personality disorder, however, the set of symptoms which the woman displayed, such as “impulsivity, suicidal thoughts, fear of abandonment, and feeling of emptiness” also corresponded to the borderline personality disorder. Subsequently, as a symptom, lying is often associated with severe personality disorders. In contrast, specialists agree that individuals can be prone to pathological lying without suffering from a personality disorder. According to Charles Dike (2005), in the most severe form, pathological lying cannot be differentiated from the real experience and gains “the worth of a real experience to the liar.” As a result, the new “I” that was invented by a person overwhelms the original “I”. It is noticeably that in other areas of live, which do not coincide with patient’s lies, he/she does not lose the ability to think logically and make sound judgments. Much public response gained a 2001 case of Judge Patrick Couwenberg, who persistently lied about details and facts of his life. Among commonly cited misinterpretation of Couwenberg are saying that he participated in operations in Africa and Southeast Asia as well as claiming having a Purple Heart for receiving injuries in Vietnam. (Dike, 2005) After psychiatric examination the given patient was diagnosed with pathological lying, however, no concrete personality disorders were detected. Consequently, investigations of pathological lying as phenomenon are still needed. Conclusion The issue of pathological lying remains a controversial topic within the study of psychology as far as the concept lacks adequate and agreed definition and is not validated. At the same time, investigations of this phenomenon made it possible to draw a firm line between the pathological and occasional lying, with the last being recognized as a normal skill that was developed in the process of socialization. In contrast, pathological lying is considerably more frequent, severe, and marks a deviation from the normal mental state of a person. Moreover, pathological lying is commonly associated with the list of personality disorders, such as Antisocial, Borderline, and Histrionic personality disorders and Factitious disorder that push one to lying in its own specific way. In addition, discussions of whether pathological lying can be regarded not merely as a symptom, but as a disease are relevant today. Therefore, systematic and consistent investigations of the issue are needed to cast the light on various implications of the phenomenon, offer means of its measurement and satisfactory definition of the term. References Borderline personality disorder. National Institute of Mental Health, (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/borderline-personality-disorder/borderline_personality_disorder_508.pdf Ford, C. (1999). Lies!, lies!, lies!!! : the psychology of deceit. (pp. 103-105). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=_FSc5C2bFYUC&pg=PA64&dq=cluster b Personality disorders and lying&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=uvL-U8mVMuSp7Aa92YHYCg&ved=0CBsQ6AEwAA DePaulo, B. (2004). The many faces of lies. In A. Miller (Ed.), The Social Psychology of Good and Evil (pp. 303-326). Retrieved from http://smg.media.mit.edu/library/DePaulo.ManyFacesOfLies.pdf Dike, C. (2005). Pathological lying revisited. Journal of Amercian Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 33(3), 342-349. Retrieved from http://www.jaapl.org/content/33/3/342.full Dike, C. (2007). Pathological lying. Paradigm, 4-5. Retrieved from http://www.sequeltsi.com/files/library/Pathological_Lying.pdf Dike, C. (2008, Jun 1). Pathological lying: Symptom or disease?. Psychiatric Times, Retrieved from http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/pathological-lying-symptom-or-disease Gordon, D., & Randy, A. (2013). A relationship between factitious disorder and borderline personality disorder. Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, 10(11-12), 11-13. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3931178/ Kreger, R. (2011, Dec 14). Why some narcissists and borderlines lie. Psychology Today, Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/stop-walking-eggshells/201112/why-some-narcissists-and-borderlines-lie Parens, H., & Akhtar, S. (2009). Lying, cheating, and carrying on: Developmental, clinical, and sociocultural aspects of dishonesty and deceit. (pp. 101-102). Northvale: Aronson. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.ua/books?id=fQC_AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA97&dq=Personality disorders and lying&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=b_D-U-bOLJXlar2igig&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAw Talwar, V., Murphy, S., & Lee, K. (2007). White lie-telling in children for politeness purposes. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31(1), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2581483/ Treanor, K. (2012). D efinin g , unde rs t a ndin g a nd di a g no sin g p a tholog ic al l y in g ( p seudolog i a f a n t a s t ic a ): a n e mpir ic al a nd theor et ic al in ves t i g a t ion in t o w h a t cons t itut es p a tholog ic al l y in g. University of Wollongong Thesis Collection, Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4817&context=theses Withrow, D. (2014, Mar 1). Understanding the differences between harmful lies vs. white lies. West Virginia Illustrated, Retrieved from http://www.wvillustrated.com/story/24589281/understanding-the-differences-between-harmful-lies-vs-white-lies Read More