Have you ever thought of your parents lying? Well, of course, they are because they're human beings just like you and me. But the irony is that parents teach their children not to lie.
I read an article entitled "When parents lie to their children" by Christian Jarrett in the site bps-research-digest.blogspot.com states that majority of the parents lie to control their children's behavior. Gail Heyman and her colleagues presented 114 parents in the USA and 85 in China with 16 so-called "instrumental lies" in four categories - lies intended to influence the kids' eating habits (e.g. "you need to finish all your food or you will get pimples all over your face"); lies to get the children to leave or stay put (e.g. "If you don't come with me now, I will leave you here by yourself); lies to control misbehavior (e.g. "If you don't behave I will call the police"); and finally, lies to do with shopping and money (e.g. "I did not bring any money with me today. We can come back another day.").
84% of US parents and 98% of Chinese parents admitted telling at least one of the 16 lies to their children, and a majority of parents in both countries admitted to telling lies from three of the four categories. The exception was the behavior category - just half the US parents said they told lies to make the behavior of their children better, compared with 80 per cent of Chinese parents. The biggest percentage leads to the lie that the parents were threatening to leave a child alone if he/she refused to obey his/her parents.
In relation to misbehavior and eating, China ranked higher than the US in the rates of lying by parents. "This cross-cultural difference may reflect greater concern with social cohesiveness and a greater emphasis on respect and obedience," the researchers said. Kids see elders lie, so they learn from it. Parents and elders are role models for children so what they saw, they'll also do it.
Parents tell lies to their children so that they would follow and obey them. Heyman said that their study helps fill a void in an understudied area that may have strong implications for children's social and moral development.
In other article I read entitled,"Parents lie to their children" by Sean Coughlan from the site www.bbc.co.uk. The study, published in the International Journal of Psychology, examined the use of "instrumental lying" - and found that such tactically-deployed falsehoods were used by an overwhelming majority of parents in both the United States and China - based on interviews with about 200 families.
The researchers, headed by Gail D. Heymana, Anna S. Hsua, Genyue Fub and Kang Leeac said "The pervasiveness of this lie may relate to the universality of the challenge parents face in trying to leave a place against their child's wishes." Important moral questions for parents about when, if ever, parental lying is justified. So that they have an explanation and also to defend their side.
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