The Concept of Lie and How to Modify It in Students

Lying is making untrue statements with the intention to deceive.  It is giving an erroneous or misleading impression. It is also a person’s way of explaining things in a negative way. Lying is the act of making false statements and the saying of things that are not true with the intention of deceiving. This is an indication that lie is deceitful and aims at misleading or covering up as in defense mechanism experiences. Lying can also be defined as an intentional attempt to deceive or create false impression.  It aims at misconception, misinformation and misdirection.

Wright Loeffelman (2002) believes that lying is an integral part of human nature. Wright Loeffelman stated that, “a person who lies to his colleagues is usually empowered at least temporarily and stands a better chance of getting what he wants”. When a lie is told, there is a deliberate and conscious effort to deceive and overcome someone.

Andrea (1983) opined that students with disciplinary problems like lying, stealing etc have concerns that require assistance in resolving. Psychologists refer to the methods of resolving these behavioral problems as behavior modification. Behavior modification is the application of learning theory principles to improve academic and social behavior of students. The students are taught and they unlearn the previously acquired undesirable behavior and learn the desirable one. Strayhon (2003), defined behavior modification as the method which counselors use to change negative behavior to positive one or bad behavior to good one.    One of the most effective behavior modification methods is called cognitive restructuring. The term “cognitive restructuring” is used because it sounds more learned and respectable than such thing like “thinking more useful thoughts”. The word cognition is synonym for thought. The main idea of cognitive restructuring stems from the belief that what can greatly affect people’s emotions and behavior is what they think. People can seriously change their habits by what they say to themselves. They can make themselves happier or kinder or more productive or can accomplish any positive change through positive thinking. Strayhon (2003) opined that the main idea of cognitive restructuring is that by revising our habits of thinking, we can favorably alter how we feel and act. Humans can get rid of negative emotions and their effects by dismantling the beliefs that give them life. Oladimeji (2007) opined that “cognition” refers to acquiring and processing information about the world around us. Cognition encompasses all the psychological processes by which an individual registers, encodes, selects, maintains, transform, stores and retrieves information. The psychological process such as perception, memory and thinking are actively involved in cognition. The term “cognitive” therefore refers to the content or product of these psychological processes.   Cognitive restructuring can then be seen as the process of changing thoughts that are dysfunctional so as to reduce and finally stop the resultant abnormal behavior.  Teachers can equally use cognitive restructuring in modifying students’ disciplinary problem which lying is one of them. This restructuring process is called cognitive therapy.