An annotated bibliography critiquing the concept of truth as elucidated in critical thinking examples

Psychology

American Psychological Association (2014, January 23). Telling the Whole Truth May Ease Feelings of Guilt. Retrieved from http://www. apa. org/news/press/releases/2014/01/truth-guilt. aspx
Eric Ravenscraft (2014). Partial confessions might not ease guilt like telling the whole truth. Journal of American Psychological Association.
The article discusses how the feelings of guilt are eased whenever the truth is told. From recent studies, it has been said that partial confessions remains attractive but are accompanied by emotional feelings. The American Psychological Association published research findings which claimed that individuals who have a tendency of telling the whole truth remain in peace when compared to those who only tell part of truth. These individuals will always feel at their worse because guilt will always gaunt them.
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology claims that telling partial truth may not help to ease the guilt associated with lies. The research conducted showed the levels of regrets portrayed by individuals who never spoke the truth. It was noted that, most of them were regretful because of their past mistakes and they always felt unrelieved.
The article goes further to explain that individuals who practices partial confessions have a higher degree of regret compared to the ones who expressed the whole truth. The problem with the findings is that they never indicated the reasons of regret; if regrets was either as a reason of confession or it happened because of partially expressing the truth.
In the article, the findings and discussions of the research show that those who told the whole truth felt much relieved as compared to the partial confessors. It is also noted that much guilt was associated with partial confessors.
Richard C. (2011). The Concept of Truth, Palgrave Macmillan, 260pp., $90. 00 (hbk), ISBN 9780230297852.
At times, people confess partially with an intention of preventing the worst. Though this partial confession might make them develop a sense of guilt, they still feel comfortable as they can justify their reasons for hiding part of the truth. Some people find it rather appealing to share a selective version of their screw-ups since they believe that some of the screw-ups are not worth sharing. However, truths are linguistically structured and this greatly affects how it is revealed.
Pe’er E, Acquisti A, Shalvi S. (2014). “ I Cheated, but Only a Little”: Partial Confessions to Unethical Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Human beings develop skills in unintentional lying. We regularly lie so as to get off the bad situations that we find ourselves in and preserve our status quo. However, it is excruciating that we even lie to elders who might be at the brink of psychological disorder. The lies that we tell end up stressing us and slowly reducing our worth in the society. The author states that the best way to stop the hostile effects of lying is standing still and owning up in full.
Experts from Ben-Gurion and Carnegie Mellon Universities conducted a research and found out that people who disclose only a small portion of their secrets feel guilty than those who disclose everything or those who did not reveal any.
In the article, various experiments are performed in investigation of association between confession and guilt. The 1st experiment involved a game of coin-tossing and the participants who predicted the correct outcome was rewarded. A correct prediction was accompanied with a reward of 10 cents and this led to participants to partially confess the truth.
The 2nd experiment had related to the first one. When the participants explain how they felt, it is noted that the ones who had partially confessed were more afraid, shameful and guilty than those who told the truth.
A comparison of the findings of all these experiments shows that confessions find its way in a number of circumstances. Our actions are linked to how we feel after or before confession. To conclude, it can be said that an individual is safe when he only reveals the truth.

References

Pe’er E, Acquisti A, Shalvi S. (2014). “ I Cheated, but Only a Little”: Partial Confessions to Unethical Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Richard C. (2011). The Concept of Truth, Palgrave Macmillan, 260pp., $90. 00 (hbk), ISBN 9780230297852.
Eric Ravenscraft (2014). Partial confessions might not ease guilt like telling the whole truth. Journal of American Psychological Association.