Aggressive Behavior Essay

Psychological factors also play a role in these disorders. According to Rosenberg and Kosslyn (2011), classical and operant conditioning do not seem to have the same effects for persons with psychopathic traits. If one is unable to learn from

According to studies led by King’s College researchers, it has been confirmed that “psychopathy is a distinct subgroup of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD)” (Gregory et. al n.p) and similarly to psychopathy, the more severe ASPD behavioral patterns are, the symptoms can be referred to as sociopathic or psychopathic. Furthermore, according to Nigel Blackwood, Ma, MD.MRCPsych, “MRI scans...found that psychopaths had structural brain abnormalities in key areas of their ‘social brains’” (Gregory et. al n.p). The areas of the brain, in which are deficient in psychopaths, are important when comprehending an individual emotions’, intentions, and moral

Eiseberg (1995) examined the structure of sociopathy and found that the role that emotions play in the psychopathic mind is problematic and complex. In his evaluations, Eisenberg established that the study in sociopathy an understanding into the roles of anxiety, love, and sympathy, or lack thereof, as factors contributing to psychopathy. In his findings, Eiseberg (1995) suggested that low anxiety, neuroticism, and absence of love and empathy characterize emotional traits leading to psychopathy. However, the unanswered question that remains from this research is how such emotions are triggered to begin with.

For a long period in history, psychopaths were believed to be possessed by demons and spirits and were routinely exercised to expel such creatures. As science and clinical experiences progressed, people have learned that the brain is wired in multiple different ways, some in which lead to the negative “disorder” dubbed psychopathy (Telles-Correia and Sampaio). Yet, the popular theory that ‘psychopathy is purely genetic is not entirely true. Both genetic and environmental aspects cause psychopathy, and go hand-in-hand in some cases.

However, more recently, a study led by King’s College London has claimed that there are differences between the brains of psychopaths and other criminal offenders diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Dr. Nigel Blackwood who led the research is quoted as saying “We describe those without psychopathy as 'hot-headed' and those with psychopathy as ‘cold-hearted’.” This statement shows a clear distinction between what should be interpreted as a lack of self-control and ability to repress impulses and what should be diagnosed as psychopathy.
The study took MRI scans of 66 men, two thirds of which were offenders who had been diagnosed with antisocial personality whilst the other third were non-offenders considered to not have any personality disorders. Of the 44 offenders, 17 met the diagnosis criteria for psychopathy (ASPD+P) assessed by the guidelines stated in the DSM-IV. Researchers saw that the members of the study diagnosed as psychopaths had notably less grey matter in areas associated with moral behaviour and understanding other peoples’

Psychopathy, in both the mental health and criminal justice systems, has emerged as one of the most important clinical constructs of the 21st century (Hare, Clark, Grann, & Thornton, 2000, p. 623). Where clinically, psychopathy is traditionally described as a combination of inferred socially deviant behaviors and personality traits. Some traits and behaviors a psychopath is seen to possess are commonly known, for example, to being impulsive, selfish, aggressive, lacking remorse, shame, feeling for others, pathologically lying, and having asocial or antisocial behaviors (Hare, & Neumann, 2006, p. 59-60). One of the reasons as to why psychopathy has come to see an increase in the development of its theoretical and applied interest is the

In fact,because psychopaths are not able to feel empathy involuntarily, they are able to turn the feeling on. It is very common for psychopaths to have “ a false belief in their own superiority, a sense of entitlement and a complete disregard for social norms” (Paula, year). Psychopathy had recently been changed into ‘antisocial personality disorder’ in the updated version of the FBI’s mental health book, DSM-III. It was changed for the reason of the personality not always being reliable, as well as psychopathy symptoms crossing over antisocial personality disorder symptoms. Another reason for the change was because it is believed that focusing on behavior instead of the why helped identify the disorder easier. The new research was highly and widely discussed among many physicians because some felt unsure of the change, but they were also for the change with consideration of the evidence that was found. The usual psychopath is not found to be violent. If they are violent, they are considered more dangerous than others and will most likely reoffend sooner and worse than the first time. Between psychopaths and non psychopaths, psychopaths have a longer criminal history which varies in crimes. Their patterns are unique when compared to a non psychopath, but due to their inability to have emotion, they are able to be more observant on their next chosen

The amygdala of psychopaths have has been found to be hypoactive during fear conditioning (Birbaumer et al., 2005), moral decision-making (Glenn, Raine, & Schug, 2009), and social cooperation (Rilling et al., 2007). As expected, studies have also found the amygdala to be hypoactive in response to fearful faces or other affect-related activity (e.g. Carré et al., 2013; Kiehl et al., 2001). Nevertheless, Müller et al. (2003) found that psychopaths had increased activation in the amygdala (in addition to increased prefrontal activation) when viewing negative content (e.g. pictures of threatening animals, wounded people) which they interpreted as reflecting abnormal prefrontal – amygdala communication.” (Umbach et al., 2015,

The most common traits associated with antisocial personality disorder are general cognitive and emotional dysfunction, especially in regards to callousness, manipulation and shallow affect. This study examined specific brain functioning tendencies of both mentally healthy participants and patients diagnosed with psychopathy by comparatively analyzing their facial emotion processing. The comparison allowed researchers to determine the relationship between psychopathological tendencies in relevance to patterns of responses. Generally, people diagnosed with psychopathy demonstrate reduced autonomic responses to expressions of distress or sadness, which in turn leads

This article states that we need to stop interchanging psychopath and sociopath, as they are two different disciplines. Pemment goes into detail about the history, research, and growth of psychopathy. He says that we need to understand the difference between the two, as the behavioral characteristics and potential treatments for each are different. The article includes details on Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hares work on psychopathy. The article describes the PCL-R, and how Hare says the test should be done. The PCL-R is used as a screening tool to identify psychopaths, and

Generally defined, psychopathy is a personality disorder that is characterized by a combination of superficial charm, strong antisocial behavior, and extreme sensation-seeking and impulsivity. Psychopaths make up approximately 15% of the prison population while between 50% - 80% of that prison population could be diagnosed more broadly with antisocial personality disorder (Ogloff, 2006). While the percentage of those diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder is high, the percentage of psychopaths in prison is extremely overrepresented compared to the average population which hovers between 1% - 4% (Ogloff, 2006). While it would be disingenuous to say that all psychopaths are dangerous, their overrepresentation in the population of violent

In “The Making of a Serial KIller” Dr. Berit Brogaard writes about the causes of psychopathy and studies done to determine them. The article goes in depth about if psychopathic tendencies are genetically determined or caused by social factors, such as a broken family. According to Brogaard, and many other studies, there is a large difference between psychotics and psychopaths. I believe that Brogaard’s article is nicely written and satisfactorily informed, although she does show insensitivity to minority groups.

The researchers, based at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said the differences in psychopaths' brains mark them out even from other violent criminals with anti-social personality disorders (ASPD), and from healthy non-offenders. The study showed that psychopaths, who are characterised by a lack of empathy, had less grey matter in the areas of the brain important for understanding other people's emotions.

“Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an inability to form human attachment, aggressive narcissism, and antisocial behavior defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics, most of which society views as pejorative” [1]. Some of these characteristics include irresponsibility, grandiosity, cunning, deceitfulness, selective impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, lack of empathy, etc. People who are psychopathic display not only antisocial behavior but also emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. They are able to prey on others using their charm, deceit, violence or any other methods that allow them to get what they want. A strong feature of most of the behavior

Because males tend to value influential goals such as status among peers, they will typically use overt forms of aggression and gradually incorporate relational forms (Grotpeter & Crick, 1996). The choice of aggression could be linked to the social roles of males and females, the verbal maturity, or the social dynamics in peer relationships.