Antisocial Personality Disorder is in the category of Cluster B Personality Disorders. It can also be called sociopathy or psychopathy, depending on severity of symptoms. Sociopathy is thought to be when something is severely wrong with the conscience, as opposed to psychopathy, when this no conscience of the person (Stout, Westermeyer, & Thuras, 2015). Some clinicians believe there is no difference in sociopathy, where other clinicians believe psychopathy is a more severe form of the disorder (Blais, Smallwood, Groves, Rivas-Vazquez, & Berger, 2014). Either way, it is a chronic personality disorder in which the person’s way of thinking, perception, and actions are disturbed, destructive, and dysfunctional. The disorder may lessen as the …show more content…
It is more common in men than women. There is a higher incidence in persons in prison and those who have a first degree biological family member who suffers from the disorder (Womble, 2011). The disorder usually accompanies other disorders, such as Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder. The patient typically shows symptoms during early childhood, and if not corrected, worsens as the child ages. The child or adolescent will show a lack of social and emotional understanding. Early detection and intervention to improve deficits may help in preventing children who grow up to suffer with the antisocial personality disorder. Interventions may include effective and appropriate discipline, behavioral skills, and therapy. Parents, teachers, and healthcare providers may be the best ones to detect the early warning signs (Arehart-Treichel, …show more content…
The person will not typically seek help for treatment on their own and is usually ordered by a court. Patients may be prescribed mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and/or antipsychotics to help with symptoms of the disorder (Paris, Black, Shi, Kendall, Alarcon, & Palmer, 2013). When the patient suffers with ADHD, stimulants are generally prescribed, but do nothing to improve antisocial behavior (Arehart-Treichel, 2011). Currently, there are no medications approved by the FDA specifically for the disorder. Other treatments may include “reward and consequence” approach and “talk therapy”, also referred to as psychotherapy. The latter approach is only successful if the person can admit to contributing to the problem. Treatment for family members may also be encouraged. They can learn how to set boundaries, protect themselves against aggression, violence, and anger. They might learn coping strategies, too (Blais, Smallwood, Groves, Rivas-Vazquez, & Berger, 2014).
Complications of the disorder consist of imprisonment, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, and suicide. When the patient abuses drugs and alcohol, symptoms are exacerbated and treatment for either one is compromised (Stout, Westermeyer, & Thuras,
Antisocial personality disorder is a disregard for others rights and violating theses rights. This disorder starts as a child to people who carry this disorder portray the characteristics of irritability, aggressiveness, lack of remorse, and irresponsibility. A psychopath falls under the umbrella of antisocial personality disorders. A psychopath is a person with a personality disorders which is inherited from their parents at birth. Flashes of these inherited factors show and happen in the child upbringing this includes torture animals at a young age, playing weird dark games as a kid, or ripping heads of toys. A perfect example of a Psychopath is Edmund Kemper. A man who showed his psychopath tendencies at a young age that grew into to him becoming a serial killer.
This article tries to sum up the causes of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Though, researchers have not found an exact cause of Antisocial Personality Disorder (Martens, 2000). Antisocial Personality Disorder is known to be directed toward specific behaviors and criminal act instead of looking at personality traits and psychopathological aspects (Martens, 2000). People that develop Antisocial Personality Disorder are more likely to suffer from substance abuse disorder, anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia (Martens, 2000). Researchers have done different studies especially with brain injuries, which could trigger
Antisocial personality disorders are immense, and psychopaths and sociopaths are just two of the various personality disorders. An antisocial personality disorders is defined as, “a type of chronic mental condition in which a person's ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional — and destructive.” (Mayo Clinic Staff). Sociopaths are a direct correlation to antisocial personality
Antisocial personality disorder is a disorder of the brain that cause one to disregard other people’s rights by violating them, they lack empathy and are very malicious towards others, they enjoy the suffering of individuals whether it be an animal or human being and it usually occurs during child/teen hood and worsens as the child ages. With this disorder comes a hatred toward society due to lack of knowledge of the real world “Many of the children grow up shy, lonely, highly sensitive, with feelings of being rejected, unloved and neglected by family and/or society”(Miller, 2014, p.13). Isolation at young ages causes children to not know how to interact with others in the real world they think that it is okay to violate personal space because they were never taught what that was. With the isolation and feelings of oddity in the child, they begin to manifest fantasies within their own mind (Miller, 2014, p.14). Many times the child starts out with violent sexual fantasies that they would like to act out but do not have an execution plan so they experiment on inanimate objects or even themselves or family members who will not tell such as younger siblings. This quickly escalates to the things they do to strangers in society starting with smaller steps such as stalking, peeping tom, or abduction. With such successes, they begin their reign of terror
This paper explores articles and information that describe, assess and offer theories and treatments regarding antisocial personality disorder.
Introduction The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the constructs of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. The aim is to highlight whether the terms psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder reflect the same construct or whether they differ. Furthermore, recommendations for treatment of criminal behavior will be explored. For the purposes of this evaluation some definitions need to be highlighted: Criminal offence is an act that breaks a law, which relates how to behave in society. The harm caused by the act is seen to be against society as a whole, not just a specific person. Sometimes it refers to the specific law that was broken (Herring, 2009). Crime is the breach of rules or law for which some authority
This report will describe the symptoms, suspected causes, diagnosis process, treatment, and prevention of antisocial personality disorder.
Antisocial personality disorder is defined as “a type of chronic mental condition in which a person’s ways of thinking, perceiving situations, and relating to others are dysfunctional – and (often times) destructive.” According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, “people with antisocial personality disorder typically have no regard for right and wrong, and often disregard the rights, wishes, and feelings of others.” They will “antagonize, manipulate, or treat others harshly with callous indifference. They may often violate the law, landing in frequent trouble, yet (they) show no guilt or remorse.” As such, people with this disorder can all too often present both a serious and legitimate danger – both to themselves
While there have been no outwardly successful treatments for Antisocial Personality Disorder, many of the disorders’ individuals never seek treatment alone, as they see no reason to conform to the rules of society with which they find no satisfaction. Instead, the individual will be prompted by his family or friends, or will be forced by a court system to seek treatment, and then will usually comply, and will consent to treatment. Much of the recent treatment for Antisocial Personality Disorder has been behavioral, and has not been based around biological or medicinal findings.
Antisocial Personality Disorder – Antisocial personality disorder is a type of chronic mental condition in which a person's ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional People with antisocial personality disorder typically have no regard for right and wrong and often disregard the rights, wishes and feelings of others. They are xenophobic at their core. Some of the symptoms might include personality aberrations; such as unusual behavior that is illogical, repeated violations of others rights through intimidation, threats, or lying to be deceitful to others, legal violations, theft of property,
Antisocial personality disorder is a mental illness that is often associated with constant lying and abnormal behavior. Every patient is different and may have other symptoms than others. It is important to recognize some of the first signs and to seek medical help if needed. It is common for a patient with antisocial personality disorder to lie frequently, be disrespectful, make impulsive decisions, and show no remorse for others. Some of the less common symptoms include participating in gangs and illegal activity, suicidal thoughts, other mental illnesses like depression and anxiety, and abusive relationships. Most people experience one or more of these symptoms from time to time, but it is normal, everyone is human and it is how our brains
These ideas are similar to the risk factors that correlate with the development of antisocial personality disorder, but also match up with each perspective ’s method of explaining psychology. According to the psychodynamic theory, antisocial personality disorder can be initiated through the lack of parental love and support during infancy. The resulting lack of basic trust could lead to the formation of disregard for other’s feelings and rights later in life. Psychodynamic theorists believe that people with antisocial personality disorder respond to the absence of parental support by becoming emotionally detached and rely on the use of intimidation, power, or destructiveness to relate to other people.
Antisocial personality disorder is one of the hardest mental disorders to treat. Treatment is long term and may better the situation but the disorder will not be cured. It is also very rare for an individual with ASPD to seek help for themselves due to their denial of symptoms. Oftentimes, help is only sought if the individual is in legal
According to Merriam Webster dictionary an antisocial personality disorder or APD is a personality disorder that is characterized by antisocial behavior exhibiting pervasive disregard for and violation of the rights, feelings, and safety of others starting in childhood or the