Behavioral Genetic Study

In the reading, “Are You “A Natural”? by Bouchard and Lykken was a study of the current and continuing essential changes in the way psychologists interpret an individual’s nature in its range of open-minded logic. The debate is whether which is more dominate nature or nurture when it comes to why or how an individual is the way they are. Is it the genes or the environmental factor that influences an individual to behave and reason the way they do? The proposition was to hypothetically take monozygotic twins, identical twins that have the same hereditary complex. Locate sets of twins who were detached at an early stage in their life, grown apart for most of their lives and then united as adults. Once these twins were located they were tested to confirm that they were certainly monozygotic

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

Martens, W. H. (2000). Antisocial and psychopathic Personality Disorders: Causes, Course, and Remission- A Review Artical. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminolgy , 44(4), 406-430.

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

Twin studies are a mainstay of the nature verse nurture debate because they allow researchers to conduct “natural experiments” on human beings. When researchers try to determine the relative importance of genetics and environment with regard to a certain condition, they have a hard time because they cannot generally get people with the same genes. This is where twin studies come in. Twins studies are part of the method used in behaviour genetics, which includes all data that are genetically informative. E.g. siblings, adoptees, pedigree data etc. Researchers use this method to estimate the heritability of traits and to quantify the effect of a person 's shared environment (family) and unique environment (the individual events that shape a life) on a trait.

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

The concept of psychopathy originated in the 1800s to describe individuals that consistently failed to conform to societal norms and exhibited antisocial behavior that did not fit the concept of mental illness of the time period. While, psychopathy was a common term used to describe individuals suffering from this disorder other descriptions were coined such as “Pinel’s term “manie sans delvie” meaning mania without delirium in the 1700s, to describe patents whose ‘affective faculties were disordered’” or Pritchard’s term “moral insanity” (Ogloff 520). In the 1930’s Partridge argued that psychopathy was a social rather than a mental disorder and proposed that the concept of sociopathy be introduced as a more accurate description. The American Psychological Association adopted Partridge’s term for their Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel in 1952. However, in 1968 the American Psychological Association changed the diagnostic label from sociopath to “personality disorder, antisocial” for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel – II that continued through to the DSM - III in 1980 and the DSM - III-R in 1987 and the DSM - IV in 1994. Today the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel categorizes antisocial personality disorder as a personality disorder and it is named as such. Unfortunately, not much research has been conducted

In 1999, L.A. Marshall and D.J. Cooke, studied the relationship between and ACE and psychopathy. Fifty participants were diagnosed as psychopaths and fifty five were non-psychopaths. It was concluded that negative experiences in childhood greatly increased the likelihood of the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder (Marshall et al. 1999).

On biological level, this extension could be attributed to genetic and neurological factors. Consistently, around 40-50% genetic overlap between CU traits and antisocial behaviour was found (Viding & Larsson, 2010; Larsson et al., 2008). The strong genetic basis does not only make individuals with CU traits more vulnerable to antisocial behaviour, but also contributes to their stability towards adulthood psychopathy. A 7-year longitudinal study between 17 and 24 years old found 58% and 62% of the stability in fearless dominance and impulsive-antisocial dimensions were due to genetic influences (Blonigen et al., 2006). Although the molecular genetics of psychopathy is still in infancy, the similar brain abnormalities in CU and psychopathic

The influence of environment and genetics on behavior is a widely controversial subject, one that is difficult to accurately test. In the study of genetic influences on behavior, due to their identical genes, identical twins are frequently used for studies. These studies, though beneficial to the scientists

“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

In order to further understand the root of behaviors, an observational study was done. Researchers Kristine Marceau and colleagues (2011) conducted this study by taking three samples of twins and siblings, between middle childhood and adolescence, to determine the ultimate truth to the age-old debate of where externalized behaviors come from. They observed that their samples from Michigan State University (MSU) and Oregon Twin Project (OTP) showed far more shared environmental influences when compared to nonshared environmental influences, and no genetic influence at all. However, when they observed their sample from Nonshared Environment in

Another study that has been done was with separated twins. Each twin was raised in a completely different environment than the other. Genetically, they were both identical in every way, but the environment that they were raised in was very different. One twin was raised in a very hostile setting and slowly became violent as an adult while the other twin was

Psychopaths can seem just like you or me, but when you are not around them this is when their mental disorder kicks in. Psychopaths that have been put in jail committed three times as many crimes per year then non-psychopaths. 97% of convicted psychopathic criminals cause at least one violent crime compared to 74% of non-psychopaths. Psychopaths are shown to be more violence throughout their entire life compared to a regular people. Psychopaths tend to have a greater chance of failing on parole and mandatory supervision and have a faster rate of failing then non-psychopaths. Psychopathy predicts recidivism on conditional release as well as or better than do actuarial risk instruments. Psychopaths recidivate at a rate of three to four times higher than that of non-psychopaths.

In the article “The antisocial person: an insight into biology, classification and current evidence on treatment” authors Rodrigo, Rajapakse, and Jayananda (2010) explored PubMed looking for published English articles between 1999 to 2009 with the search words, antisocial personality disorder, dissocial personality disorder, and psychopathy. The purpose of the literature search was to look for advances in understanding the neurobiology of violence and empathy, effective treatment modalities, and ethical implications in defining 'at-risk' individuals for preventive interventions. Data sources for this review included clinical journals, cohort studies, interventional studies, case control studies, cross sectional analysis and epidemiological studies. The search revealed a number of interesting findings, such as the different terminology used, treatment related issues, and the importance of early identification and prevention of antisocial behavior.