How Do Sociopaths Think? Fernanda Sbordone ENG210 Mr. Elizabeth Ramirez March 14,2017 How Do Sociopaths Think? Sociopaths are not easily identified. In fact, it can be extremely difficult to determine if someone is a sociopath. Even experts are easily fooled, and many psychotherapists have a poor understanding of personality disorders in general. In addition, some people exhibit more sociopathic traits than others, which is why sociopathy lies on a spectrum. Some sociopathic people are very obviously egotistical, others are much more covert in their narcissism. That is just one example of the differences (‘Sutker,’ 2004). Therefore, several …show more content…
However, any rages they display are surprisingly short-lived. Because of this defect, sociopaths are unable to truly connect with other people. They are unable to have true empathy for others, they are incapable of compassion, and they do not suffer, because they cannot relate to emotional pain. They live a life devoid of true pleasure, unable to enjoy a sunset or the company of an animal or another person(‘Psychiatry,’1997). They only get temporary, meaningless thrills out of things like sex or food or misleading and manipulating others. Most threateningly, this emotional deficiency means that they are unable to love. It also means that they must spend their entire lives watching others and learning to imitate behave. The boredom is almost painful for them, and they will do anything to alleviate it. This contributes to their tendency to act impulsively and recklessly; for instance, it is very common for psychopaths to become addicted to alcohol, sex, and drugs. And ultimately, they will do anything and everything to get rid of their boredom because, having no conscience and no empathy, they do not care who gets hurt in the process. Or that they are unable to engage in naturally; in this way, they become demented chameleons. Sociopaths view everything in life including relationships as games to be won Sociopaths have an insatiable need to win. This desire to win is so strong that they sometimes will take
They’re distinctive traits include living a parasitic lifestyle, lack of responsibility for their actions, glibness, and a lack of realistic long term goals (“Psychopathic”). They do not learn from their experiences and cannot form meaningful relationships. They continuously engage in antisocial behavior, punishment does not have an affect on their behavior, and they are emotionally immature (Hare, Psychopathy 9). They find it hard to control their impulses and commonly hold many short-term relationships, often engaging in promiscuous sexual behavior. (“Psychopathic”). Frequently, they fail to plan ahead, have a low frustration acceptance, and have no problem lying blatantly to someone’s face. Psychopaths don’t feel remorseful if they mistreat or hurt someone, in fact, the person’s safety, as well as their own, is disregarded in order for the psychopath to get what they want (Hare, “Psychopath vs. Antisocial”). An easy way to describe a psychopath is a human who lives a predatory lifestyle (“Psychopathic”).
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
What is a sociopath? According to R. (2012) “There are people in the world who don't care about love, and who feel no remorse, empathy or emotional attachment to others. They don't even know what these feeling are. These people are called sociopaths.” (It Wasn"t a Relationship – It Was a Robbery!!, 2013) explains, “The sociopath makes a career living off others. They feed off your energy, your wealth, your social life, your friends and family, your body, everything, and if you have material possessions, they will take those too.” According to Andersen (n.d.) “[Sic] Sociopathy is not a mental illness; it is a personality disorder. The condition is highly genetic.” These days most people find their mate on an online dating sites. Most of
They are ended whenever necessary or when it suits them, and the relationships are without depth or meaning, including marriages” (Wood). Psychopaths have an innate ability to seek out and discover weaknesses in people, and make it a personal goal to target those weaknesses. They tend to carry a very low level of anxiety, and are rarely stressed. They are unlikely to hold a job for any length of time, as they begin to question the ways of their employers and they become uninterested in the tasks assigned to them. Their impulsivity keeps them from planning long-term, which results in a high occurrence of debt-fault (Wood.)
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
Psychopathy and Sociopathy have become interchangeable, even though the diction of each can greatly affect a sense of concern to a person. The word psychopath is normally pared with the word killer, making it seem more serious than sociopath.The definition of sociopath is “a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.’ where the definition of a psychopath is a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as a moral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to learn from experience, etc.” These kinds of people are normally viewed as extremely violent and are mostly in prison, but “Roughly one in 25 Americans is a sociopath,” according to Harvard psychologist Dr. Martha Stout, author of The Sociopath Next Door. The thought that someone you see every single day, could be a sociopath is staggering, and once learning more about it, and why it is caused, you can them know how to react in an appropriate manner.
We have all heard the terms psychopath and sociopath, but how closely have we examined these words? Does the lay person even know what the true meaning of these words? Let us delve into the meaning of these words for a minute.
The first step in diagnosing someone as a sociopath is to create a standard of sociopathic behavior. Formally, sociopathy is referred to as Antisocial Personality Disorder or ASPD. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines ASPD as “A mental health condition in which a person has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating the rights of others"(Sociopathic Traits 1) and lists seven identifying traits. It is important to understand that ASPD is a condition of varying degrees. To be considered a sociopath, one does not have to display all seven traits. In fact, there is much debate about what level of sociopathic behavior deserves a diagnosis of ASPD. Possibly the most widely accepted scale is the Hare PCL-R, which ranks sociopathic tendencies. Even though Hare is the most commonly accepted standard, it is still somewhat disputed. The professional agreement, it seems, is that ASPD can vary in intensity. Therefore, even though he does not display the
Psychopaths is the clinical or diagnostic group of individuals who demonstrate certain behavioral, cognitive, and neuropsychological characteristics that are not usually found in the general population. The term psychopath refers to an individual who exhibits a discernible pattern that differs from the general population in its level of sensitivity, empathy, compassion, and guilt. The psychopath term is misused in a numerous amount of ways because people do not know the true meaning. There are different ways a psychopath differs from anyone else. Surprisingly, a psychopath seems to be friendly, sociable, outgoing, likeable, and alert. They are also well-educated, knowledgeable, and interested in a variety of things. I would have never been
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by enduring diminished empathy, remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavioring antisocial behavior, A psychopath is a person with a psychopathic personality,which manifests as a moral and antisocial behavior. They lack the ability to love or establish meaningful relationships. Psychopaths fail to learn from experience. Psychopathy is among one of the most difficult disorders to recognize. A psychopath can appear normal or even charming. Underneath, they lack conscience and empathy. This makes them manipulative, volatile and sometimes (but by no means always) criminal. There are many symptoms associated with psychopaths.
Of all the psychiatric disorders, none are more chilling to the world then the psychopaths and sociopaths. These two disorders, categorized as antisocial personality disorders, bring about the absolute worse people and killers that the world has ever known. The infamous serial killers, the people who do the unimaginable, were all psychopaths. The ability of these people to do what they do and know that what they are doing is wrong, is perhaps one of the most chilling and shocking characteristic of these people. Psychopaths and sociopaths are very often thought by most to be the same disorder, yet they are different when classified by many psychiatric researchers. The people classified as psychopaths and sociopaths are separated by one main difference, and that is if they were born with a lack of the ability to empathize or if they were affected as children in a traumatic environment. Although both of these horrible disorders derive from a different area, the reality is that they are unpredictable, undetectable and most importantly, they can be very dangerous.
“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
There are various physical and behavioral differences between a psychopath and an average person. In the book The Social Brain: Evolution and Pathology, doctors of psychiatry Hedda Ribbert and Wulf Schiefenhövel explain psychopath’s core features as a lack of empathy, persistent disregard for the feelings of others, reduced emotion, and have autonomic hyperresponsivity to sad and fearful
When you hear the words sociopath or psychopath you usually know right away that the person with that disorder is a killer and needs to be put away in jail. But have you ever wondered where that disorder comes from. Research shows that psychopath tends to be the result of genetics. Studies have shown that a psychopath usually has an underdeveloped brain that is responsible for impulse control and emotions. Sociopathy tends to come from a childhood trauma or some type of physical, emotional abuse, which is why sociopath is more of an environment disorder. When a sociopath commits a murder, it is usually a disorganized event or its rather spontaneous than planned. A sociopath can be really attached to a group or an individual which makes them dangerous because they have no regard for society or its rules. When it comes to the crimes of a psychopath they tend to be planned and they always have a contingency plan in place. Another major difference between a sociopath and a psychopath is that a psychopath is always cool and calm unlike a sociopath. This allows a psychopath to leave few clues when it comes to authorities investigating the crimes. When it comes to society psychopaths are more dangerous than sociopath. The reason for that is that psychopaths have no guilt when it comes to them committing their crimes. When committing a crime, they suffer no emotional repercussions and that allows them to continue with murdering people.
Psychopathy is a disease of the mind, in which the psychological state of someone has emotional or behavioral problems serious enough to require psychiatric evaluation. Psychopaths have no concern for the feelings of others and a complete disregard of any sense of social obligation. Psychopaths are characterized by lack of empathy, poor impulse control and manipulative behaviors. They use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and the use of severe to mild violence to satisfy their own needs.