Psychopath Psychology

When most people hear the word psychopath their mind forms a picture of a wild-eyed, rambling, lunatic who is often restrained in a straitjacket. The media has helped this belief along the way with slasher horror films and grisly CSI episodes depict these strange humans. However, the average psychopath is much harder to spot than most people believe. In fact, most of them are extremely difficult to distinguish from ordinary humans. They outwardly appear normal and many do not find it difficult to blend into common society. They can interact with others, hold successful jobs, and effectively keep themselves out of trouble. Most are not the sadistic killers many people think they are. Psychopaths are people born with problems (Bartol 105) or

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

A psychopath does not view a human being as anything other than an object that they can use to get what they want. They do not have any empathy or sympathy,

Psychopaths possibly have brain abnormalities which cause them to process emotions much differently than someone that is not a psychopath. With considering these personality traits, it is not shocking that researchers have shown that people diagnosed as a psychopath are more likely to engage in criminal and also violent behavior compared to people consider non psychopathic. It is known that psychopaths keep going on with their criminal careers long after others have aged out of their criminal behavior. Psychopaths are continuously in trouble and are more likely to end up in the penal institutions. Once these prisoners are released, they are three times more likely to re offend in a year and four more times likely to re offend violently, compared to non psychopaths.

The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, by Jon Ronson explores the minds of psychopaths. This nonfiction book, published in 2011, analyses the question of, what is a psychopath? When most people try to answer this question they think of characters in well-known movies and books such as American Psycho and The Silence of the Lambs. They may also think of serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy. In 1959, the Mental Health Act for England and Wales described psychopaths as a “disability of the mind which results in abnormally aggressive [...] conduct”. (PG 65). Just like many mental disorders such as autism and bipolar disorder are often misdiagnosed, so is psychopathy. As shown through this book, the normal human and even trained psychologist often find it difficult to spot and understand psychopaths. Psychopaths are a broader range of individuals than most people assume; they are serial killers, CEOs, politicians, and of course, the average person. Today, it is believed, that only one percent of humans are psychopaths.

Studying behavioral characteristics of a certain group of people is a fascinating aspect of psychology. The psychopaths are some of the most extreme characters that intrigue psychiatrists. In many criminal cases involving psychopaths, it is required that a psychiatric examination is performed on the accused.

“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

A psychopath is traditionally defined as someone with a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, egotistical traits. In society, psychopaths display specific characteristics such as lack of empathy, which may identify and explain how they respond in certain situations.

Psychopathy is a disorder that may be difficult to spot in a person as they may seem normal and charming on the outside but within they lack conscience and empathy which may lead to them being manipulative and volatile. Psychopaths tend to have no empathy or feel real emotion for others but can easily gain people’s trust by mimicking the other’s emotion. Psychopathy is often scrutinized into three salient facets: affective, interpersonal, and behavioral traits (Hawes 623). Affective refers to the callous-unemotional traits which is a limit of empathy, lack of guilt, and shallow affect. Interpersonal refers to manipulativeness and behavioral is referred to as impulsively

In this article Matthew Taylor discusses experiments conducted by Dr. Kent Kiehl, a neuroscientist of the University of Mexico. Dr. Kiehl believes that psychopaths are the way they are due to an illness in their brain. He believes it is controversial to label a psychopath as evil, when he views “Psychopaths as someone who us suffering from a disorder” (Kiehl). Furthermore, Dr. Kiehl conducted a brain scan on Brian Dungan, an infamous serial killer responsible for the death of three young girls. As he conducted his experiment Dr. Keihl explains that Brian’s brain “has very low levels of density in a system we call the para-limbic system” (Kiehl). The para-limbic system is commonly known as the amygdala, which is a part of the brain in the pre-frontal cortex. This area is associated with the processing of emotions. Furthermore, Kiehl states that psychopaths simply lack an emotional ability, much the same as other lack intellectual ability. Kiehl describes how he spoke with Dugan and discovered that he has no concept of the harm that he caused. Kiehl states that “Talking about his crimes, is like asking him what he had for breakfast” (Kiehl). Overall the neuroscientist concluded, that individuals are born psychopaths, however, should not be labelled as evil because they suffer from a mental

Psychopaths are people with a personality disorder and this condition may be confused with antisocialism. According to the article What Is a Psychopath? The term “psychopath” was first applied to these people around 1900. The term was changed to “sociopath” in the 1930s to emphasize the damage they do to society. Currently researchers have returned to using the term “psychopath.” There are several characteristics that tell whether a person is a psychopath or not. Not caring for others is one of them; the person does not feel emotions for others. Similarly, they tend to show a lack of emotion, such as guilt, shame and fear. Also, it is very notable their insincere speech, and that is very close to lying. Moreover, they are overconfident and selfish. Although they are so focused on themselves they tend to fail in any plan in their lives. Violence is what have me worrying about them since they can become serial killers. In my opinion, psychopaths are not useful in society due to the fact that they do not feel anything for anybody. People do not know when they are planning something awful such as robbing a bank, assaulting people or killing someone. On the other hand, they can be the best lawyers as they are smarts and great liars. Therefore, if they lie in front of a judge their facial features would not change.

On the other hand, psychopaths are able to differentiate between good and bad behavior. Despite this ability, they seem not to care about any situation that they face in life. They further do not have the ability to empathize, have no room for being guilty, and are never remorseful of their deeds. They commit murder simply because they have the desire to do so and they feel it is good for them. An evident characteristic about them is there overwhelming urge for power, and abnormality stimulated by sexual desires. This further indicates that the biological complexity that an individual could be facing easily influences the act he is going to carry out.

It has been said that psychopaths have been a part of society since the emergence of the human species. Psychiatrist Adolf Guggenbuhl-Craig called them “empty souls”. These are individuals who lack the ordinary connection that binds all of us and lack inhibitions that those connections impose (Kiehl & Hoffman, 2011). They show up in history’s myths and literature. From the bible starting with Cain, to the psychopaths in Shakespeare like Aaron the Moor in

Psychopaths are strict when committing a crime. They plan there crime before they do it. Because they think there crimes through, they are hardly found about. In the article, “Psychopath vs sociopath” it says “tendency to participate in schemes and take calculated risks to minimize evidence or exposure.” People portray them to be very violent people but it is rare for them to do violent crimes. They tend to do smaller crimes but they can be serial killers. As they feel no guilt when doing the crime, although, when they do a big crime they can be undetected for a long time.

The purpose of this paper is to explain and link specific personality traits to the psychopathic dispositions. Using the literature, the author will suggest underlying individual traits are connected to psychopathic tendencies. This paper begins with definitions of psychopathy, personality traits, and methods of measuring traits that play a significant role in the development of criminality. In order to understand the origins of psychopathy, the author states the importance of Klein’s object relation’s theory. Object relation deficits can help understand the emotional dysfunction and interpersonal problems as fundamental elements of psychopathy development. The paper then turns to some specific traits and examines their roles in the development