Psychopaths Vs Sociopaths

Psychopathy as a mental disorder or construct, although not included in the presently valid classification systems, is gradually fascinating the experts and investigators involved in the field of mental health. Curiosity in psychopathy has mainly grown after the declaration of the new classification system DSM V in which psychopathy is mentioned as a clear diagnosis in the context of six new personality illnesses.

Ted Bundy, Gary M. Heidnik and Ed Kemper: All of these men are defined as sociopaths and referred to as psychopaths. I intend to discuss what causes a person to become a sociopath, what are the signs that someone is a sociopath, what are some of the possible treatments, and what I learned through the process of studying about this disorder. Sociopath and psychopath are common terms used in criminal justice but most individuals do not recognize the difference between them, the signs, the treatments, and who actually has these characteristics.

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’

Psychopaths have been around for more than a century, and have found themselves to be able to make the public fear them. Belle Gunness, the Zodiac Killer, and John Wayne Gacy are all examples for the character traits compatible with psychopathy and have been able to provide more reason to the research of psychopaths. Statistically, psychopathy is found in three percent of the male population and in one percent of one percent of the female population. A psychopath’s behavior of exploitation, lying, recklessness, and arrogance has been studied to further understand how their brain structure is different in MRI scans and how they are able to use special abilities to catch its victims. Many research studies have been able to provide more information

Unfortunately, changing the biological composition of their brain is not as easily achieved. Studies have found multiple areas of interest when studying the brain structures in psychopaths. These minor differences provide a world of knowledge into what composes a psychopath. Since each area of the brain serves a specific function, determining the effects of abnormalities correlates to the area of interest. Due to the major costs associated with many tests, they are not performed unless indicated. Brain imaging research on psychopathy: Implications for punishment, prediction, and treatment in youth and adults provides us with the very new research that has been conducted on both adult psychopaths, and juveniles that display callous unemotional traits (CU) and have disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) (Umbach et al., 2015). Research done has not given conclusive results that fits for each and every psychopath, but an area of commonality is the amygdala. “In addition to their finding of significant bilateral volume reductions in psychopaths, Yang et al. (2009) identified localized surface deformations in four of the 13 nuclei: the basolateral, lateral, cortical, and central nuclei.” (Umbach et al., 2015, p.296). The paralimbic structure is seen as the emotion processing center of the brain, controlling all emotions including empathy and conditioned fear

Berit Brogaard, D.M.Sci., Ph.D., is a Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Brogaard Lab for Multisensory Research at the University of Miami. She earned a medical degree in neuroscience and a doctorate in philosophy. This article explained the traits of a psychopath, such as their callous, manipulative, and cunning behavior, along with the differentiating between psychopaths and psychotics. This article helped me by providing a good background on psychopathology and useful examples.

Accordingly, there exists a small group of people who exhibit most-to-all of these specific and peculiar characteristics and behaviours. This particular group of predators presents numerous challenges to morality, safety and policy. For instance, because a "psychopath" may display a general coldness toward others, they are more likely to commit criminal acts, and afterward not respond to punishment or deterrent tactics. Hare’s psychopathy checklist when used as a tool to identify psychopaths prevents harmful exposure of non-psychopaths to this dangerous group of offenders. For this tool to work effectively there must not be significant overlap of the specific characteristics used in the PCL-R to identify psychopaths as in the general population of non-psychopaths. In other words, the psychopath must

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (or an MRI) has been used to look into the minds of these psychopaths, which allows scientist to evaluate the brains of serial killers and take note of the things that are not quite normal. Sean Martin discusses in his article that neuroimages “found diminished activity in areas of the brain are linked to self-awareness.” Self-awareness is the processing of emotions and sensitivity to violence. (Sean Martin). The article tells us that the findings on these scans propose that several people who are being punished for their crimes at the moment cannot control their behaviors. This shows these people are experiencing different disorders that need treatment. Also in the article, Graeme Fairchild states that he found adolescents with violent tendencies had a shrunken amygdala, which is the part of the brain that controls emotions and morality. These brain scans simply show that people with disorders are not actually killing others to be harmful and horrific human beings, but because they can not actually control themselves or the way they feel when performing these actions. According to bestcouncelingdegrees.net, Jim Fallon, a neurologist, also studied brain scans and compared them to his sons brain, as well as his own. These scans showed

Research of the brain abnormalities in psychopaths have been traced back to the 1800’s when an Italian psychiatrist and criminologist Cesare Lombroso stated that all of the mental functions in one’s brain are localized in different parts of the brain. Lombroso generalized the idea that one is born with a “criminal mind”. The criminal mind can be classified by “deformations of their skulls”. (Weber

There is no current compilation of tests or surveys that can serve as a standard to test for psychopathy in children. Even though the cause of this disorder is unknown, researchers have discovered a remarkable amount of information relating to brain abnormalities in psychopaths. Various psychologists claim that just like autism, psychopathy is a distinct neurological condition; this brain activity can be identified in children as young as five years of age (Kahn, 2012). A study tracked the psychological development of 3,000 children, this was done over a span of 25 years, it was stated that psychopathic signs could be detected in children as young as three years of age. New high-level technology such as the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) has facilitated researchers in locating the affected sections in the brain of a psychopath.

The causes of psychopathy remain unknown. In a study at University of Wisconsin, Madison conducted by UW-Madison psychiatry Professor Michael Koenigs, UW-Madison psychology Professor Joseph Newman, and Dr. Kent Kiehl of the University of New Mexico, brain scans revealed that psychopathy in criminals indicated a disconnection between the amygdala (a part of the brain that controls fear and anxiety), and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), a region in the frontal lobe responsible for the control of sentiments such as empathy and guilt. “When there is a weak connection between these two regions or the connection is disrupted, the amygdala doesn’t process the negative stimuli into negative felt emotions. So, when an individual with psychopathy does something bad they do not feel nervous, embarrassed, or sad when other people suffer (Koenigs

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.

For example, a “relatively high proportion of criminals meet the criteria for psychopathy, a condition that is associated with frequent acts of deception and with alterations in both structural MRI and fMRI studies” (Farah et al., 2014). Furthermore, we also need to account for individual differences in the neural systems involved in lying (Farah et al., 2014). For now, we should stick to more reliable structural neuroimaging technology, such as MRI or CT scans, as evidence to support that someone has suffered brain trauma and disease and may not be culpable of their actions (Moriarty,

Due to its primary role in processing memory and emotional reactions, over the last decade and a half psychologists have been linking the amygdala to psychopathy. It is involved in aversive conditioning and instrumental learning and is thus involved in all the processes that, when impaired, produce the same functional impairments displayed by psychopaths. Two famous studies conducted by Tiihonen and Kiehl respectively have confirmed this. Tiihonen used a volumetric MRI to test and confirm the positive correlation between low amygdaloid volume and a high degree of psychopathy in violent criminals (measured by the Hare checklist-revised) while Kiehl used a functional MRI to prove reduced amygdala response during an emotional memory task in individuals who scored high on the Hare checklist-revised. However, both these studies along with numerous others were conducted using violent offenders as subjects rather than individuals with psychopathy. Although many psychopaths do exhibit violent tendencies, not all violent offenders are necessarily psychopaths. A study conducted by Raine is one of the few that did focus only on individuals exhibiting psychopathy. In his study Raine was able to show reduced prefrontal grey matter in his test subjects. Unfortunately though, he was unable to differentiate between grey matter in different regions of the prefrontal cortex. It is however clear that there is one region of the frontal cortex that could be

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.