Psychopathy Research Paper

For a long period in history, psychopaths were believed to be possessed by demons and spirits and were routinely exercised to expel such creatures. As science and clinical experiences progressed, people have learned that the brain is wired in multiple different ways, some in which lead to the negative “disorder” dubbed psychopathy (Telles-Correia and Sampaio). Yet, the popular theory that ‘psychopathy is purely genetic is not entirely true. Both genetic and environmental aspects cause psychopathy, and go hand-in-hand in some cases.

In order to protect oneself from a sociopath, one must understand the inner clockwork of one, in order to both diagnose others, or even self diagnose. Because of the danger of a sociopath and there chamelion like talent to blend in with the general community, they are very hard to identify, but knowing how to is crucial to keep oneself safe.

This article states that we need to stop interchanging psychopath and sociopath, as they are two different disciplines. Pemment goes into detail about the history, research, and growth of psychopathy. He says that we need to understand the difference between the two, as the behavioral characteristics and potential treatments for each are different. The article includes details on Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hares work on psychopathy. The article describes the PCL-R, and how Hare says the test should be done. The PCL-R is used as a screening tool to identify psychopaths, and

As read in the article Psychopaths Get A Break From Biology: Judges Reduce Sentences If Genetics, Neurobiology Are Blamed, published in Science Daily, judges say psychopaths should receive longer sentences than non-psychopathic people, yet believe psychopaths possess the same amount of free will. A study done in Utah by James Tabery, Lisa Aspinwall and Teneille Brown surveyed 181 judges from 19 states on how they would sentence psychopaths, and the results were simply paradoxical. Researchers gave all judges the same example of a case involving a psychopath as a defendant. This real-life case involved a psychopath brutally beating a clerk. One fourth of the judges were given genetic and neurobiological reasons for why the individual should

With these doubts to using the causes of psychopathy to identify future psychopathic offenders, there are ways in which the legal system, including psychologists, therapists, and courts, can better determine the likelihood of a future psychopathic offender and how to care for them. Looking back at the histories of adult psychopaths, they “consistently committed more violent and non-violent crimes” from their “adolescence to their late 40s” (Birt et al. 647). When working backwards and looking within the large number of youths that have psychopathic tendencies, one understands from the evidence that some will continue to commit crimes as they grow up into adulthood. A way to narrow down which children will become repeating offenders is to

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 natural cause of psychopathy is due to malfunction of the brain while the causes of sociopathy consist of environmental factors. Various studies have shown that psychopaths are born and faintly affected by the environment around them. As noted in “Inside the Mind of a Psychopath,” psychopathy is due to the malfunction of the area in the brain that controls human emotions, thus psychopathic people lack empathy and the ability to manage emotions properly (Kiehl and Buckholtz 5-6). Furthermore, Professor Crag S. Neumann declares that “evidence from large-scale studies suggests that psychopathic traits are

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

“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

They could be anyone you know. Neighbors, work colleagues, relationship partners. These are all people you associate with day after day. People you know, trust, even love. Yet do you ever think that maybe, just maybe that “hey! I could be associated with a psychopath.” You probably don’t. A lot of people never stop and think if there’s more to their loved one than what you know about them and how they function.

Despite the low base rate of psychopathy, as measured by scores on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995) among the civil psychiatric patients studied, limited traits of psychopathy and antisocial behavior were predictive of future violence. The PCL-SV added incremental validity to a host of covariates in predicting violence, including recent violence, criminal history, substance abuse, and other personality disorders. However, most of the PCL-SV’s basic and unique predictive power is based on its “antisocial behavior” factor, rather than the “emotional detachment”

The idea of psychopathy goes back over two centuries. It first gained recognition in North America due to the work of Cleckley (1941). Psychopathy is a personality concept traditionally linked with different personality traits and behaviours. Cleckley (1941) stated that these clinical features did not only exist in the prisons but also in the general population. Successful individuals who have a higher social status portray traits associated with psychopathy. Cleckley (1982) also stated that individuals who portray psychotic traits tend to have an above average intelligence.Psychopathy can be broken in into two main subtypes (Blackburn, 1998). Primary and secondary psychopathy. Secondary psychopathy tends to be more common in the general population. Many clinicians and researchers have long speculated psychopaths in the general community (

Psychopathy is a collection of personality traits, which include callousness, low anxiety, remorselessness, failure to form emotional bonds, and externalization of blame. Although the condition effects ones personality, experts have stated that it has not been coded using the taxonomic system DSM-IV-TR. Furthermore, they have considered that psychopaths are influenced by social factors, environmental, biological and psychological factors. These factors influence social forces and biological predispositions which in fact affects one’s personality (Ogloff 2006). As early as the 19th century the methods for a cure have not been agreed upon, because of this psychopaths have been deemed resistant to treatment. Psychopathy has been an argued disorder for centuries, research has been done on criminals, juveniles, whether or not it is curable/treatable. There have been many scholarly papers written on the effectiveness of treating or a cure for psychopathy. There have been multiple researches done in the prison systems in many countries in the world on psychopaths. In juveniles and other adult offenders it has been found that with treatment it does make the condition treatable. Various ways have been introduced to treat psychopaths. There are several psychological factors associated with psychopaths, such as, social, biological and environmental. Psychopathologist believe that increased crime immensely effects people with this disorder. Although, there is great controversy

Though there is no one true cause for either psychopathy or sociopathy, they can still be prevented or minimized to some capacity. However, people do not usually get help making it harder for the development of efficient treatments. Despite the popularization of the disorders by the media, the stigma that still surrounds mental disorders like these comes with a lack of understanding of the origins or of the problems that comes with having these mental

Psychopaths, as deemed by most psychology researchers, are born with underdeveloped brain parts that are usually believed to be responsible for impulse control and emotion regulation. The amygdala, – a roughly almond-shaped mass of gray matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experiencing of emotions – when impaired, give rise to the functional impairments shown by individuals with psychopathy. It is therefore suggested that amygdala dysfunction is one of the core neural systems implicated in the pathology of psychopathy. (Blair et al, 1999)