Psychopathy Traits

When asked what to define a Psychopath people will often respond with descriptions such as “remorseless”or “lacking in empathy”. However due to the results of studies from the past 20 years there may now be reason to believe that this is not always true. This study investigates the relationship between Primary and Secondary Psychopathy and Cognitive Empathy.

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’

Psychopathy, in both the mental health and criminal justice systems, has emerged as one of the most important clinical constructs of the 21st century (Hare, Clark, Grann, & Thornton, 2000, p. 623). Where clinically, psychopathy is traditionally described as a combination of inferred socially deviant behaviors and personality traits. Some traits and behaviors a psychopath is seen to possess are commonly known, for example, to being impulsive, selfish, aggressive, lacking remorse, shame, feeling for others, pathologically lying, and having asocial or antisocial behaviors (Hare, & Neumann, 2006, p. 59-60). One of the reasons as to why psychopathy has come to see an increase in the development of its theoretical and applied interest is the

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

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

The most common traits associated with antisocial personality disorder are general cognitive and emotional dysfunction, especially in regards to callousness, manipulation and shallow affect. This study examined specific brain functioning tendencies of both mentally healthy participants and patients diagnosed with psychopathy by comparatively analyzing their facial emotion processing. The comparison allowed researchers to determine the relationship between psychopathological tendencies in relevance to patterns of responses. Generally, people diagnosed with psychopathy demonstrate reduced autonomic responses to expressions of distress or sadness, which in turn leads

In Science Daily’s article Psychopathic Violent Offenders’ Brains Can’t Understand Punishment, Sheilagh Hodgins and Nigel Blackwood say psychopath’s brains do not learn from mistakes. The scientists took 12 violent psychopaths, 20 violent offenders with antisocial personality disorders but not psychopathy and 18 healthy non-offenders. Using an MRI, researchers observed and compared the participants’ anterior rostral prefrontal cortex (involved in decision making and memory call,) posterior cingulate cortex, medial prefrontal cortex (both involved in response to pain,) insula and temporal poles, both of which are involved in several different functions in the body. Together, all of these areas of the brain are involved in the ability to empathize,

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.

“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

“AB Psychopathy is characterized by a general antisocial lifestyle with behaviors including being selfish, manipulative, impulsive, fearless, callous, possibly domineering, and particularly lacking in empathy. Contagious yawning in our species has been strongly linked to empathy. We exposed 135 students, male and female, who completed the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R), to a yawning paradigm intended to induce a reactionary yawn. Further, we exposed males to an emotion-related startle paradigm meant to assess peripheral amygdalar reactivity. We found that scores on the PPI-R subscale Coldheartedness significantly predicted a reduced chance of yawning. Further, we found that emotion-related startle amplitudes were predictive

Psychopathy has been identified to be a personality disorder mainly consisting of individuals having lack of empathy, guilt and manipulation of other people, (Perez,2012). This disorder has been strongly associated with violent and antisocial behaviour. The main cause of psychopathy has been seen to biological, this essay will attempt to discuss psychopathy is biological as well as discuss counter arguments as well.

psychopathy is also known as APD, which is a psychological personality disorder where in persons lack emotions and empathy and they consistently behave in certain way such as lack of fear, lack of inhibition and a stimulus seeking behaviour. Psychopathic adults have also demonstrated physiological idiosyncrasies’ wherein they display indifferent temperament to the threat to pain and

Psychopaths and sociopaths can have a difficult time learning and relating with others. Impulsive behavior, both psychopaths and sociopaths tend to develop, has been shown to negatively affect cognitive skills (Fontaine et al. 5). This suggests that both illnesses make learning and communicating harder for the victim. The effects of these illnesses do not stop at the victim themselves as the victim often manipulates their family for their own personal gain. A psychopathic inmate had a letter from his family in his file that stated they did not want him to be able to contact them due to 20 years of being deceived and manipulated (Kiehl and Hoffman). This example shows that psychopaths tend to use their family instead of being a part of it. Psychopaths and sociopaths are more likely to end up in prison than those that are mentally stable. In the United States, psychopathic males are 15 to 25 times more likely to end up in jail and approximately 1,075,000 psychopathic males are in prison, jail, on parole, or probation (Kiehl and Hoffman). The victims of these illnesses often do not see the line between right and wrong and they end up in the slammer because of it. Psychopathy and sociopathy have many dangerous affects but there is hope for those that have these

A serial killer is an individual who murders three or more people, due to abnormal psychological gratification, with the murders taking place over more than a month including a "cooling off period" between them. Normally, a traumatic episode in their life causes the serial killer to reach a breaking point (Larson). Their brains are rewired to target victims of similar features and backgrounds. The leading cause of becoming a psychopath is the mental or physical abuse a human goes through as an adolescent. The parent leaves an imprint on the child that will affect the lives of many, and end many of those lives in return.

In another study, Risser & Eckert, 2016) examined the potential link between psychopathic traits, aggressive behavior, and moral disengagement mechanisms. Characteristics of a psychopath include a lack of empathy or remorse towards a potential victim, callousness, lack of emotion, antisocial behavior, and impulsiveness; therefore, these individuals do not possess the typical internalization of morality that requires the ability to morally disengage because they do not experience/view their behavior as wrong. The study produced interesting results. First, males reported greater engagement in nonviolent aggression (e.g., lying or stealing), moral disengagement, and psychopathic traits (e.g., lack of empathy/remorse, callousness, unemotional,