Psychopathy and Antisocial Personality Disorder Essay

Antisocial personality disorder is a disregard for others rights and violating theses rights. This disorder starts as a child to people who carry this disorder portray the characteristics of irritability, aggressiveness, lack of remorse, and irresponsibility. A psychopath falls under the umbrella of antisocial personality disorders. A psychopath is a person with a personality disorders which is inherited from their parents at birth. Flashes of these inherited factors show and happen in the child upbringing this includes torture animals at a young age, playing weird dark games as a kid, or ripping heads of toys. A perfect example of a Psychopath is Edmund Kemper. A man who showed his psychopath tendencies at a young age that grew into to him becoming a serial killer.

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

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

Martens, W. H. (2000). Antisocial and psychopathic Personality Disorders: Causes, Course, and Remission- A Review Artical. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminolgy , 44(4), 406-430.

This report will describe the symptoms, suspected causes, diagnosis process, treatment, and prevention of antisocial personality disorder.

They are your neighbors. They are your friends. Maybe they are even your family. You talk with them often, and have even had them over for dinner on occasion. Perhaps your children play in the same playground or spend time in the same social group. Although you have noticed some quirks and idiosyncrasies, you would never know the difference, and you would never expect the worst. After something bad happens that draws your attention to them, you have been forced to accept the truth: someone you know has Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Therefore, as a strength of the PCL-R system, unlike APD, an antisocial lifestyle is only part of the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy (Fine, & Kennett, 2004, p. 425). Where as psychometric analysis of the PCL-R consistently identifies two factors. One of the factors corresponds to personality features, such as lacking guilt or remorse, or a lack of empathy, while the other looks into features of antisocial lifestyles, such as impulsivity or poor behaviour controls (Fine & Kennett, 2004, p. 425). The PCL-R gives individuals that are being assessed in these traits and behaviors a score from a 3-point scale (0,1, 2) (Hare et al., 2006, p. 59). Where 0 indicates that the characteristic being assessed was definitely not present or did not apply, 1 stating that there

To be considered antisocial is to isolate oneself from general social conditions and demonstrate behaviors that deviate from the social societal norm. Antisocial Personality disorder describes an individual that lacks values and habitually violates societal standards in regards to ethics and social behavior. Individuals with this disorder can be described to lack empathy, act impulsively, and have flagrant disregard for other people. It is hard for them to form engage in positive social exchanges or maintain relationships with others. It was only until the early twentieth century that Antisocial Personality disorder was named. Previously, these individuals were categorized as psychopaths due to the thrill-seeking and cunning nature of their actions. Psychopaths have the ability to change their personalities to ultimately get what they desire then revert back to a malicious, egocentric state. When faced with a dangerous adventure, for those with ASPD the choice will always be to peruse the danger. This is due to a constant underlying feeling of restlessness (Nolen-Hoeksema, 2011, p. 272). Although these traits can be deemed “psychopathic” this disorder is not only seen in those who have established themselves as violent criminals, but in those who have established as high-ranking members in society. How can this disorder differentiate itself so starkly within people? Although there are no direct medical test to diagnose this disorder,

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

Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), opposition defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) are three distinct disorders based upon their respective diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5. If ODD and CD were mild forms of ASPD, then there would need to be causal relationship between the childhood manifestations of ODD and CD and the adult manifestation of ASPD. There is evidence of comorbidity between ODD and CD, and also evidence to suggest that children diagnosed with these disorders may go on to develop ASPD later in life; however, correlation does not equal causation. The three disorders have subtle but important differences in their associated behaviors, underlying causes, treatment outcomes, and neurological signs.

Antisocial personality disorder is often misunderstood by both professionals and laypeople. Confused with the popular terms, "sociopath" or "psychopath," someone who suffers from this disorder can be discriminated against within the mental health system, because of the symptoms of their disorder. Because there is usually a pervasive lack of remorse, and many time any feelings at all, they are assumed not to have any real feelings by many professionals. This can lead to difficulties within treatment.

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

Antisocial personality disorders are immense, and psychopaths and sociopaths are just two of the various personality disorders. An antisocial personality disorders is defined as, “a type of chronic mental condition in which a person's ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional — and destructive.” (Mayo Clinic Staff). Sociopaths are a direct correlation to antisocial personality

“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

Conduct disorder (CD): a serious behavioral and emotional disorder that can occur in children and teens. A child with this disorder may display a pattern of disruptive and violent behavior and have problems following rules. (Mental Health and Conduct Disorder, 2005-2015 ). While it might be surprising, aggressive and antisocial behaviors are the leading cause of child and adolescent referrals to mental health clinicians. As a result, this leads to a diagnosis of conduct disorder; which can develop into antisocial personality disorder for adults. (1) (neurobiology) While antisocial personality disorder is one of the most severe and disturbing disorders, it is not diagnosed to individual’s under the age of 18 unless there is a history of symptoms