Antisocial Personality Disorder Case Study

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Antisocial Personality Disorder:
Gender Differences in Brain Responses to Fear Evoking Stimuli
Erin W. Hageman
Jane Addams College of Social Work

SOCW 527 Psychological Trauma
Joshua P. Mersky
March 13, 2014

Summary of Research Article #1
Anton, M. E., Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Vitale, J. E., Curtin, J. J., & Newman, J. P. (2012). Differential effects of psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder symptoms on cognitive and fear processing in female offenders. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(4), 761-776.

Introduction This article aimed to demonstrate the differences between female offenders with psychopathic traits as compared to those with antisocial personality disorder. In order to do so a battery of tests were administered to allow for laboratory observations of cognitive and affective responses to fear inducing stimuli in three separate situations. This situational variation allowed observation of the ways in which female offenders respond differently to stressful situations based on a task related demand. The variation in situations created differential responses to violent images depending on the prominence of psychopathy versus ASPD.
Major Research Questions This study aimed to demonstrate variations between cognitive and affective responses of female offenders with psychopathic and antisocial tendencies. It was hypothesized that female offenders with these different psychological presentations would respond differently to fear inducing situations. The proposed hypotheses did not aim to guess at the differences that might occur across these disorders.
Theoretical Framework Existing research suggests that fear-potentiated startle response measures the interaction between physica...

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...rch could begin to explore the prevalence of this disorder within the female population. This would also have potential implications for assessment and treatment of conduct disorder within the adolescent female population. Currently, it appears that very little is known about the etiology and presentation of antisocial behavior among females while there is much more detailed research regarding ASPD among men. This could be because previous literature about ASPD did not take into consideration possible differences in nature and presentation of female antisocial behavior and assumed that this disorder simply occurred less in women. As the research in this area expands so will our knowledge of gender differences within antisocial personality disorder and more accurate assessment, diagnosis and treatment can be provided to the female population.

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