Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Psychopathy nurture vs nature
Psychopathy is defined as a mental (antisocial) disorder in which an individual manifests amoral and antisocial behaviour, shows a lack of ability to ...
Investigation of psychopathy
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Psychopathy nurture vs nature
A Psychopath is usually defined as a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior. According to Psychology.com; “The term “psychopath” was first applied to these people around 1900. The term was changed to “sociopath” in the 1930s to emphasize the damage they do to society.” Being a psychopath goes back more into the fact that most of them tend to be very uncaring, have shallow emotions, be irresponsible, and overconfident. Also, the simple fact that they usually go through much more from their childhood towards abuse, and neglect from parents or other sources that could have contributed to their mental hysteria. To the best of our knowledge, there’s no cure for psychopathy. There is no vaccine …show more content…
He used the term to describe “moral insanity” and lack of self control. According to, “scholarpedia.com”; it states “The causes and specific pathophysiology of psychopathy are an active area of research. Like other mental illnesses, psychopathy appears in all races and cultures. Cleckley and other authors have long noted that psychopathy may manifest in both genders, in all socioeconomic strata, and in all cultures and races.” In other words tendencies of psychopaths are usually genetic or family inherited or brought up through intellectual abuse. Morally, this supports the simple fact that becoming a psychopath typically means your mental state is severely damaged and you feel no remorse or emotion to things regular people would exaggerate usually. Such as, feeling frightened or guilty after murdering someone whether purposely or accidently. Instead, you can do awful things such as; stare in a person's eyes with no guilt or fear once so ever as you murder them or whatever the case may …show more content…
Paul R. Lees-Haley, a forensic psychologist, confides that the most apt definition for these types of criminals is “evil.” And Dr. Bruce Gage, chief of psychiatry for the Washington Department of Corrections and clinical associate professor at the University of Washington, compares psychopathy to colorblindness, explaining that, just as some individuals cannot see the color red, others are blind to human emotions such as sympathy and compassion.” Overall, most people simply believe that individuals who rape, kidnap, and murder people are in control of what they do. Their intelligent individuals with plans if they are to be consistent serial killers. However, as Dr. Bruce Gage states in the article, psychopathy is like color blindness. In their case, relating to that they can't feel certain things emotionally or connect within their own feelings. Nor can they feel any other normal human emotion, it's blocked out from their brains. More or less, their amygdala’s. Yet, most people think of psychopaths as people in society whom are usually looked down upon, people don't understand them and their usually labeled as evil or “sick” people. According to the article, “They often display callous, unemotional traits and indifference to others. Further,
Psychopathy has fascinated the public for years due to the gruesome and evil portrayal it has received in the media. Psychopathy is defined in the DSM-III as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior (Patrick, Christopher, Fowles, Krueger, Rober, 2009). Psychopathy represents a cluster of different dimensions of personality found amongst the general population to varying degrees (Patrick et al, 2009). The diagnostic definition is meant to be applied to adults, however psychopathology can occur in children. Controversy surrounds the topic of childhood mental illness because the brain is not fully developed until the age of 18; thus allowing the possibility that symptoms are the result of growing up and will change. The triarchic model, formulated by Christopher J. Patrick, is the most commonly used model in diagnosing adult and childhood psychopathy. This model suggests that different conceptions of psychopathy emphasize three observable characteristics to varying degrees; boldness, disinhibition and meanness (Patrick, et al, 2009). Boldness is the first observable characteristic and is comprised of low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness. Disinhibition; characterized by poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints. Meanness is defined as lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seek...
Are psychopaths like Alice, “mad or bad?” (page 21). The question whether psychopaths are mentally ill or just a bad seed has caused much debate. Dr. Hare explains that the problem is not only labeling them mad or bad, but who deals with them. “Does the treatment or control of the psychopath rightly fall to mental health professionals or to the correctional system?” (page 21). Not only are professionals confused on how to classify psychopaths, but the media also creates confusion. Psychopath means mental illness and the media uses the word to classify someone as, “insane or crazy”, (page 22). Dr. Hare explains that even though psychopaths, “cannot be understood in terms of traditional views of mental illness”, they, “are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders…psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why.” (page 22). Most professionals use the term psychopath and sociopath as one in the same. Since DSM-III, antisocial personality disorder has been used in place of psychopath and sociopath. Philippe Pinel was the first psychiatrist describe a psychopath and Harvey Cleckley was one of the first successful publish a book describing a psychopath to the general public . Pinel used the term, “insanity without delirium”, (page 25). Cleckley wrote The Mask of Sanity, which influenced researchers in North America. Dr. Robert Hare explained that WWII was the first time clinicians felt a need to diagnosis people with psychopathy. Due to the draft, there was a need to weed out the people could disrupt or harm the military structure. Dr. Robert Hare realized how hard it was to identify a true psychopaths from rule breakers and developed the Psychopathy Checklist. This checklist is used world wide to help clinicians identify true
One area of research in psychopathy focuses on the set of structures in the brain known as the limbic system, but more specifically on a structure known as the amygdala. According to neuropsychology class slides, the amygdala is involved in emotions and storage of emotions in memory as well as the fear response when encountering threatening environmental stimuli. Osumi and colleagues (2012) note that the affective and interpersonal facets of psychopathy, such as cold-heartedness and lack of empathy, which are thought to be the core features of psychopathy, are associated with reduced activity in the amygdala. This is coupled with the fact that a less functional amygdala is associated with a psychopathic individual’s exhibition of antisocial behaviors, at least in part because he will not perceive the threat of punishment as a consequence of his actions. So whether it be the acts against other people or the acts of justice that may be carried out against the perpetrator, the psychopath will perceive both as less significant, as compared to a non-psychopathic individual. (Osumi et al., 2012)
The psychopath know the reasons behind acting a certain way and just don't think about the consequences. Even in the DSM-IV clear definitions of a psychopath doe not exist but the closes to diagnose is anti-social personality disorder. Dr. Hare instead developed the Psychopathy Checklist for people to diagnose psychopathy. The first part of the Psychopathy Checklist looks at the emotional and interpersonal traits of the disorder(Hare, 1993). Some of the emotional qualities that the clinician would look for is as followed: glib/superficial, egocentric/grandiose and lack of empathy.
Psychopaths are strict when committing a crime. They plan there crime before they do it. Because they think there crimes through, they are hardly found about. In the article, “Psychopath vs sociopath” it says “tendency to participate in schemes and take calculated risks to minimize evidence or exposure.” People portray them to be very violent people but it is rare for them to do violent crimes. They tend to do smaller crimes but they can be serial killers. As they feel no guilt when doing the crime, although, when they do a big crime they can be undetected for a long
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
Psychopaths literally feel nothing when it comes to violence or fear. Levy studies show that the emotional sectors of the brain are damaged. This makes them dangerous. They can not see that something is hurting or they are hurting someone.
What is a psychopath? What type of person can be characterized by this and how do they come to be? But first before we can answer these questions we must first know what a psychopath is. Psychopaths are people suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviors; clinically it is a person who has a lack of what we would consider a conscience. Psychopaths are seen to suffer from a lack of empathy because of psychological, genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have many theories concerning psychopaths. Scientist do not have a definite clear cut answer on what is the cause for psychopathy but they have many ideas; nature and the nurture of the person. Nature is the genes that the person carries. The nurture of the person when they were a child is simply means how they were treated when they were growing up and/or how they were raised. Some scientists even consider it a possibility that it could be a mixture of the two.
Sociopaths are prevalent among society, and some researchers, like Martha Stout, claim that one out of every twenty-five people is a sociopath. However, this statistic is incorrect. This statistic is based on the assumption that sociopaths and psychopaths are the same people—which is untrue. While the sociopathic and psychopathic traits overlap, sociopaths differ in that they are obviously nervous and agitated, unable to create the illusions that psychopaths are so proud of. They live on the fringes of society, uneducated and unable to keep a steady job. Psychopaths, unlike sociopaths, are suave and able to maintain an illusion of conformity and maintain relationships on a superficial level. Both, however, are dominantly male, tend to disregard the rights and social mores of others, and have a tendency display violent and disruptive outbursts without remorse. Unlike psychopaths, who completely lack remorse and the ability to love, sociopaths may attach themselves to certain people, though they still remain contemptuous of the rest of humanity (7).
...”, 2013). The interesting thing about psychopathy is that is not equivalent to violence, serial Killing, psychosis, mental Illness or antisocial Personality Disorder, not a danger personality depending on the individual (“The society for”, 2013). Holmes is classify as a primary Psychopath a he wanted to be in dominance and control and he would be very egocentric. Hen di not fail at inhibiting punished behavior as he was never caught and when he was caught he was sentenced to death.
Depictions of psychopaths today have become exaggerated based off of what you see in movies and films. The psychopaths in movies are believed to be dangerous or have an anti-social personality disorder. Not all psychopaths can be defined in that manner. Psychopaths are identified as people who are emotionally unstable. They are ultimately suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior. There have been studies ultimately wondering if a psychopath is born, or is it raised? Genetics and environment combine to produce conditions that create psychopathology. By paying attention to environmental variables we can potentially reduce the amount of people who become dangerous psychopaths.
Psychopathy; the trait that truly distinguishes humans from ¨machines¨, emotionful to emotionless. Within the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, one may logically assume that the protagonist, Patrick Bateman is indeed implied to be a psycho as the title suggests. However upon further analyzation, Bateman is revealed to be an unreliable narrator, he does not captivate the reader with all of his emotions verbally, for they are revealed through his actions. Bateman certainly does murder people, however, clinically murder doesn´t rule somebody to be a psychopath. Bateman feels no visible remorse for the victims he kills, because Bateman lives in an artificial hyperbole of a yuppie world where no love is shown, all relationships superficial.
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done
A psychopath is someone who is unable to live harmoniously in society due to their profound lack of compassion, empathy, conscience, and remorse (Hare, 1993). Many psychopathic symptoms have been proposed to result from cognitive and emotional processing impairments. The concept of a psychopath is often of a ruthless and dangerous criminal, an image commonly depicted in the media and film. Though psychopaths do make up an estimated 40% of dangerous offenders in Canada, it is the non-violent manipulators and cheaters, like white-collar criminals and unethical business people, who can have the most impact on the general population (Bonta & Motiuk; 1996, Hare, 1993). Therefore, understanding the cognitive bases and development of psychopathy can allow exploration into possible interventions and treatments, as well as identifying measures for use in diagnosing psychopathy in childhood and adolescence. Additionally, the deciphering of abnormal processes can give insight into normal functioning, thus helping to expand current knowledge. This paper reviews conclusions that processing of
Sociopaths are people with a major personality disorder and they possess sociopathic characteristics of being tremendously antisocial and they have no conscience. They react on impulses and they usually fail to plan ahead. Sometimes a sociopath often believes that they are doing nothing wrong or when they are do terrible things they believe that they’re doing something that’s good or acceptable. This definition may fall a bit short because of the simple fact that one will truly never understand what a sociopath really is, or what they think, unless you’re one yourself. This is because of the many characteristics that a sociopath have. Not all sociopaths are good people, but the same thing could be said that, not all sociopaths are bad people.