Running Head: WHAT CAUSES CHILDREN TO BE PSYCHOPATHS What Causes Children to Be Psychopaths? Hayley C. Peterson Peru State College and York High School Abstract This paper explores many online articles that inform on different ways to recognize and treat psychopathy in children. The sources give background and information that will give proof to why children are turning into psychopaths at such a young age. Some will discuss how many children who become psychopaths have had some type of tragedy happen to them while young, while others suggest that it is based off of genetics as well. Adults are a big part of children becoming psychopaths, and the need for them to know the signs is important if they want to be able to …show more content…
What is a Psychopath, and Why do Traumatic Experiences Lead to Psychopathy? 2. How Can Adults See the Signs? 3. What Can be Done Through Therapy to Cure Psychopathy? What is a Psychopath, and Why do Traumatic Experiences Lead to Psychopathy? Psychopathy today is most commonly observed in adults, but what many parents don’t know is that signs of aggressive behavior is often one of the first signs of an adolescent psychopath. In the film, The Good Son, Henry, the main antagonist of the movie has been experiencing psychopathic behaviors. But only one person (his cousin Mark) realizes that he is portraying these behaviors, and his parents refuse to believe that Henry has anything wrong with him. But one day his mother discovers something that belonged to her late son in Henry’s possession, this is when she realizes her son’s behavior pattern. As later learned in the movie, these behaviors really started developing after the traumatic loss of his younger brother in a drowning accident (Reuben, 1993). So why did Henry turn psychopathic after his brother’s …show more content…
Henry in The Good Son, displays many characteristics of a psychopath, and yet only one character catches on to them, and that is Mark. After things become a little too much for Mark to handle, he goes and talks to Henry’s mom and tells her that Henry is a psychopath. She refuses to believe anything he is saying and in return slaps Mark in the face. How can a great mother do such a thing to a child? Well later in the movie she unravels that Mark was right, and that Henry was a psychopath, and that he killed her other son (Ruben, 1993). How did she miss all of the signs when they were right under her nose? Since everyone can remember children have been fighting with their siblings, but maybe there is more behind it than meets the eye. Many parents struggle understanding the root of the problems between their children; when the whole time they were really just psychopaths. Psychologists have discovered and now believe that children may start displaying psychopathic traits as young as three years old. In a research study, they were convinced that there are ten tell-tale signs of child psychopathy and if children start showing any, if not multiple of these signs; parents should start to question if they should take their child to a psychologist. One example of this would be “One five-year-old girl held the much-loved family cat out of a top floor window, then hurled it upside-down onto concrete, just for pleasure. Cruelty to animals is a