ipl-logo

Psychopathy: A Psychological Analysis

1391 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Psychopathy in modern personality research

One major line of research offers explanations to the development of psychopathy. This line focuses on the biological effect it has on a person that could lead in becoming a psychopath. Past research studies have suggested that when an individual with psychopathic tendency imagine others in pain, brain areas necessary for feeling empathy and concern for others fail to become active and be connected to other important regions involved in affective processing and decision-making. One of the theories that offer an explanation to the biological effect that contributes to the development of psychopathy is that psychopaths lack the feeling of empathy unlike a normal person. The one research study that has been conducted to prove this theory was …show more content…

Participants were divided into three groups of level of psychopathic behaviour: highly, moderately, and weakly psychopathic. Participants scoring 30 and above on the PCL-R, were assigned to the high-psychopathy group. medium- and low-psychopathy groups were matched to high scorers on age, race and ethnicity, IQ (WAIS), comorbidity for DSM-IV Axis II disorders, and past drug abuse and dependence, from pools of incarcerated volunteers scoring between 21 and 29 and volunteers scored below 20 on the PCL-R respectively.. The results could be due to their criminal behaviour rather than their psychopathy. On the other hand, there is positive correlation between psychopathy and their sensitivity to the thought of pain but there is no correlation for the thought of other people in pain and psychopathic people as their emotion of empathy fails to activate as they become insensitive to the pain of others. While it is well established that individuals with psychopathy have a marked deficit in affective arousal, emotional empathy, and caring for the well-being of others, the extent to which perspective …show more content…

Past research has shown that high level of serotonin in a person causes aggression and impulsivity that could be seen as a characteristic common in psychopaths. One of the research that supports this theory is by Swedish researchers. Psychopathic behaviour seems to be linked to an imbalance in critical brain chemicals, reveals a study of violent and sexual offenders. The findings are based on 28 men up to the age of 45, all of whom had committed violent crimes, including murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, arson, rape, or sexual assault of

Show More
Related
1768 Words | 8 Pages

Sara Whobrey Professor McCrady English 102 24 January, 2023 The Psychopathy Behind the Columbine Killer, Eric Harris Psychopaths are people who are born unable to feel a strong emotion of humans, empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and feel for others and their feelings. Lack of empathy is only one trait of a psychopath. According to Crego and Widiger, the trait most attributed to psychopathy are antagonism, manipulativeness, dishonesty, and callousness. (Crego and Widiger 1.)

Read More
1669 Words | 7 Pages

However, a serial killer suffering from psychopathy cannot control his or her impulses, identify with others and feel empathy, and cannot conform his or her behavior to social norms. Thus, proving he or she cannot possibly be completely competent and responsible for their actions, no matter how heinous” (Gay). However, there is a difference between someone diagnosed with psychopathy and someone with anti-social personality disorder. “Unlike serial killers with psychopathy, those with anti-social personality disorder should not be allowed to plead guilty by reason of insanity. They lack empathy but otherwise understand what they are doing.

Read More
1358 Words | 6 Pages

In the American society, things are more often than not exaggerated to make things more interesting; leave us ignorant with fantasy of crime, horror, romance, action, and adventure. Psychopaths and sociopaths are often confused with each other, and people believe that the two aren’t any different. In the entertainment business, psychopaths and sociopaths are made out to seem ruthless, violent murderers, rapists and more. While they can be all of these things, the media and entertainment business makes things seem different than they really are. According to definition, a sociopath is a person who lacks empathy, but a psychopath is one that has a complete lack of it.

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

Sociopaths are also more likely to be able to get better with treatment because they do know the difference between right and wrong in many cases. Examples of sociopaths are the joker in The Dark Knight and Alex Delarge in A Clockwork

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

As citizens of the United States of America, we import billions of dollars of goods from many places, but one of our biggest trade markets is with Canada and Mexico. The trade agreement that we have with these two countries is called NAFTA, which is the world’s largest free trade agreement. (Amadeo) Enacted on January 1st, 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement has been in effect for almost twenty-four years. ("North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)") Canada’s top exports to the U.S. are live animals and lumber ("Canada") and Mexico’s top exports to the U.S. are avocados, tomatoes, and berries.

Read More
834 Words | 4 Pages

(advantage) B. Frontal lobe of the brain research Nadica Buzina’s 2012 article- she talks about the amygdala, which controls our anger and fear and is located in the frontal lobe, as cause of psychopathy. Elsevier reports a study done where criminals who’ve been diagnosed with having anti-personality disorder were compared to patients who have damage to their frontal lobes, healthy people, and people who have damage to other parts of their brain. The results were that psychopaths most resembled those with damage to their frontal lobes. III.

Read More
608 Words | 3 Pages

A study conducted by Pascal Molenberghs tested the brain activity of both psychopaths and non-psychopaths when they shoot a civilian and soldier (Kluger, 2015). In-depth research showcased that the prefrontal and the frontal cortexes were active in those who were not diagnosed psychopaths, while there were no impulses present in the psychopaths’ cortexes. This shows that the psychopath was unable to express empathy to the victim, as they did not have any brain activity. When a person doesn’t have the emotional understanding in their morality, they are more suspect to commit more haphazard actions. This can result in the psychopath lashing out and

Read More
885 Words | 4 Pages

Mass murders, having become more frequent in the last ten years, are a danger to society. Throughout the years there has been a continuous debate between some psychologists and today’s society regarding the topic of mass murders. Some psychologists believe individuals, with mental illness, do not commit acts of violence on the greater scale as does the general population. Whereas the general population believes, the murderous individual or group of individuals must have had some form of mental illness, which caused them to commit the heinous malefaction.

Read More
1061 Words | 5 Pages

Nature and Nurture Influence on Aggression One psychology debate that remains in today's world is the argument between nature and nurture. Scientists who study behaviors, like psychologists or sociologists, are always arguing about the topic of nature and nurture. Whether nature or nurture plays a more significant role in terms of forming us. Our personality is influenced by many factors in our life, such as the environment or the inherited genes. Some people believe that genes play a bigger part in the formation of our mental traits, such as personality.

Read More
547 Words | 3 Pages

Adrian Raine, criminologist and author of "The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime," has said before, is a very important factor in criminal behaviour that affects about 75% of a person’s criminal activity. In his book, Raine explores the many evidences that lead up to biological and genetic influences on crime

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

It is important to understand that at the time of the Columbine shooting, psychopathy was just beginning to be studied, primarily in adults. While many teenagers may go through a period of rebellion and misbehavior, Eric Harris’s actions were an extremity. Dr. Frank Ochberg describes the big indicators of a psychopath being a lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse (Stenson 3), which is displayed through various accounts of Harris’s life. Although many professionals do not like to diagnose children as psychopaths the large amount of evidence on Eric Harris’s motives, relationships, and activity points highly to a full-fledged

Read More
926 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction I. Look around this school and think about exactly how many students are here daily. How would you feel if I told you that one out of every twenty five people are sociopaths(Pratt 2006).The fact of the matter is that not everyone who is a sociopath is a serial killer but oddly enough it has been proven that all serial killers are sociopaths. II. I have chosen serial killers that I found intriguing and that I thought not many people would know a lot about.

Read More
1297 Words | 6 Pages

According to Andrews and Bonta (2010) the psychology of criminal conduct ( PCC) can be defined as an approach to scientifically understand the criminal behavior of individuals through a systematic approach. Additionally, the psychology of criminal conduct is considered to be interdisciplinary, and considers all aspects of science that will assist in the further comprehension of an individuals criminal behavior, and the causes of criminal behavior (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Andrews and Bonta ( 2010) stated that the psychology of criminal conduct can be considered a subfield of criminology and psychology due to common beliefs and common interests with both disciplines. Furthermore, the psychology of criminal conduct can be described as using

Read More
1285 Words | 6 Pages

According to Siegel (2015), trait theory is the view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits which can be subdivided into two major categories: those that stress biological makeup and those that stress psychological functioning (p. 109). Biological trait theories includes four different conditions: biochemical, neurophysiological, genetic, and evolutionary. Biochemical factors will include diet, hypoglycemia, hormonal influences, premenstrual syndrome, lead exposure, and environmental contaminants. Neurophysiological factors will include brain structure, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, brain chemistry, and arousal theory. Genetic causes could stem from parental deviance, adoption studies, and

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

Topic: Psychopath Specific Purpose: To inform my audience on the characteristic shown by psychopath and common psychopathic behavior Central Idea: Psychopath will sometimes shows unique behavior or characteristic such as speech pattern, abnormal sexual behavior and lack of emotional control. Organisational Pattern: Topical Introduction: Attention, Look around you and look at the person next to you they might be a psychopath.

Read More

More about Psychopathy: A Psychological Analysis

Related Topics

Open Document