Exploring Psychopathy: Issues with empathy and emotional intelligence
Student ID #:
Governors State University
Jaroszewski
Fall Term 2015
Exploring Psychopathy: Issues with empathy and emotional intelligence
A person’s emotions, and or feelings, are an important part of what makes them ordinary or human, and without them it is hard to imagine how someone could function in the world. That is, until one meets a psychopath. Most of the time when people think of psychopaths they think of their erratic and irrational tendencies, and the horrible acts that go with them. What people don’t think about is how or why psychopaths act the way they do. It is important to understand…A lot of the issues psychopaths have stem from a lack
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The chances of meeting a psychopath, or having already encountered one, is very likely. What psychopaths lack in empathy and emotional intelligence they make up for in charm, manipulation, and relentlessness. The reason why a person would not know if (a psychopath was in their presence) they were in the presence of a psychopath is because they are masters of disguise. Psychopaths are able to read people at a glance, which allows them to pick out, and prey on the weak minded. They cover up their emotional deficiencies by faking normal emotions. This act is so convincing that a person will have no idea of the psychopath’s true personality behind the mask (Sorensen, 2014). Despite their erratic and irresponsible behavior, psychopaths show no signs of mental illness. They do not tend to be socially awkward and usually have a better-than-average intelligence (Kiehl & Buckholtz, 2010). Lying comes as a second nature to psychopaths and as a result these lies can be very difficult to detect. Any signs of anxiety or stress that are usually present when a normal person lies are absent when a psychopath lies. In fact, psychopaths show a rather small increase in skin conductance (measure of tension and sweatiness of skin and palms) when in situations that would cause normal people to feel