The Making Of A Psychopath: The Effects Of Nature And Nurture
Psychopaths are very common in the world today. But what are psychopaths? What causes someone to act in this manner? To best answer this question we must look in the past. In the early 1800’s there was a French psychiatrist named Pinel. He coined the original label manie sans delire. This phrase described the people who displayed atypical and aggressive behavior. However it was not until the end of the nineteenth century the term psychopathic inferiority was used. In 1952 the American Psychiatric Association replaced psychopath with sociopath. This was criticized given the definition of sociopath emphasized social maladjustment. This means that sociopaths did not have the capability to socialize as normals did. There are certain characteristics that are common to most psychopaths. They do not learn from experience, lack a sense of responsibility, are unable to form meaningful relationships, lack control over impulses, lack moral sense, are chronically or recurrently antisocial (punishment does not alter behavior) are emotionally immature, are unable to experience guilt, and are self centered. These characteristics best define a psychopath’s behavior. (DSM IV) Where do they come from? Psychologists agree that mo
One of the first researchers to develop a theory of psychopathy is Dr. Quay. Quay’s theory rests on two assumptions. One is that psychopaths are characterized by impairment in their physiological reactions to sensory input, which requires them to need higher levels of stimulation than normals. The second assumption is that because psychopaths’ require a higher optimal level of stimulation, they necessarily will have an extremely high degree of motivation to increase sensory stimulation so as to compensate for their under arousal. In 1965 Quay described the psychopath as a pathological stimulation seeker due to physiological abnormalities. In 1977, Quay elaborated on his theory including environmental factors in the development of adult psychopaths. Despite this elaboration, Quay’s focus remained on biological factors, stating that a psychopath starts life with an inborn hypo reactive nervous system. Quay’s theory seems to account for some symptoms, as described above. Support for this theory comes from Hare’s work discussed later in this paper. Using Quay’s theory alone, it is not clear why psychopaths are unable to experience guilt or form relationships, lack a moral code, and have superficial charm. In conclusion this theory is viewed as incomplete and inexplicit. There is another prominent theory that may further explain the mystery of psychopaths. In 1948, Harrison G Gough suggested a theory of psycopathy that described psychopaths as suffering a “deficiency in role-playing ability which is particularly liable to manifestation in social relationships”(Gough, 1948) Gough defined role-playing as the capacity to look upon ones self as an object...or to identify with anther’s point of view. He states that psychopaths were seen as pathologically deficient in role taking skills. In literal terms, they cannot anticipate the reaction of others or even comprehend the role of the generalized other society in their daily lives. Two types of research have been used in testing Gough’s theory. The first utilities the Socialization (SO) scale of the California Psychological Inventory (CPI) (Gough, 1957). The second group of studies test the psychopath’s lack of role understanding.
Some topics in this essay:
Vs Nurture,
Hare1977 Researchers,
Quay Quay’s,
Hare’s Looking,
Eysenck Eysenck,
Using EEG,
Veterans Administration,
Questionnaire EPQ,
Paul Frick,
Harrison Gough,
biological factors,
quay’s theory,
factors contribute,
emotional words,
theory psychopathy,
support theory,
psychopathy biological,
gough’s theory,
cause loss,
activity processing,
lit activity processing,
brains lit activity,
development adult psychopaths,
biological factors strongest,
pathological stimulation seeker,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 3389
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
