Causes Of Antisocial Personality Disorder

Jennifer Koser Joe Sonsella General Psychology 4-22-16 Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is one of 10 personality disorders in the manual of mental disorders. It is commonly characterized by a person who consistently shows no regard for right and wrong, and ignores the rights and feelings of others. They tend to manipulate or treat others harshly, and show no remorse for their behavior.1 The criteria for diagnosing this disorder differs depending on the version and source, but usually requires a lifelong pattern of symptoms. Scientific evidence shows individuals displaying anti social behavior from a young age and remaining this way for the span of their life. The population of people with ASPD is diverse.

For example, if a hardened criminal (that is in prison for armed robbery) stole money in order to provide for his family (a sense of responsibility), then that criminal does not possess antisocial personality disorder. Furthermore, those that do have antisocial personality disorder may begin to show symptoms during childhood; however, the disorder cannot be diagnosed until

The creator of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, Dr. Robert Hare, wrote a book entitled Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths among Us. In his book, he states that “…compared with other major clinical disorders, little systematic research has been devoted to psychopathy…” This just goes to show that there could possibly be even more to understand about psychopathy than what is already known by medical professionals today (Hare). However, from what is already understood today in regards to the cause of psychopathy, we have found that the cause is genetic and linked to abnormalities that appear in the brain.

Antisocial behavior is when the person had childhood behavior problems, poor behavior controls and has committed some kind of crime at a young age (Mulcahy M., Cutinelli P., Warner J. and Woodruff T. (April 01, 2011). Ridgway’s childhood life was very difficult because of his environment. His parents fought all the time and the stress at home caused him to wet his bed until he was 13 years old. His mother was controlling and very strict, so when his mother found out about it she would make fun of him in front of his family. He always felt like his mother doesn’t love him so he just wanted to be loved by his mother.

As societal crime rate continues to escalate, the epidemic of homicides and mass murders remains a prevalent social problem. Thus, the emergence of serial killers has caused alarm among many criminologists and psychologists. Serial killers usually have an impulsive desire to kill for no particular reason, which makes it difficult for law enforcement and criminal professionals to understand their motives. Thus, the motives of serial killers have led to heated debates and challenged the nature vs. nurture theory. Many scientists believe that serial killers are genetically incline to commit murders, while criminologists associate violent crimes to childhood and surroundings. Essentially, exploring how and why serial killers commit crimes is an important area because it will help

One of the most debated topics throughout the world is nature versus nurture. When psychologists debate this topic, they are studying what influences a person’s personal development. Some say that a person’s nature influences personal development while others say a person’s nurture influences personal development. A lot of people spend time contemplating which one actually does the influencing but what some do not realize is that, perhaps, both nature and nurture help shape a person’s personal development. One topic that comes up quite often is whether or not a person is born a criminal. Today, there are proven facts that people who have parents that are criminals have a high chance of becoming criminals themselves. Not only can people become criminals because of their family but they can also become criminals because of the environment that they surround themselves in. This is where nature versus nurture comes into play.

Antisocial personality disorder is described to be the tendencies to disregard and violate the rights of others around them. (Psychologytoday.com, 2017) There are many symptoms to look at for the mental illness. The DSM-5 lists many traits that people carry with them when having the illness much like Randle McMurphy. Randle was arrested and sent to work on the work farms for statutory rape.

Furthermore, the psychology of criminal behavior, psychology, and criminology all have a primary objective of achieving an understanding of the variation in the criminal behavior of individuals (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Empirically, the study of variation in criminal behavior is done by the studying of covariates (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). The primary covariates that PCC studies are biological, social, and psychological (Andrews and Bonta , 2010). Although, criminology tends to assess criminality at an aggregate level, in comparison to the psychology of criminal conduct’s focus on an individual level. Additionally, a psychology of criminal conduct involves applying what is learned by the studying of psychological information and methods to the predicting and influencing the propensity of criminal behavior on an individual

Psychopathic behavior created by the divergence of human development than normal. The deterioration of nature is caused when acting

Research to date, however, casts doubt on the validity of

In the Life-Course Persistent Theory, it is thought that neuropsychological deficits caused during pregnancy or outside of pregnancy, combined with parental neglect or abuse creates life-long criminals. According to Moffit, the creator of the Life-Course Persistent Theory, the neuropsychological deficits cause antisocial behavior, impulsiveness, and an unruly temperament. As Buss discusses in his novel, damage to the brain caused by these neuropsychological deficits, can cause a high range of emotions such as rage and jealously. The damage to the brain can also damage the frontal lobe which determines our sense of what is right and wrong (Buss, 26). According to Moffit, the brain damage and neglect, leads the person to become a life-long criminal.

Although an unpopular opinion amongst most researchers today, in 2005, Bobby Fong and Michelle Adam had similar ideas;

Additionally, there has been research conducted to explore the correlation

The neurotic criminal driven by equally irresistible but unconscious forces, the nature of which is unknown to the criminal. Most of these criminals are seen to regard his criminal tendencies as foreign to his personality and tries fruitlessly to struggle with them. Neurotic delinquents are often misconstrued as having a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality or “double personality” which is scorned by judges and others who wish to maintain the age old mentality that divides mankind into black and white spectrums as well as the belief that we are responsible for our own impulses and control our own destinies. The author also implies that a large proportion of offenses often happen in reaction to sudden excruciating mental stress. The author also believes that a combination of psychological and practical consequences of the offense then combine and compelling the individual deeper into

Hare’s checklist’s are the tools that clincians often use to assess psychopathy and are widely recongnized as a relible method of measuring male psychopathy, for example in criminal populations. The checklist by Hare, can measure the degree of an individual’s psychopathic traits with higer interrater reliability. Whereas, Cleckley’s study is the most influential modern clincal description of psychopathy and is still used today for case studies of classic psychopathy. Psychopaths can be found among all of the classes in population. Some of the characteristics listed in Hare’s checklist are: glib and superficial charm, gradisose self-worth, need for stimulation, pathological lying, shallow affect, parastic lifestyle as well as early behavior problems.