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Role of attachment in infant attachment
Role of attachment in infant attachment
How crucial are an infant’s early attachment relationships for their subsequent development
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A personality described as “charming”, “friendly”, and “sympathetic” on the outside can be picked apart to discover a horrific truth—a human being lacking a conscience to the point of being able to lie without guilt—one who lacks the capacity to feel emotion. This person cannot create relationships, for he does not know happiness, empathy, or love. Yet he walks among society, seemingly having the world wrapped around his finger. This person is a sociopath; a coldblooded manipulator. A fascination in these beings has brought forth various tests, experiments, and studies—all to determine whether these sociopathic tendencies are an inevitable part of nature, or a preventable product of nurture. While existing evidence supports one’s upbringing and culture as factors in determining personality, stronger evidence, including the heritability of personality traits, proves genetics to be the source of sociopathic tendencies. The concepts of nature and nurture have long been fascinations for the human being. Perhaps fearful of their own nature, humans seek to determine whether their personalities are inevitable or moldable. In the case of sociopathy, there are various views. In support of sociopathy as a product of nurture, scientists and psychologists cite cases of attachment disorder—acquired by infants who lack a stable caretaker in their early years, and thus have troubles forming functional relationships later on. Others cite evidence from the impacts of cultural differences or acquired frontal-lobe brain injuries on the development of sociopathic tendencies. While these views are moderately subjective, studies using sociopathic paternal and fraternal twins offer more convincing and objective information regarding the origin... ... middle of paper ... ...hed into the human being. Studies have emerged supporting nurture as the source of sociopathy—they are, however, mere lifelines to which humans cling to—a false source of hope as the truth is denied. Legitimate studies, accompanied by analysis and reasoning, prove nature—genetics—to be the origin of sociopathy. Works Cited “Elsevier; An Underlying Cause for Psychopathic Behavior?” Mental Health Weekly Digest 10 May 2010: n. pag. ProQuest Central K12. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. Hare, Robert D. Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us. N.p.: The Guilford Press, 1999. Google Book Search. Web. 5 Feb. 2012. Magid, Ken, and Caroline A. Mckelvey. High Risk: Children Without a Conscience. N.p.: Bantam, 1988. Google Book Search. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. Stout, Martha. The Sociopath Next Door. N.p.: Broadway Books, 2005. Google Book Search. Web. 5 Feb. 2012.
Hare used these core factors to develop the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised assessment tool that helps detect psychopathy in people. They developed this theory because psychopathic behavior was thought of as miscellaneous of a topic to be categorized in one or two factors. The four recommended factors proposed by Hare and Neumann are: Interpersonal, Affective, Lifestyle and Antisocial. The first factor, interpersonal consists of superficial charm, manipulation, pathological lying, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. Secondly, the affective factor involves the lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, callous and/or lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility for own actions. The third factor is lifestyle, which comprises of need for stimulation and/or proneness to boredom, parasitic lifestyle, impulsivity, irresponsibility, unsatisfactory work habits, and lack of realistic long-term goals. Finally the fourth factor is antisocial and contains poor behavioral controls, early behavior problems, juvenile delinquency, criminal versatility, and revocation of conditional release (Hare & Neumann, 2005, p.58-59). According to Hare and Neumann “The 4 psychopathy factors are significantly interrelated, and thus can be comprehensively explained by a single superordinate (that is, psychopathy) factor.” (Hare, R. D., & Neumann, C. S.
The nurturing of individuals plays a role in the making of killers, as 94% of serial killers had experienced some form of abuse as children and 42% have suffered severe physical abuse (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010). A child abuse is a determining factor, in which supports the idea that serial killers and psychopath, are influenced significantly by nurture (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011). In most cases social, cultural and physiological determinants all play a role in influencing serial killers to grow into a mass murderer. It is important that physiological and social determinants can be identified, so they could be altered for the purpose of preventing the number of crime.
For my book report, I have read and evaluated Dr. Hales book titled Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us, published by The Guilford Press. The purpose of the book was to bring awareness to psychopaths that live among us and will be describe in farther details in the paper. I will evaluated the purpose, strengths, weakness of the book and include a summarized portion for others to understand.
Down the street, in our workplaces, seemingly under our beds- Harvard Medical Professor Martha Stout’s Sociopath Next Door: The Ruthless vs. The Rest of Us sends the reader into a state of frightful paranoia when she mentions that a staggering 1 in 25, 4%, persons is, in fact, a sociopath. A sociopath, as Stout asserts, is a person with the lack of a conscience, thus a person not concerned with the suffering of others, to worry only about itself. She goes on to tell us that, because the rate of sociopaths in our society is so high, we must have already met hundreds without knowing it, due to the elusive and enigmatic nature of this psychological disease.
Look around the room. In one lifetime, the average person has met at least two or three sociopaths. Look around the room again. It could be someone in the same room, watching for signs of threat. In the study of psychosocial personality disorders, the origin of the sociopath has historically been the most mysterious. It has been a constant debate, and researchers have looked into both nature and nurture. In the end, however, sociopaths are most definitely the product of nurture, especially the adverse conditions of early childhood trauma.
However, Glenn and Raine (2014) argue that the emotional deficits characteristic of psychopaths diminish their rational capacity, making them unable to be held accountable for the rash and harmful decisions. Additionally, psychopaths may display knowledge of right and wrong, however their understanding is substantially compromised (Maibom 2005). Therefore, because they cannot understand moral emotions, moral transgressions fail to motivate them and they cannot be held morally responsible for their actions. They treat moral transgressions as equal to conventional transgressions (Levy 2008); to them, they are merely breaking the rules. And although breaking the rules begets consequences, a short attention span prevents psychopaths from anticipating consequences. Nevertheless, say, for example, a psychopath on a different portion of the spectrum is aware of the consequences. In this case, they would be still be indifferent because their feelings of grandeur lead them to believe that they are removed from punishment (Gao, Glenn, Schug, Yang, Raine 2009). For these reasons, many argue that psychopaths should not be held responsible for their behaviors.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations website, psychopathy has been described as the single most important clinical construct in the criminal justice system. It goes on to say that the need to understand psychopathy cannot be overstated (FBI, 2013.) From environmental influence to biology, psychopathy can be looked at from several different angles. This paper examines current thinking about how the brain and its structures contribute to psychopathy.
I chose the book Without Conscience by Robert Hare, PhD, because I have always found psychopathy fascinating. How can they do what they do? Dr. Robert Hare not only brought valuable information and research about psychopaths, but also made the book gripping and easy to read. He provided a firsthand account and insight regarding his research on psychopaths. The goal of this book was to help the general public understand what a psychopath is. How to spot and avoid psychopaths.
The sense of entitlement that comes with sociopathy is astonishing to those who abide by the social laws and conventions of our culture. Where does the entitlement come from? It stems from an underlying sense of rage. Sociopaths feel deeply angry and resentful underneath their often-charming exterior, and this rage fuels their sense that they have the right to act out in whichever way they happen to choose at the time. Everything is up for grabs with sociopaths and nothing is off limits. (Meyers)
...res of the psychopaths and gives the reader various examples of these individuals playing out these characteristics in everyday life. A widely used checklist is provided so the reader can get a wide spanning view of what is accounted for when scoring a psychopath. This form of research is very important within the deceitfulness of this population; it allows the professional to ignore their words and examine their actions. Hare made it clear that it is not uncommon for there to be an emotional and verbal disconnect from their actions. With virtually no emotional functioning psychopaths feel no remorse for the offenses that they commit and it is very important that we work towards using the opportunities we have to study and assist these populations; not only for them but for ourselves.
Nature vs. nurture has been one of the oldest and most debated topics among psychologists over the years. This concept discusses whether a child is born into this world with their developmental work cut out for them or if a child is a “blank slate” and their experiences are what shape them into who they are. Over the years and plenty of research, psychologists have all mostly come to agree that it’s a little bit of both. Children are both born with some genetic predispositions while other aspects of the child’s development are strongly influenced by their surrounding environment. This plays into the criminal justice system when discussing where criminal behavior stems from. Is a criminal’s anti-social behavior just part of their DNA or is it a result of their upbringing? The answer to this question is not definite. Looking at research a strong argument can be made that criminals developed their anti-social patterns through the atmosphere in which they were raise, not their DNA.
...hile some say it is nature and others say it is nurture, I believe it to be a little of both. Even though there are the few cases such as Rhoda who had the so called perfect but yet in the end turned into a cold hearted killer. Yet again you have children such as Beth who was raised in such a horrible environment and lost the sense of remorse and feeling and turned into psychopath. With all this said it comes down to nature and nurture to form a dangerous psychopath. Although there are some occasions where nature was the only factor and sometimes nurture is the only factor, when it comes to the end you have to take both aspects into consideration. Even with all the research we have we still do not know the definite reason why someone turns into this ruthless monster. Even though we think it has to do with nature and nurture, the world may never know the real reason.
Many people with antisocial personality disorder are taught to have a lack of empathy in early childhood. There is a high number of serial killers with abusive pasts. Parents who abuse their children both mentally and physically at an early age are training their child to be cold and emotionless. Many killers suffered this fate at childhood and became heartless creatures with little to no remorse for their actions. In the article “What makes Serial Killers Tick?” it is said that Serial Killer Albert Desalvo was sold into slavery by his father and was sexually and physically abused for most of his you...
The media most often showcases psychopaths as individuals who are inherently evil and dangerous towards themselves and others. Yet, this concept of psychopathy goes far beyond this idea of pure evil and instead necessitates a needed psychological understanding. These individuals, psychopaths, are generally characterized by a lack of empathy and conscience. Indeed, psychopath’s indifference to the repercussions of their actions combined with other characteristics such as hostility and aggression make for a potentially dangerous personality (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In order to identify a psychopath’s recidivism, it is important to differentiate them from sociopaths who, instead of having a psychological impairment that makes it difficult for them to socialize, have been systematically under socialized (Lyken, 1996, p.30). In accordance. psychologists have developed the methods such as the Psychopathy Checklist- Revised (PCL-R) to help identify those with psychopathic tendencies (Walters, 2012, p.409). That is why predictions of recidivism among psychopaths is most efficient when done
The distinction between nature versus nurture or even environment versus heredity leads to the question of: does the direct environment or the nature surrounding an adolescent directly influence acts of delinquency, later progressing further into more radical crimes such as murder or psychotic manifestation, or is it directly linked to the hereditary traits and genes passed down from that individual adolescent’s biological parents? To answer this question one must first understand the difference between nature, nurture, environment, and heredity. Nurture, broken down further into environment, is defined as various external or environmental factors one is exposed to which can be more specifically broken down into social and physical aspects. Nature, itself broken down into heredity, is defined as the genetics and the individual characteristics in one’s personality or even human nature.