Antisocial In this paper I will be discussing the causes, symptoms, treatments and cures of the psychological disorder called Antisocial personality disorder. Antisocial personality disorder is also known as sociopathy. Sociopathy is a mental condition where someone continuously shows that they are not able to tell the difference between right and wrong. They also chose to ignore the feelings and rights of others they come in contact with. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to be the antagonizer, manipulate and treat others unkindly and seem to have no feelings of remorse because this disorder defeats the personals morals. They are incapable of containing guilt or remorse for their behaviors. Individuals who have antisocial
This prisoner is a 28 year old male,S.B., was seen by a Psychiatrist named Calcutta after getting into a fight with another inmate over a bet. S.B was brutally beaten up by the Wardens of the jail. The case history reveals that S.B was jailed twice before for cheating case and for assaulting one of his friend. This time S.B was jailed for fighting with a police constable. During interrogation S.B admit that he has beaten the other inmate who refused to pay money. S.B wanted to show his power and there was no regret for his action. Family history showed his neglected childhood and his father left his home at the age of six years old and his mother had a hidden relationship with their neighbor. This example shows the typical way people get diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. Due to this occurrence at the beginning of S.Bs life of neglect as a child by his father and being left for his mother who was having affairs with his next door neighbor he began to develop APD even though it was unknown at the time. Then once S.B was left without any parent or real guardians in his life he started to abuse drugs and alcohol and soon enough got caught up and wound up in jail. All of these events leading to him being in jail caused him to have antisocial personality
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Every few years there are disturbing, yet fascinating headlines: “BTK killer: Hiding in plain sight” or “Police discover at least 10 victims at Anthony Sowell's home”; but what would allow an individual to commit the crimes they did? In cases like these there is usually a common link: Antisocial Personality disorder. It is an unknown disorder to most of the population which is why there are so many questions to be answered, the main ones being what is antisocial personality disorder and how does it effect patient and society as a whole? To answer these questions one needs an accurate background picture of the disorder.
Wogan, M., & Mackenzie, M. (2002). Anti-social personality disorder in a sample of imprisoned non-sex, non-arson adult male offenders. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 35(2), 31-47
First, Anti Social Personality Disorder is a mental condition that can cause a person to think and behave in a destructive manner. “Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is characterized by a pattern of socially irresponsible, exploitative, and guiltless behavior. ASPD is associated with co-occurring mental health and addictive disorders and medical comorbidity.” (Black, 2015) People with ASPD have a habit of antagonizing and manipulating others but also have no awareness for what is right and what is wrong. One tends to disregard the feelings and wishes of others. “ASPD typically begins during childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.” (Kivi, 2012) ASPD usually is noticed around 8 years old, but it is categorized as a conduct disorder. Though children can be treated in what doctors may think is ASPD, children will not be completely diagnosed with the title of ASPD until at least 18 years of age. In time those with ASPD behavior usually end up turning criminal.
Antisocial personality disorder is a personality disorder marked by a general pattern of disregard for a violation of other people’s rights. Explanations of antisocial personality disorder come from the psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, and biological models. As with many other personality disorders, psychodynamic theorists propose that this disorder starts with an absence of parental love during infancy leading to a lack of basic trust. In this view, the children that develop this disorder respond to early inadequacies by becoming emotionally distant, and they bond with others through use of power and destructiveness. Behavioral theorists have suggested that antisocial symptoms may be learned through modeling, or imitation. As evidence, they point to the higher rate of antisocial personality disorder found among the parents of people with this disorder. Other behaviorists suggest that some parent’s unintentionally teach antisocial behavior by regularly awarding a child’s aggressive behavior. The cognitive view says that people with this disorder hold attitudes that trivialize the importance of other people’s needs. Cognitive theorists also believe that these people have a genuine difficulty recognizing a point of view other than their own. Finally studies show that biological factors may play an important role in developing antisocial disorder. Researchers have found that antisocial people, particularly those with high impulse and aggression, display lower serotonin activity and has been linked this same activity with other studies as well.
Anti-Social Personality Disorder is a classified personality disorder in which a person, sometimes referred to as a “psychopath”, has a lack of empathy, an increased chance of acting violently towards others, and a complete disregard for authority and punishment. Prevalent features and symptoms include: shallow emotions, irresponsibility, mistrust of others, reckless thrill-seeking, disrespect for the law, prone to lash out with physical violence, harmful impulsiveness, arrogance, manipulative, greedy, lack of kindness or compassion, disrespect for others, and dishonesty (Psychology Today, n.d.). A main factor of this disorder is the inability to process, interpret, and display emotion, even fear. An example is that most criminals with this disorder respond drastically different to their sentencing than normal. They seem relaxed and unable to process it on an emotional level. They are also fully aware of what they are doing, and have no sense of distorted reality, or remorse which classifies them as sane people. They also have neurotransmitter deficiencies in the brain, such as reduced serotonin and dopamine (Freedman & Verdun-Jones, 2010). The overall population of people having this disorder is a small amount, about 3% and higher in prisons and abuse clinics which is around 70%. Also, because of their constant involvement in violence, most people diagnosed with this disorder die by violent means such as suicide and homicide (Internet Mental Health, n.d.).
I have decided to research the development of antisocial personality disorders due to the quality of early childhood care and early childhood experiences. Antisocial personality disorder is described generally as disregard for others. Diagnosing ASPD involves features such as delinquency, physical assaults, deceitfulness and lying, impulsivity, and irresponsibility. This topic appealed to me because my step sister goes to see a therapist and they have reason to believe that she may have an antisocial or borderline personality disorder. While I won’t divulge, she has had many traumatic childhood experiences and had quite the rough upbringing with her parents. This led me to be interested in this article and to find out more about the connections between the two phenomena.
Another way to put this would be that a person with antisocial personality disorder will display psychopathic or sociopathic traits beginning in early in their life and continuing into adulthood. People with this disorder often have a lack of empathy or remorse, an aggressiveness towards people in many situations, and deceitfulness and manipulation. For example, a person with antisocial personality disorder may justify an action that they made against someone else by saying, “well they had it coming.” Or, the person may play with people’s thoughts and emotions in order to receive personal gain, which could be anything from sex to money to
“Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of a disregard for other people’s rights, often crossing the line and violating those rights. It usually begins in childhood or as a teen and continues into their adult lives.” (Staff & Grohol, 2014) Individuals with antisocial personality often display deviant behavior throughout their life and are often classified as different outcast groups in the society such as sociopaths and psychopaths. People with this disorder tend to social predators who befriend individuals and overtime gain their trust and loyalty then cause pain and suffering to these individual’s lives without feeling any form of remorse.
Ogloff, J. R. (2006). Psychopathy/antisocial personality disorder conundrum. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, (40), 519-528.
While mental disorders are characterized by abnormal behaviors in certain people, abnormal behavior is considered by psychologists when a combination of the mentioned elements meet together: unusual or statistically infrequent; socially unacceptable or in violation of social norms; fraught with misperceptions or misinterpretations of reality; associated with states of severe personal distress; maladaptive or self-defeating; and dangerous (Nevid et al, 2011). Some would think that psychopathy is considered a mental disorder due to its characterization based on abnormal behavior but in fact isn’t classified as one by the terms of the DSM-IV. As defined in the DSM-IV, “A mental disorder is a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress or disability or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom.” (Hare, 2009) Therefore, psychopaths are described as being people suffering from antisocial personality disorder and are evaluated and judged by these terms. The following paper’s goal will therefore consist of explaining what is psychopathy and its facets, how psychopathy in youth is apprehended, how psychopathy influences violence and sexual violence, as well as evaluating if psychopaths are considered by the judge to be criminally responsible.
How many individuals go through life and say, “I am antisocial” because they do not like talking to people? Too many do, however many of which are not antisocial. If someone says they are antisocial, they simply mean they are selectively social. People who are antisocial suffer from a disorder known as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) is an ongoing pattern of behavior that includes the disregard of social rules, serious violations of rights, and irresponsible acts. This disorder affects roughly three percent of males and one percent of females in the United States. Individuals who have ASPD are interesting to learn about. Many of these individuals, we know. These individuals
The main cause of antisocial personality disorder is unknown. However, genetic factors and environmental factors are both believed to be linked to antisocial personality disorder. Environmental factors include being a victim to child abuse or a dysfunctional family life. “People with an antisocial or alcoholic parent are at increased risk”:(“Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms,” 2013). On the other hand, research suggests that genetics could also be a factor. When abnormalities development in the nervous system, this leads to learning disorders, hyperactivity, and bedwetting which in turn leads to antisocial personality disorder.:(“Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms,” 2013). Not only are the causes unclear, but also because they are unclear exams and tests are given to determine if one has the disorder or not. “Antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed based on a psychological evaluation that assesses the history and severity of symptoms. To be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, a person must have had conduct d...
Antisocial Personality Disorder, also informally known as psychopathy/sociopathy, is a disorder where people elicit manipulative behaviors and lack morals. This includes disregard for rules, violence, superficial charm, promiscuity, a superiority complex, and difficulty forming attachments. This is said to be caused by genetics as well as modeling, or watching other people perform this kind of behavior. 3.3% of Americans are diagnosed with Antisocial Personality disorder. It’s 70% more common in males than females and is seen greatly in