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Mental illness and violence statistics
Mental illness and violence statistics
Difference between sociopath and psychopath essay
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Those two, psychopath and sociopath, have many differences but have some similarities too. A sociopath is a person with a personality disorder with severe antisocial attitudes and drastic behavior. Basically a sociopath is just a person who has a rough time connecting with others and has plenty of insecurities about themselves. A psychopath is a person suffering from a mental disorder with extremely violent behavior. Basically, a psychopath is just an unstable and aggressive person. They are kind of the same but a psychopath is just more extreme. Everyone has a conscience but when a person becomes mentally mad their conscience slowly goes away. A psychopath typically does not have a conscience, they don’t know what they are doing most of
the time. They don’t have that little voice in the top of their head telling them, “that’s wrong, you don’t need to do that!” A sociopath usually has a conscience although it may be very frail. Like for example, if a sociopath were to come up and steal someone’s wallet, they would know that it’s wrong but yet they won’t let it affect their behavior. A psychopath usually is incapable of developing a love for someone, even a family member, while a sociopath is capable of making friends and forming love for someone (although it's hard for for them also.) A psychopath feels no empathy or guilt while a sociopath feels empathy or guilt if they hurt something close to them. That's only just a few differences I listed there. A few similarities between them is that they both suffer from the illness antisocial personality disorder. (ASPD) They both are criminals and do violent, criminal things. Lastly, they both have a rough time being social and forming friendship.
Psychopathy has fascinated the public for years due to the gruesome and evil portrayal it has received in the media. Psychopathy is defined in the DSM-III as a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and disinhibited or bold behavior (Patrick, Christopher, Fowles, Krueger, Rober, 2009). Psychopathy represents a cluster of different dimensions of personality found amongst the general population to varying degrees (Patrick et al, 2009). The diagnostic definition is meant to be applied to adults, however psychopathology can occur in children. Controversy surrounds the topic of childhood mental illness because the brain is not fully developed until the age of 18; thus allowing the possibility that symptoms are the result of growing up and will change. The triarchic model, formulated by Christopher J. Patrick, is the most commonly used model in diagnosing adult and childhood psychopathy. This model suggests that different conceptions of psychopathy emphasize three observable characteristics to varying degrees; boldness, disinhibition and meanness (Patrick, et al, 2009). Boldness is the first observable characteristic and is comprised of low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness. Disinhibition; characterized by poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints. Meanness is defined as lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seek...
The psychopath know the reasons behind acting a certain way and just don't think about the consequences. Even in the DSM-IV clear definitions of a psychopath doe not exist but the closes to diagnose is anti-social personality disorder. Dr. Hare instead developed the Psychopathy Checklist for people to diagnose psychopathy. The first part of the Psychopathy Checklist looks at the emotional and interpersonal traits of the disorder(Hare, 1993). Some of the emotional qualities that the clinician would look for is as followed: glib/superficial, egocentric/grandiose and lack of empathy.
Psychopath and Sociopath are so closely related that many don’t know they are different illness. Both psychopath and sociopath have similar illness but their factors are completely different. Study’s shows this may be a product of nature vs nurture. Secondly, Psychopath behavior is shown to be controlled while sociopath is shown to have uncontrollable behavior. Thirdly, there violence outburst is different, psychopath usually plan out their crimes while sociopaths are erratic and careless with their crimes. Fourthly, Psychopaths don’t feel any type emotion towards others but they can be in relationships when it comes beneficial to them. Sociopaths often don’t have relationships, they don’t become attached to others. Lastly, Psychopath are actually
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a sociopath as someone who behaves in a dangerous or violent way towards other people and does not feel guilty about such behavior. Sociopaths lack a conscience that allows people to decipher between right and wrong. In A Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator, Montresor, is believed to be a sociopath by many. He kills his friend, Fortunado, after he literally adds insult to a thousand of injuries. Though what the insult was and the previous injuries were never revealed to the reader, it could be assumed that Montresor probably overreacted to the Fortunado’s insult. But in order to answer this question the evaluation upon his motivation, strategy, and Montresor’s feeling and emotion towards
A well-known personality disorder is psychopathy. Psychopathy’s shortened term “psycho” is often used as a slang term to mean crazy. Psychopathy is a real issue caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Psychopathic people have traits “common to some serial murderers, including sensation seeking, a lack of remorse or guilt, impulsivity, the need for control, and predatory behavior. These traits and behaviors are consistent with the psychopathic personality disorder” (Morton). Psychopathic tendencies are most common among killers. Although, “serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders, including psychopathy, anti-social personality, and others” (Morton). With psychopathy in a serial killer they feel they have a valid and justifiable reason for killing three or more people. With psychopathic killers feel their motives make their killing okay. Serial killers have “many other motivations for serial murders including anger, thrill, financial gain, and attention seeking” (Morton). A common motive for serial killers is revenge. They feel that someone did them wrong, much like a person who was abused as a child. They feel they have a valid excuse for murdering the person that abused them or substitutes if they find that object of their rage unreachable. Another common motive is simply anger. With anger it is more often than not that they do not have a target. They are just angry and are willing to kill anybody to cope with it. Antisocial personality disorder is often in people who show “a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility” (Morton). Antisocial personality disorder is similar to psychopathic personality disorder yet, it remains different. The Behavior Analysis Unit at the Federal Bureau of Investigation stated, “Psychopathy is a personality disorder
Kerns, Jeanne M. "Sociopath Vs. Psychopath: There Is a Difference." Yahoo Contributor Network. Www.yahoo.com, 15 Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
Psychopaths and sociopaths generally are introverted and antisocial, but psychopaths don 't feel remorse and are normally described as lacking empathy. Sociopaths are generally damaged by environmental factors like how the child was raised and in what environment it all occurred. Sociopaths and psychopaths both normally commit crimes out of revenge or greed. Both psychopaths and sociopaths can carry on normal relationships, but psychopaths won’t feel any emotions and only want relationships that will benefit them and sociopaths can also hold relatively normal relationships but will often feel guilty if they harm someone (“Psychopath vs. Sociopath”). In the case of Commodus, he can have a normal relationship with his sister because he feels he can relate to her and often will feel guilty if he harms her, but with others he lacks empathy and feels the need to occasionally take a drastic measure in disciplining someone who doesn’t follow his
Psychopaths literally feel nothing when it comes to violence or fear. Levy studies show that the emotional sectors of the brain are damaged. This makes them dangerous. They can not see that something is hurting or they are hurting someone.
What is a psychopath? What type of person can be characterized by this and how do they come to be? But first before we can answer these questions we must first know what a psychopath is. Psychopaths are people suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behaviors; clinically it is a person who has a lack of what we would consider a conscience. Psychopaths are seen to suffer from a lack of empathy because of psychological, genetic and environmental factors. Scientists have many theories concerning psychopaths. Scientist do not have a definite clear cut answer on what is the cause for psychopathy but they have many ideas; nature and the nurture of the person. Nature is the genes that the person carries. The nurture of the person when they were a child is simply means how they were treated when they were growing up and/or how they were raised. Some scientists even consider it a possibility that it could be a mixture of the two.
When I refer to sociopaths as men, it is because it is seventy-five more times likely for a male to possess this aliment (CITE). A psychopath doesn’t have a conscience. If he lies to you so he can steal your money, he won’t feel any moral qualms, though he may pretend to. A sociopath typically has a conscience, but it’s weak. He may know that taking your money is wrong, and he might feel some guilt or remorse, but that won’t stop his behavior. Both psychopaths and sociopaths lack empathy, but in differentiating the ability to stand in someone else’s shoes and understand how they feel separates the two a psychopath has less regard for
...”, 2013). The interesting thing about psychopathy is that is not equivalent to violence, serial Killing, psychosis, mental Illness or antisocial Personality Disorder, not a danger personality depending on the individual (“The society for”, 2013). Holmes is classify as a primary Psychopath a he wanted to be in dominance and control and he would be very egocentric. Hen di not fail at inhibiting punished behavior as he was never caught and when he was caught he was sentenced to death.
Depictions of psychopaths today have become exaggerated based off of what you see in movies and films. The psychopaths in movies are believed to be dangerous or have an anti-social personality disorder. Not all psychopaths can be defined in that manner. Psychopaths are identified as people who are emotionally unstable. They are ultimately suffering from a chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior. There have been studies ultimately wondering if a psychopath is born, or is it raised? Genetics and environment combine to produce conditions that create psychopathology. By paying attention to environmental variables we can potentially reduce the amount of people who become dangerous psychopaths.
What makes us who we are, what drives our personality? Is it driven by deep seeded sexual desires or is it something a bit more mundane, something that while we still have no control over, is easily studied?
There has been a connection between mental disorders and violent crime (Bonn, 2016). The relationship between a psychopath and crimes relates to each other because psychopaths usually distinguish some sort of aggressive behavior whether its murder or etc. Psychopaths does not have any empathy of violent behaviors that they do to others (Bonn, 2016). Some cases when psychopath commit crime they have a tendency of blaming the victim for the crime. They also try their best to manipulate the law enforcement (Bonn, 2016).
Psychologically, the serial killer is a sociopath, which is a disorder of character rather than the mind. "The serial killer lacks a conscience, feeling no remorse and caring exclusively for his own pleasures in lif...