Psychopathy is a dissocial personality disorder that has caused great community interest throughout history, both at the level of study and social alarm. Psychopaths have always been associated with great and cruel murderers, so both the media and fiction have used this to create their own discourse and their own vision of what a psychopath is, so it is possible that there is a lot of misinformation. or absent in the idea that we all have about psychopathy.
The main most common doubts and why it is advisable to start explaining what exactly this disorder is are the following: What is a psychopath and what are its characteristics? What are the main causes of psychopathy? Is a psychopath born or made? In this Psychology-Online article we are going to answer all these questions, so if you want to learn more about the topic, continue reading.
What is a psychopath and what are its characteristics?
A psychopath It is anyone who meets the requirements of the personality disorder known as psychopathy. Psychopathy was talked about as early as the 17th century, but it was not until 1896 when Kraepelin began to talk about it as a . Currently, psychopathy is seen as a conduct disorder characterized by at least three of the following characteristics:
- A cruel carelessness for the feelings of others and lack of empathy.
- Marked and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and carelessness by social norms, rules and obligations.
- Inability to maintain relationships lasting personal problems, very low tolerance for frustration or low threshold for aggressive outbursts, even giving rise to violent behavior.
- Inability to feel guilt and learn from experience, particularly punishment.
- Marked predisposition to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for conflictive behavior.
There is a specific scientifically validated and consolidated test that is responsible for establishing and diagnosing whether a person suffers from psychopathy or not: Robert Hare’s PCL-R test, translated into various languages and standardized for study and application in many countries. From what we see, not everyone can be a psychopath and it is not simply someone who lacks empathy, is very intelligent and is dedicated to killing, as fiction has often made us believe.
At we have created an online version of the .
Causes of psychopathy
It is difficult to establish specific causes of psychopathy and there are various explanatory theoretical models, neuropsychological and psychophysiological studies carried out with the intention of explaining what exactly psychopathy is. Some of the best known are the following, although there are many studies on the subject and scientific literature that we encourage you to read if you are interested:
Causes of psychopathy according to Eysenck
The psychologist Hans Eysenck proposes a biological-behavioral model. In this model, the psychopath would be a subject incapable of developing conditioned moral and social responses due to his low conditioning capacity and his extraversion. The individual would not be able to develop a solid conscience due to a poor socialization process and the lack of this moral conscience would be the key to understanding his actions since it is responsible for making us act in a socially acceptable and moral way. Eysenck also believes that at a biological level influence brain lesions located in the frontal lobe (which is responsible for human behavior) and which is responsible for establishing the connection between extraversion and delinquency typical of psychopaths.
However, Eysenck places special emphasis on considering that although there are innate predispositions at a biological level that explain psychopathy, it is by no means the only cause nor would it be sufficient on its own to produce psychopathy. Psychopathic behavior would be determined by social and psychological factors that establish an interaction with biological predispositions.
Causes of psychopathy according to Mednick
On the other hand, we find the biosocial model of Sarnoff A. Mednick, who starts to explain from the point of instrumental learning according to which man learns through punishments and rewards derived from his actions. He talks about the neurovegetative behavior of the child and establishes that those who have a sensitive neurovegetative system will easily learn to act according to the law and fear punishment and this will result in a good inhibitory system that, on the contrary, would mean little reinforcement for prohibited behaviors. . According to Mednick, the psychopath would not learn or would learn poorly due to this low reaction to punishment (hereditary and congenital deficiency). Therefore, the cause would be an insensitive neurovegetative system.
Causes of psychopathy according to Genovés
Another author, Garrido Genovés, provides a biosocial model where he explains psychopathy through individual biological vulnerability of some people mixed with a unique social learning system loaded with selfishness and other pathological behaviors typical of psychopathy. In short: psychopathy would be generated by an initial deficit of a biological nature enhanced by cultural and social factors.
Is a psychopath born or made?
After years of study and various conclusions, current science maintains that psychopathy is not simply given by a gene, such as blonde hair, which is inherited in the child at birth and is determined by purely genetic factors. Psychopathy develops due to interaction of genetic, neurobiological, sociocultural and behavioral learning factors. That is to say, it is a whole mix of factors that can lead an individual to develop a psychopathic disorder and not something determined from the moment of birth.
For example, in terms of psychosocial factors, it has been pointed out in numerous studies that living in a hostile environment With the constant presence of violent events, child abuse and neglect, it affects the development of the disorder as it is mixed with a genetic predisposition – for example, to impulsivity – and violent behavioral learning. However, we must not forget that there are psychopaths who have lived in a model family environment who would not respond to this explanation, just as there are people who have suffered abuse during childhood and do not develop psychopathy.
A relationship has also been found between the amygdala of individuals with psychopathy, who have a greater reduction in it, and socialization, since this reduction means that they cannot empathize or identify with the negative feelings of other people.
Biological studies have also found that people who show a genetic predisposition to psychopathy have lived in hostile environments or have had experiences of abuse and/or neglect; however, this predisposition is not found in people who have not previously suffered violent experiences. . Therefore, it is this violence suffered that increases the individual’s sensitivity to aggressive behaviors and defensive responses in the form of violence.
In conclusion, the development of the psychopathic disorder is given by a series of factors that intermingle throughout the life of the subject and influence everything from age to the education that the individual receives or the violence to which he or she is subjected, for example. Therefore, although of course biological factors also intervene in this development, A psychopath is made and not born determined by any specific gene..
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Is a psychopath born or made?we recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
- Borja, K. & Ostrosky, F. (2009). Early traumatic events and their relationship to criminal psychopathy. Chilean Journal of Neuropsychology,4(2), pp 160-169
- López, S. (2013). Psychopathy review: past, present and future. Puerto Rican Journal of Psychology,24(2), pp. 1-16
- Sánchez, FJ (2009). Physionomy of Psychopathy: Concept, origin, causes and legal treatment. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology,2, pp. 79-125