Draft #3 of Research Paper
Smile of Terror
Abstract
This
research paper is mostly about psychopaths which are define as cold headed
people with no consciousness or morality. They are often tag as serial killers,
monsters with no affections towards others. They are good at lying that makes
them hard to spot because they can make anyone feel comfortable next to them.
Psychopaths make around 1% of our population and are considered dangerous
because of their uncontrollable behavior. Also, they seem to just care about
themselves and what they seem as a motivation is power and a high prestige. If
we compare a woman psychopath and a male, the ratio is 3:1 with man having the
highest percentage of psychopathy. Sociopaths are often tag as psychopaths
which is very wrong because they both might have a mental disorder but
psychopaths are considered more dangerous because of their thoughtfully plans.
The reason for why they become psychopaths is yet unknown but most psychopaths
report being abused when they were kids yet suffering from child abuse doesn’t
make you a psychopath
Smiles
of terror
"Fact: A psychopath is born every 47 seconds.” Kent A. Kiehl stated. One might think that a
psychopath is that one person that we see often in movies, the villain who kill
for joy, who use others in rotten ways, a person with no reasoning. The truth about psychopath is not even close
to that image we have. Most psychopaths are close to normal people with a
normal life but with a mental disorder. But what is a psychopath? An unstable
and aggressive person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal
violent social behavior is considered a psychopath. A psychopath can also be
charming and chill, it can play to be a person just like the others in order
for him to succeed in his “mission”. They are coolheaded people with very short
control of their behavior, even though they are considered dangerous people and
are more likely to become criminals, statistics show that psychopath are not a
on the top list when in come to crime. Most of the time both psychopaths and
sociopaths are seen as the same by the common eye certainly there are big
difference between them, for sure one of them is more dangerous than the other.
This leads to the question of why when we listened to these terms
"psychopath" and "sociopath "we only imagine men not women?
Most of the studies made by professionals have come to one conclusion. The
conclusion stated that psychopaths are not easily identified, and most of them
had been abused when they were kids. Some say that genetics is the cause
psychopathy. Others argue that the environment where they grew up determents if
someone is a psychopath or not. Overall psychopaths are considered people with
a mental disorder that can be dangerous and with no empathy toward people, the
cause of psychopathic behavior has not yet been determined but for sure as to
do with genes and their environment where they raised on.
Psychopaths
are like machines with one mission on their head “survival.” This term was use
first in the 1983 and was define by the “dictionary of social work & social
care” by John Harris and Vicky White. Some characteristics about psychopaths
are being a good liar, the ability to manipulate people to get what they want,
and rage problems. (Cannot control their emotions) Psychopaths are often hard
to define and understand, “Psychopathy is a construct highly associated with
immoral behavior, including manipulating and taking advantage of others,
pathological lying, living a parasitic lifestyle, and sometimes criminal
offending” (Hare, 2003) immoral behavior is one of the many characteristics
psychopaths have. Which means that they cannot identify between good and bad. Specialist
define psychopaths as a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests
(expressed) as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or
establish meaningful personal relationships, extreme egocentricity, failure to
learn from experience. We can conclude from the quote that they are good at
lying which make it easier for them to manipulate and take advantage of others.
Lying is very common in everyone's life, children at "the age of 42 months
onward, children become increasingly capable of telling lies" which
implies and gives reason to why psychopaths are so good at lying. (Evans &
Lee, 2013) Is because of their long
experience and their immoral behaviors. Psychopaths are human with no feelings
towards other that just care about themselves therefore they are considered
dangerous.
Often
people get confused with two terms that are alike, sociopaths and psychopaths.
This
is due to the large amount of similarities between them. As we all know psychopaths have no interest in
others and are not good when it comes to feelings. But what about a sociopath,
what difference him from a psychopath? A sociopath is extremely anti-social and
has little consciousness compare to psychopaths. Is someone with a personality
disorder who is most likely to have antisocial tendencies that are attribute to
social or environmental factors It’s being quoted (Lykken, 1996) "Unlike
the ordinary sociopath, the primary psychopath has failed to develop conscience
and empathic feelings, not because of a lack of socializing experience but,
rather, because of some inherent psychological peculiarity that makes him
especially difficult to socialize." (pg. 30) Which means that sociopaths
are capable of having empathy towards others which means that they can feel
others pain and can relate to it. They don’t decide to be anti-social but is
extremely difficult to socialize because of a psychological peculiarity
(disorder). In the other hand we have a psychopaths who are unable to feel
others feeling or to have feelings toward them. One more difference is that
sociopaths are conscious of their doing will psychopaths are not, and that make
a giant difference between them.
 |
Oconor, E. (2014, February 21). Iago’s motivation [Photograph].
|
The picture by Evelyn Oconor gives a point in
how most of the people don’t know the differences between a psychopath and a
sociopath and includes some humor when it says “do your research”
According
to some research done by Kara Mayer Robinson in 2014 there are plenty of
difference that can tell which one is most dangerous. One of the pieces of
evidence that she uses is L. Michael Tompkins, EdD. He's a psychologist at the
Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center. Which stated (Robinson cited Tomkins,
2014)
A
key difference between a psychopath and a sociopath is whether he has a
conscience, the little voice inside that lets
us know when we’re doing something wrong, 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. He may observe others and then act the
way they do so he’s not “found out,” [...] some experts see sociopaths as
“hot-headed.” They act without thinking how others will be affected.
Psychopaths are more “cold-hearted” and calculating. They carefully plot their
moves, and use aggression in a planned-out way to get what they want. If
they’re after more money or status in the office, for example, they’ll make a
plan to take out any barriers that stand in the way, even if it’s another person’s
job or reputation (pg.1).
Tompkins is telling us that psychopaths as
compare to sociopath have no conscience and give us an example that proved how
psychopaths have no morality which is dangerous in anyway. The skill to
identify between wrong and right is not part of psychopaths. In the research
that Kara studied we can infer by using Tompkins words that psychopaths are
able to think more and plan everything carefully which helps them with the
getaway and destroy anything that stand on their way. As for sociopaths who act without thinking,
which can be pretty dangerous too but we can clearly conclude that both are dangerous
but for obvious reason psychopaths should be considered as threats to society
duo to their thoughtful plans, immorality and unconsciousness.
After all this shocking facts about
psychopaths’ people still have misconception about them. For example, they are often seen as lovers of
blood. Which is most likely wrong, in the book tittle “Without Conscience The
Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us” by Robert D. Hare he uses these
words to describe the misconception we have on psychopaths (Hare, 1999) “Individuals
with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions
and know the difference between right and wrong [...].”(Abs) Which simple means that psychopaths do know
right from wrong and for sure they know what they are doing but because of the
mental disorder they have if impossible for them to control themselves. For
this type of people must be hard to feel that you are incapable of feeling other
emotions or to think that you are being blame for being a psychopath when it
was not your fault to be that way. Through this research certain illustrations
were found of how to deal with psychopaths this being one of them in which we
tread psychopaths as serial killers
 |
How to deal with a psychopath [Photograph]. (2013, August
31)
( lovers of blood) we can see this through
the word “psychopath” which is in red that can stand for blood. We put tags on
their forehead without releasing that they are also human. Also, the fact that
we view them as dangerous without consciousness but we don’t think that they
have a mental disability that the reason for that disability has not yet be
found, nor the cure.
One important factor to have in mind will
researching about psychopaths is what motivates them and what goals they have. Psychopaths
and their hidden motivation have been very complex to identify not only because
they are cold are heart (no feeling) but also, they have no interest in others.
(Gleen, Efferson, Iyer, & Graham, 2017) said
Overall,
psychopathy was related to both pleasure-seeking and a desire for relative
social positioning [...]Individuals scoring higher
in psychopathy placed more value on seeking power […] psychopathy would be
positively associated with self-enhancement values, especially power, which
involves obtaining social status and prestige, and exerting control over others
(pg. 110).
According
to these studies we found some motivation goals and seeking that psychopaths
have. One was that they only seek for pleasure something that will excite them
that will make them feel alive. Individuals that have a high level of
psychopathy seek for power. Some of their motivations are to obtain prestige
and to have control over others. Psychopaths also have some sort of motivations
and goals which make them just like all of us.
Most of the time people seem to know someone that has no feelings, with little empathy and greedy, which they might confuse him with a sociopath or a psychopath. Some people belief they are psychopaths themselves because they read certain symptoms that relate to them, but how do we know if we are or not psychopaths. One test which helps to identify if someone is a psychopath and most widely used is the psychological tests of PPD (Psychopathy or psychopathic personality disorder) is the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, or PCL-R (Hare, 1991, 2003). “The PCL-R is a 20-item symptom construct rating scale for use in forensic settings. Each item reflects a specific feature of PPD. The lifetime presence and severity of each feature is rated on a 3-point scale (0 absent, 1 partially present, 2 present) [based on] of all available clinical data.” (Storey & Hart, 2015) (pg.136) The scores from this test are brought up to yield or form a total score. If the total scores is 30 and higher, out of maximum possible 40 points, are generally considered diagnostic of PPD which is psychopathic behavior. For this type of test a lot of time is required, is long procced of carful studies. So if you read a form and you are willing to know if you are a psychopath or not, don’t test yourself in a google web site by typing “psychopathic test” because for common person to self-identify as a psychopath is not the smartest way.
When it comes to psychopaths, woman are
not very common among them. If we compare the number of psychopaths
diagnosticate between man and woman we can clearly see that woman are less
likely to be diagnose with psychopathy.
“Research has consistently shown that there are more male psychopaths
than female.” (Grann, 2000; Hart, Cox, & Hare, 1995; Jackson, R., R, C. S.,
N, & Lambert, 2002; Salekin, Rogers, & Sewell, 1997) (pg. 241) But why
is this so? (Warren et al 2003) “Found female occurrence rates of psychopathy
of approximately 17% in prison populations—significantly lower than the rates
for men in prison.” (pg. 1) Prisons have shown reports that woman’s are less
likely to be in the field of psychopathy, which means that only a short
percentage of female inmates are psychopaths.
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Source: Aleshyn_Andrei/Shutterstock, 2013
The photograph shown a woman who
clearly seems like any other woman this leaves the point that woman is less
likely to be consider as a psychopath as compare with man. Who could imagine
that a girls like the one in the photograph will be psychopath? BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder) is also
a disorder like psychopathy but if we compare the ration between man and woman
in APD (Antisocial Personality Disorder) and BPD, for APD is 3:1 man having a highest
and for BPD is 1:3 woman having the highest. Which give us a point in which we
can state that BPD is more feminine therefore less woman is diagnose with APD. (Pemment,
2015) We see how woman are less likely to be diagnose with psychopathic issue
but also that there is a separation between who can be a psychopath and who
cannot.
After looking a certain definitions,
comparison and ways to now if someone is a psychopath we finally arrive to the
main question of all. What causes psychopathy, very hard question that yet as
not been answer. Even until today the origin of psychopathy as not been found,
but some experts due argue some points. (Kolla et al, 2013) “[...] found that
prison inmates with APD and psychopathy reported higher levels of physical
abuse than inmates with APD without psychopathy” which can give us a connection
between psychopathy and child abuse. In other word is saying that psychopaths
have suffered from child abuse, most of them had been abused when they were
kids not all but a big portion of them had been victims of child abuse. Also,
psychopaths seem to be abusive parents which can impact their kids and later
own they can also be psychopaths as their father. Is being prove by (De Bellis
et al, 1999) that when a child is abuse it develops post-traumatic stress
disorder which is found in psychopath. Through research it has been proved that
Genes and alleles have somewhat to do with psychopathy. Is being said and
proved that if a psychopath has a kid his kid is more likely to become a psychopath
because of its genes. Dr. Schlesinger from john jay college ones stated, “is a
biopsychosocial impact that cause someone to have psychopathic behavior”
(Shlesinger, 2017). Which means a that a way to look how psychopaths are
created we must look at their biology ( DNA), psychology within them and social
impacts that they had. As for now is the
only reasons that can cause psychopathy is child abuse, some part of genes and
the way it was raised. But even if a child has been abused it does not mean he or
she will be a psychopath therefore is still unconcluded of what causes
psychopathy.
Work
cited page
Glenn, A., Efferson, L., Iyer, R., &
Graham, J. (2017). Values, Goals, and Motivations
Associated with Psychopathy. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 36(2), 108-125.http://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo- explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_proquest1870650475&context=PC&vid=jj&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything
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Storey, J., Hart, S., Cooke, D., & Michie,
C. (2015). Psychometric Properties of the Hare
Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in a
Representative Sample of Canadian Federal Offenders. Law and Human Behavior,Law
and Human Behavior, 2015.
Lykken, D. (1996). Psychopathy, sociopathy, and
crime. Society, 34(1), 29-38.
Evans, A., Lee, K., & Eccles, Jacquelynne.
(2013). Emergence of Lying in Very Young
Children. Developmental Psychology, 49(10),
1958-1963. from http://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_apa_articles10.1037%2Fa0031409&context=PC&vid=jj&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,Emergence%20of%20Lying%20in%20Very%20Young%20Children,AND&sortby=rank&mode=advanced&offset=0
Pemment,
J. (2015). The reappearing psychopath: Psychopathy's stain on future
generations.
Aggression
and Violent Behavior, 25, 237. From http://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_proquest1764349241&context=PC&vid=jj&lang=en_US&search_scope=everything&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=default_tab&query=any,contains,The%20Reappearing%20Psychopath:%20Psychopathy%27s%20Stain%20on%20Future%20Generations.%E2%80%9D%20Aggression%20and%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Violent%20Behavior,AND&sortby=rank&mode=advanced&offset=0
Without
Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us. (n.d.). Retrieved
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19, 2017, from https://www.guilford.com/books/Without-Conscience/Robert-Hare/9781572304512
Robinson,
K. (2014, August 24). Sociopath vs. Psychopath: What's the Difference?
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