Psychopathy facts for kids
Psychopathy is a personality disorder or antisocial personality disorder. Psychopaths are unemotional. They do not show concern about the feelings or rights of others. They show almost no empathy, and do not try to conform to social norms. They lack a conscience and do not feel guilt. A similar term is sociopathy.
Many psychopaths are charming and often manage to have superficial ties with other people. They use other people for their own benefit. Psychopaths often show antisocial behaviour. They are very selfish and discard people whom they have no further use for.
Thanks to advancing MRI studies, experts are able to visualize specific brain differences and abnormalities of individuals with psychopathy in areas that control emotions, social interactions, ethics, morality, regret, impulsivity and conscience within the brain.
High levels of testosterone combined with low levels of cortisol and/or serotonin have been theorized as contributing factors to developing this personality disorder.
The definition of psychopathy has varied. Different definitions are used. They only partly overlap and sometimes seem contradictory.
There are efforts to use behaviour therapy to treat psychopaths; often, this may be done in prisons.
Some people are mislabeled as psychopaths, but have no problems with social norms, but they are good at influencing people. There is a difference between the sexes as to how psychopathy is shown. Men show it more more as an antisocial pattern of behaviour. In women it shows more as a histrionic pattern (excessive attention-seeking).
Amongst professional psychiatrists, psychopathy is known for being difficult to treat.
Primary features
Disagreement exists over which features should be considered as part of psychopathy, with researchers identifying around 40 traits supposedly indicative of the construct, though the following characteristics are almost universally considered central.
- Arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style: impression management or superficial charm, inflated and grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying/deceit, and manipulation for personal gain.
- Deficient affective experience: lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect (coldness and unemotionality), callousness and lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility for own actions.
- Impulsive and irresponsible lifestyle: impulsivity, sensation-seeking and risk-taking, irresponsible and unreliable behavior, financially parasitic lifestyle and lack of realistic, long-term goals.
Diagnosis
Psychopathy is most commonly assessed with the Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R), created by Robert D. Hare. The PCL-R is widely used and is referred to by some as the "gold standard" for assessing psychopathy.
See also
In Spanish: Psicopatía para niños
