Question

Describe some common misconceptions about psychopaths. Why might it be important to clear up these misconceptions in the general public? Use scholarly resources to support your explanations.

Answer 1

Answer.

Psychopathy is a developmental disorder which is marked by severely aggressive and asocial behaviour. Due to the gretaer instance of crime rates in psychopaths and lack of emotional sensitivity, there is a general misconception among the lay people that it is the same as anti social personality disorder ( Bartels, 2011).Although psychopathy is a risk factor for violence, this heightened risk appears to be modest. Moroever, many people connect it to psychosis. However, Psychopathy bears a negligible association with psychosis, and is not an adequate basis for a ‘not guilty verdict by reason of insanity’ defense.

Another common misconception about psychopaths is that people tend to attribute the cause of the disorder to the individual him/herself. However,  psychopaths are ‘born, not made’ as environmental factors play a key role in the genesis of the condition. For instance, Physical abuse and neglectful parenting may contribute to risk for psychopathy ( Nedophil et al, 1998).

Psychopathy is a serious condition that involves affective and interpersonal deficits, as well as potentially harmful behaviors. The numerous myths and misconceptions revolving around the cause, assessment, treatment and its definition point out that such misunderstandings may be prevalent among both laypersons and professionals, and they may propagate misguided attitudes toward individuals with this disorder thereby adversely affecting any prospects of general management and treatment of the patients. Therefore, a strong dissemination of accurate knowledge about the disorder is a crucial step in both the community and the professional spaces of care.

References:

Bartels DM, Pizarro DA. The mismeasure of morals: antisocial personality traits predict utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas. Cognition 121(1), 154–161 (2011).

Nedopil N, Hollweg M, Hartman J, Jaser R. Comorbidity of psychopathy with major mental disorders. In: Psychopathy: Theory, Research and Implications for Society. Cooke DJ, Forth AE, Hare RD (Eds). Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 257–268 (1998).