Psychopath
Psychopathy is characterised by “antisocial, impulsive, manipulative, and callous behavior” and was long considered a mental disorder. Today, many of the defining features of psychopathy fall under the diagnostic criteria of Antisocial Personality Disorder in the DSM-5. Psychopathy has been primarily examined in the criminal justice system, and is a robust predictor of criminal behavior, recidivism, violent behavior, and sexual aggression[1]. These features can be quantified by various psychometric tests including:
- Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R)
- Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM)
- Elemental Psychopathy Assessment (EPA)
Cause
The evolutionary view of psychopathy posits that “the risk taking, opportunistic, and callous behavior” characteristic of psychopaths would have increased reproductive success in ancestral environments. These traits would emerge when they are expected to promote fitness. For example, under conditions of a high ratio of cooperators to psychopaths, psychopathic individuals could exploit trusting and cooperative others to enhance their reproductive opportunities. Psychopathic traits in such conditions would have been favoured by selection. In neuroscience it is thought that psychopathy in part is related to a dysfunction in the amygdala[2][3][4]. This is a part of the brain which regulates emotions[5]. One meta analysis also indicates that psychopathy may be an adaptation[6].
References
- ↑ Henning, J., Wygant, D., & Barnes, P. (2014). Mapping the Darkness and Finding the Light: DSM-5 and Assessment of the “Corporate Psychopath”. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 7(1), 144-148. doi:10.1111/iops.12123
- ↑ Weber, S., Habel, U., Amunts, K., & Schneider, F. (2008). Structural brain abnormalities in psychopaths a review. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 26(1), 7–28.
- ↑ Anderson, N. E., & Kiehl, K. A. (2012). The psychopath magnetized: Insights from brain imaging. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 52–60.
- ↑ Blair, R. (2008). The amygdala and ventromedial prefrontal cortex: Functional contributions and dysfunction in psychopathy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1503), 2557–2565.
- ↑ Fallon, J. (2013). The psychopath inside: A neuroscientist’s personal journey into the dark side of the brain. New York: Penguin.
- ↑ https://www.psypost.org/2022/03/meta-analysis-suggests-psychopathy-may-be-an-adaptation-rather-than-a-mental-disorder-62723?ref=refind