AntiSocial Paper

Submitted By adorak
Words: 1837
Pages: 8
Open Document
The History of Antisocial Personality Disorder

Individuals with a diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) are most notorious for a blatant disregard for the rights of others and the rules of society. They are usually manipulative, impulsive, deceitful, and lack any remorse. These personality traits are socially maladaptive and harmful (Torry & Billick, 2011). These individuals engage in criminal behavior and often exploit and manipulate others. People with antisocial personality disorder often steal, lie, are unsuccessful on their jobs, and have bad parenting skills. Throughout the years antisocial disorder has been viewed in a variety of ways. It has also been recognized by other names such as mentally insane and psychopath. The symptoms that characterized this disorder has also changed. The causes and treatment techniques has changed drastically over the years as well. The DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, is also going through extreme changes in the way it will report antisocial disorder. Although this disorder causes severe pain in the lives of the patient and others, the way it has evolved throughout history is quiet drastic and very interesting. People who had a mental illness were initially thought of as being possessed with demons. Before the name antisocial disorder was adapted it was known by other names such as abnormal. Rebellious individuals who engaged in criminal behavior was said to be abnormal. Abnormal is when functioning renders the individual as different from the mass of human beings as to make him incapable of filling a useful place in society (Goddard, 1921). At one point in time the word psychopath was also used to define people with antisocial personality disorder because of all the criminal activity they committed. Investigations of antisociality frequently focus on two related constructs: Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) and psychopathy. Antisociality Personality Disorder comprises a pattern of antisocial attitudes and behaviors (e.g., irresponsibility, impulsivity, irritability) that begin before the age of 15 (e.g., getting into fights, bullying, lying) and persist in adulthood (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Psychopathy relates to a number of the same traits; however, individuals with psychopathy are also characterized by an arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style, callousness, and lack of emotionality (Zeier, Sommers, Newman, & Racer, 2011). In the past, anyone who participated in criminal acts would be looked down on and were often times persecuted. However, not everyone believed that these people should be punished for their actions. James Cowles Prichard felt that not all criminals should be condemned so he came up with the term “moral insanity”. Moral insanity was the word used to describe the body as being effected with a disease that causes a person to partake in criminal acts. In his book, A Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorders Affecting the Mind, he stated “I have described a form of mental derangement, under the title of moral insanity, consisting in disorder of the moral affections and propensities, without any symptom of illusion or error impressed on the understanding” (Prichard, 1837). Throughout the book Prichard is trying to convince people that insane individuals acted out not because they wanted to but because they were forced to do so.
Ceasare Lombroso is another pioneer in the development of the phrase antisocial personality disorder. Lombrosso thought that the bodies of criminals were different than the bodies of law abiding citizens. He believed that criminals shared anatomical, similar, structures with our Neanderthal ancestors. The more a person looked like a beast, the more crime they would commit. Today people who has antisocial personality disorder are viewed as having a mental disability. However, a lot of people with this disorder are currently in jail instead of receiving the
Show More

Related Documents: AntiSocial Paper

Antisocial Personality Disorder Research Paper

humiliating them, disregard other people’s wishes, and have no regard for right or wrong. These types of people treat other harshly and are typically law breakers. Do you know someone like this? If so, this person may have Antisocial Personality Disorder. Mayo Clinic states that “Antisocial Personality Disorder is a disorder in which a person’s way of thinking, perceiving situations, and relating to others are dysfunctional ().” These people will lie, behave impulsively, act aggressively,…

Words 1396 - Pages 6

Antisocial Personality Disorder Research Paper

Antisocial personality disorder, APD, is defined as a pattern of disregard of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years. APD can be identified by disregard for safety of self or others, lack of remorse, failure to plan ahead, and is indicated by repeated physical fights or assault. Usually these individuals are at least 18 years of age or older but there may be evidence of APD before the age of 15 years. APD is not exclusively during the course of schizophrenia or a manic episode. APD…

Words 568 - Pages 3

Antisocial Personality Disorder Research Paper

Antisocial personality disorder is a heritable trait that can exist in a person’s pedigree. Are antisocial behaviors more environmental influenced or genetic influenced? Being antisocial can sometimes be sociopathic and sometimes psychopathic, one does not follow the rules, and intentionally disrespects people. Antisocial behavior is seen through delinquency, criminality, aggression, and conduct disorder behaviors, making it a widespread problem for communities living in the United States (Anderson…

Words 1742 - Pages 7

Antisocial Peer Association

In recent years, there has been a lot of speculation regarding antisocial peer association and its role in the development of later or continued criminal behaviour. Individuals who are associated with other criminals commit majority of offences both violent and non-violent. It is hypothesized that participation in crime is directly related to antisocial peers. However, recent studies have shown a direct relationship with other factors (parental control and attachment, peer rejection, and self-esteem)…

Words 548 - Pages 3

Samantha Garland Disorder of Interest Paper

Disorder of Interest Paper Psy/275 Samantha Garland 01/26/2015 Jacqueline Gat/wood Antisocial Personality Disorder Every person is commonly known for their unique personality, and the traits each of us have that are different than others. One thing many people suffer from is some Personality Disorder such as Antisocial Personality Disorder. Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) is a disorder that is going against and violating other people's rights (Corner, 2014). Individuals with this disorder…

Words 1359 - Pages 6

Essay On Antisocial Personality Disorder

Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by failure to comply with social norms or law. A person with this disorder will likely act in a way will get them arrested at some point during their lifetime. It is also common for a person with the condition to misuse drugs and alcohol which can be deadly. Furthermore, these people are willing to do dangerous or unethical things to get what they want. In fact, “many researchers and clinicians would argue that people with antisocial personality disorder…

Words 499 - Pages 2

Morality: Antisocial Personality Disorder and Morality Essay

there has been the long lasting argument “Is morality just a product of the evolution of our brains, with no inherent reality?”( –Alfred Rosa, Paul Escholz, Pg 362, Models for Writers-) I personally think, that it is, and throughout this research paper, I will research why or why not it may be true. First of all, I think that morality is not just a product of our brains, but it is what society has taught us to believe, from the beginning of civilization, to control crime rates. An argument against…

Words 552 - Pages 3

Psychopathy And Juvenile Offending: Article Analysis

Psychopathy and Juvenile Offending? is a paper that studies 1,354 juvenile offenders in both Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Phoenix, Arizona. The main objective of this paper was to study the interaction between intelligence and psychopathy in predicting the rate of offending. The motivation behind this hypothesis was based on various things; the first being two papers that studied the aspects of psychopathy predicting offending among teenage offenders. The first paper studied 100 male adolescents who were…

Words 933 - Pages 4

Fernando Gamez Research Paper

My name is Fernando Gamez, I am 19 years old. I am the last child out of four in my family and my parents are from Honduras. My major is nursing, so psychology is one of the requirement for my major. For my paper, I am doing on antisocial personality disorder. Ever since I was in elementary, I was always the quiet person who would never talked to anyone unless I was talking to. I never had much friends, and I never was a part of any group. When I went middle school I had a couple of friends, but…

Words 1663 - Pages 7

Kaplan Unit 3 Paper

criminal behavior. This paper is a small step toward filling that gap. The primary purpose of this is to present an overview of biological perspectives on the study of crime. Once acquainted with the parameters and findings of biological research, criminologists may begin to incorporate relia­ble biological aspects of criminal behavior into their theoretical and applied frameworks. Specific findings in biology are presented for criminologists to consider. Although the paper provides only an initial…

Words 1494 - Pages 6