Psychopaths: A Case Study

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Current research indicates that the serial executioner experiences issues in actual processing, understanding, and using emotional material in general. The material tested differs from emotionally disturbing pictures to simply emotional words. Noting that the right hemisphere of the brain is specialized for processing the emotional essentialness of words, scientists conjectured that “psychopaths, who are unempathic, callous, and emotionally shallow, would depend less than non-psychopaths on right-hemisphere-based translating systems.” Researchers estimated that psychopaths may rely more on the left hemisphere, which “uses a more verbal-analytic methodology.” This was observed to be the case and indicates fundamental organizational differences …show more content…
In one study, 15 death row inmates were chosen for examination. In every detainee, the researchers found confirmation of extreme head injury, as well as neurological impairment. In many case studies, guilty parties have been found to have had a history filled with head trauma and variation from the norm on Computerized Tomography (CT) scans, Electroencephalography (EEG) scans and neuropsychological testing (Solano, 2001).
The thought of classical conditioning is well known to psychology. It may be possible for a brain to classically condition itself to appreciate or attribute positive emotions to acts, behavior, or situations that “typical” individuals would find aversive. One hypothesis is that the psychopathic mind is sorted out differently as the result of flawed socialization in the very early years—emerging from either acquired shortfalls or from a neurotic family environment (or both). This could cause attribution contrasts to occur in the brain of an individual who has been subjected to kindling or other phenomenon. …show more content…
Both the serial killers’ genes and environment that encompasses them modify one another to create a response unique to that individual, making it difficult to pinpoint a dominant variable that causes the murderous behavior. Generally speaking, the same stimulus will not cause the same reaction in every person. Debra Niehof, a neurologist, concurs with me when saying “It is important to understand that violence has no one single cause. It can come from any part of the psychological structure. Everything that we encounter or experience in our lives has the potential to affect us, and there is no single factor to target for blame.” Niehof has concluded that the brain is adaptable and that it can relearn patterns by way of new experiences. She claims that we can diminish violence, whether it originates from genetics or environment. All we have to do to change it is to produce a safe and caring environment (Ramsland,
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