A Psychological and Neuroscience Perspective on Primary Psychopathy
The presentation given by Dr.
Joseph Newman covered the topic on “Integrating psychological and neuroscience
perspective on psychopathy”. In this lecture he brings together these two
domains to discuss their similarities. He does this by introducing the topic of
psychopathology in the prison system. One may believe that any criminal is a
psychopath, which is far from the truth. In fact, approximately 20% of males
and 9-12% of females are considered psychopathic within the prison system. Dr.
Newman elaborates that there are various forms of criminal behavior, such as
neurotic offenders, sub-cultural offenders, inadequate offenders and primary
psychopathy. The first three types of criminal behaviors deal with emotional,
social, and intellectual problems in socialization that sets them apart from
primary psychopathy. People with this type of criminal behavior have something
intrininsic about them that makes it difficult for them to learn, master and
follow the rules of society. He explains that people who are psychopathic appear
to be normal, in other words masks their sanity. Dr. Newman elaborates on “the
mask of sanity” as people who do not appear psychotic rather people that have
good IQ and social skills. Usually the patients that are diagnosed with
psychopathological disorder are people who are difficult to discipline, run
away from home as a child, have been married multiple times and fail at every
aspect in life. Based on Cleckley’s research, the grave form of psychopathology
were as disturbed as people with schizophrenia.
In the study Criminal Thinking Patterns, Aggression Styles, and the Psychopathic
Traits of Late High School Bullies and Bully-Victims, discussed the topic
of primary psychopathy in young adults. In response to the massacre that took
place at Columbine and Virgina Tech, researches began to study the topic of
bullies, victims, and bully-victims (Ragatz 145). This third
group—bully-victims—are those who have been victims of bulling as well as
bullies themselves. This study examined current psychological characteristics
and criminal behavior who reported being bullies, victims, or bully-victims
(Ragatz 145). The participants in this study were students in their last two
years of high school and college students. Overall, their hypothesis correlated
with the final results showing that bullies and bully-victims had significantly
higher scores in criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy and criminal
behaviors than victims or controls. However, they also found that men were
significantly higher in criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy, and had
more criminal acts than women (Ragatz 154).
The results in table II
demonstrates the means for criminal thinking, aggression, psychopathy and
number of criminal offenses of bully, victim, bully-victim, or control. The
results under psychopathy subscales show that bullies (F (1, 928)=34.34, p<.001,
partial n2=0.4) and bully-victims (F (1, 928)=50.52, p<.001,
partial n2=0.5) had higher levels of primary psychopathy compared
with the average primary psychopathy score for victims and controls combined
(Ragatz 153).
Overall, there was a significant
difference between bullies and bully-victims versus victims and controls
combined. Amongst the two groups, bully-victims scored the highest on measures
of primary psychopathy compared with victims and controls (Ragatz 157). That
beings said, bully-victim group resembles primary psychopathy traits such as
impaired emotional regulation, heightened impulsivity, and antisocial acts
(Ragatz 157). This study supports Dr. Newman’s explanation of primary psychopathy
and “the mask of sanity” in diagnosed patients.
Work Cited
Article
Ragatz, Laurie. "Criminal Thinking Patterns, Aggression
Styles, and the Psychopathic Traits
of Late High School Bullies and Bully-victims."
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, 1 Mar.
2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
sid=87864d7e-1ec1-41d1-9950-509f158ea197%40sessionmgr113&vid=2&hid=119>.
Photo
Ragatz, Laurie. "Criminal Thinking Patterns, Aggression
Styles, and the Psychopathic Traits
of Late High School Bullies and Bully-victims."
Academic Search Premier. EBSCO, 1 Mar.
2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
<http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/imageQuickView?sid=87864d7e-1ec1-41d1-9950 509f158ea197@sessionmgr113&vid=1&ui=17803578&id=57581615&parentui=57581615&tag=AN&db=i3h>.
