Antisocial Personality Disorder Essay

The etiology of antisocial personality disorder and relationship of this personality disorder to the concept of psychopathy
   

    It has been long debated what causes people to commit horrible crimes and what relationship those crimes have with mental illness. Antisocial Personality Disorder and psychopathy being argued in criminal proceedings to be a cause of delinquency or possibly as a result of people making choices to behave in an abhorrent way. The two disorders overlap, with ASPD being defined as psychopathic personality disorder in earlier editions of the DSM, with the current DSM-IV definition focusing on behaviour for Antisocial Personality Disorder and character traits for psychopathy (Ogloff, 2006). Psychology: Themes and Variations by Weiten, Abnormal Psychology by Barlow, and Journal Articles by Hare and Ogloff, will be used to support this argument. The first part of the essay will focus on the definition of Antisocial Personality Disorder and psychopathy and their similarities, with the last part of the essay focusing on the etiology of Antisocial Personality Disorder and the cognitive, genetic, and environmental causes of the two disorders.
    Antisocial Personality Disorder is defined as: ‘a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years’ (Moran, 2004). The definition includes criteria such as: failing to conform to social norms, deceitfulness, being manipulative, irritability, aggressiveness, and lack of remorse (Moran, 2004). On the other hand, psychopathy is defined as a disorder primarily of affective deficits related to personality and behaviour (Ogloff, 2006) (Jadczyk & Knight-Jadczyk, 2009). In 1968 psychopathy was redefined as Personality Disorder (Antisocial subtype) and was demonstrated to exist across many personality disorders and theorized to be an extreme form of neurotypical personality (Ogloff, 2006). This two disorders show similarities with each other, which is highlighted by information about psychopathy provided by Ogloff (2006, p. 4): ‘[the patient is] basically unsocialised and whose behaviour patterns bring them repeatedly into conflict with society. They are incapable of significant loyalty to individuals, groups or social values.’ The similarities between the two definitions as demonstrated by this quote, include failure to conform to social norms, deceitfulness, and poor behavioural controls, with there being more emphasis on behaviour in Antisocial Personality Disorder rather than content of thought (Ogloff, 2006). Thus, through the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder and psychopathy it can be demonstrated that both disorders are similar, with Antisocial Personality Disorder sharing affective deficits with psychopathy, but being more focused on conduct.
    It is posited that there is an overemphasis on behaviour with Antisocial Personality Disorder, which has been theorized to have cause Antisocial Personality Disorder to be inadequately represented amongst people living outside of prisons and over represented in a large proportion of the prison population (Ogloff, 2006) (Widiger, Thomas, Corbitt & Livesley, 1995). Dr Robins, who is a sociologist and psychological researcher, is responsible for the separation of psychopathy from Antisocial Personality Disorder, with the latter being more focused on behaviour rather than personality (Jadczyk & Knight-Jadczyk, 2009). Dr Hare when conversing and collaborating with Dr Robins made suggestions to make Antisocial Personality Disorder appear closer to psychopathy and to include more character traits. What suggests the criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder need to include more character traits is that many of the behaviours of Antisocial Personality Disorder predict character traits belonging to psychopathy. These criteria for ASPD include: deceitfulness, impulsivity, violence, disregard for safety, and irresponsibility (Jadczyk & Knight-Jadczyk, 2009), which predict certain character traits in psychopathy, as demonstrated by Hare (1991, p. 4), such as ‘Machiavellianism, narcissism, and sensation-seeking,’ as well as callousness and promiscuity (Haycock, 2002). Medical research into violence demonstrates that certain personalities are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour, which suggests a link between behaviour and personality, which supports the need for redefinition of ASPD (McCallum, 2001, p. 143). Thus, it can be demonstrated that ASPD is overly focused on behaviour, which has led the disorder to be under diagnosed among the general community, although both disorders overlap with regards to personality.
    The diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder leads to bias, because many traits of personality are hard to diagnose accurately (Hare, 1991). The lack of agreement between ASPD criteria and psychopathy is influenced by the fixed definition of ASPD in the DSM-III (Hare, 1991). Moreover, the definition of ASPD relies heavily on closed and circular concepts, meaning that behaviour can indicate a wide variety of personality traits and vice versa (Hare, 1991). Hare claims that: ‘the criteria for ASPD appear to define a diagnostic category that is at once too broad, encompassing criminals and antisocial persons who are psychologically heterogeneous’ (Hare, 1991, p. 3). This means that the focus of behaviour for ASPD covers large amount of different character traits, which are heterogeneous and diffuse (Hare, 1991). Thus, this information also suggests that these two disorders are very similar, with the definition of APSD being problematic, because it is based on fixed and closed concepts and being open to bias.
    ASPD is influenced by environment and genetics, as adopted children of criminals are more likely to exhibit antisocial tendencies (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, pp. 448-449). For example: ‘In one large study, the parents of delinquent boys were more often alcoholic or criminal, and their homes were frequently disrupted by divorce, separation or the absence of a parent’ (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, p. 448). As well the following finding supports the genetic hypothesis, ‘Of the first-degree male relatives [of those with ASPD] who were interviewed, 16% also received this diagnosis’ (“Antisocial Personality Disorder,” 2005). A theorist who has contradicted the genetic view of ASPD is Livesley, who claims that social and environmental influences the development of psychopathy, rather than genetics (Ogloff, 2006). These environmental factors include living in a unsettled home environment, with parents acting erratically or disciplining their children inappropriately, which explains the selfish and apathetic attitude of those with ASPD (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, pp. 433–440) (Donald, 2006). Other environmental factors, such as being rejected by your peers can result in those with ASPD socializing with each other, which reinforces their behaviour, because they are rewarded by their friends’ encouragement and friendship (Donald, 2006). Overall, most of the information on ASPD points to the disorder being influenced by both genetics and environment, which factors cross over and influence one another (“Antisocial Personality Disorder,” 2005).
    There are a range of biological factors, which influence the onset of psychopathy and ASPD. For psychopathy structural dysfunctions in the brain have not been demonstrated to exist, however, abnormalities in the frontal and temporal lobes have been argued to occur (Ogloff, 2006). There is a biological hypothesis for ASPD that posits that people diagnosed with ASPD have under arousal in their brain and a lack of neurosis, which leads them to engage in activities that cause fear and excitement. This is supported by the fact that people with psychopathy and ASPD have low cortical arousal (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, p. 447) and the finding of low skin conductance activity and low heart rate in violent criminals (Donald, 2006). Moreover, it has been shown by research that ‘an imbalance between the BIS and reward system may reduce anxiety and increase pleasure in psychopaths’ (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, p. 447). The BIS is the Behavioural Inhibition System, which controls our inhibition and if underactive may contribute to antisocial behaviours (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, p. 447). Other biochemical abnormalities have been theorized to occur in psychopathy and ASPD, including an imbalance in the neurotransmitter serotonin, which has been linked with antisocial behaviour, such as aggression and impulsiveness (Donald, 2006). Thus, there is a range of factors in the biology of those with ASPD and psychopathy, which precede the disorder.
    There are a number of cognitive factors influencing ASPD, which explains why those who are diagnosed with ASPD do not conform to social norms. Their violation of social norms can be explained by the fact that when non-psychopaths processed negative words, such as rape, death, and cancer, there was an increase in the limbic region in the brain, which was not seen in those with ASPD or psychopathy, which indicates they were processing the footage without emotional connection in a analytical and verbal manner (Jadczyk & Knight-Jadczyk, 2009). Those diagnosed with ASPD when presented with graphic and violent scenes did not have activation in their amygdala, like people without ASPD (Jadczyk & Knight-Jadczyk, 2009). Moreover, children with higher developed intellects tend to have higher moral judgment, which shows that cognition is a factor in intellectual development, which is theorized to be absent in those diagnosed with ASPD (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, pp. 433–440). Thus, the behaviour and character of those diagnosed with ASPD are linked to a range of cognitive and biological factors.
    ASPD and psychopathy are similar disorder, because sociopathic or psychopathic personality disorder was renamed in the DSM-III as ASPD (Hare, 1991). Many psychological theorists, including Dr. Hare have argued that the definition of ASPD is too broad and overly focused on behaviour, leading to a large percent of the prison population fulfilling the criteria for ASPD (Hare, 1991). Many of the behaviours present in ASPD, such as failure to conform to social rules for behaviour, deceitfulness, violent behaviour, and aggressiveness, indicate certain character traits, which are addressed by the criteria of psychopathy. The two disorders have a similar etiology in that persons diagnosed with both disorders have under arousal in certain parts of the brain and experience certain environmental factors, such as being rejected socially and living with parents who are alcoholics or criminals (Barlow & Durrand, 2011, pp. 447-448). Moreover, the two disorders share affective and social deficits, with psychopathy theorized to be a extreme form of neurotypical personality, which demonstrates that psychopathy is a disorder of personality and thus under the same category as ASPD (Ogloff, 2006).



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