Psychopathy: Nature vs Nurture Psychology Research Paper

Psychopathy: Nature vs. Nurture
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Abstract
Major studies in the field of biology, neuroscience, genetics, and psychiatry have found that many human behaviors are contributed by factors including the environmental and non-environmental factors. Also, the psychology field has not incorporated the biological and the genet influences into any major psychology theory leaving a big gap between biological explanation and sociological explanations of psychopathy. Two competing theories attribute to the psychopathy which is the nature versus the nurture theories (DeLisi, 2009). This “nurture” theory posits that the psychopathic behaviors are acquired through social association with the people who have bad habits. The second theory which is the “nature” postulates that the psychopathy is inborn and a child or an individual acquires these behaviors at birth. Given that the studies have provided enough evidence that both the biological and social factor contributes the commission of the psychopathy, it is therefore difficult for anyone to ignore the environmental or the biological factors in studying the criminal behavior. This study aims at incorporating both the nurture and nature into one theory that will help in explaining and learning the biosocial perspective and therefore coming up with the modern approach of explaining psychopathic behaviors.
Psychopathy: Nature Vs. Nurture
Introduction
Psychopathy is a personality disorder where individuals portray extreme antisocial behaviors together with hostile personality traits. The traits that are shown by the psychopath include lack of remorse, callousness, lack of empathy, low tolerance to frustrations and a high degree of aggression. A psychopath can also possess a quality of manipulating others. At times a psychopath can also be referred to as sociopath, and therefore the two teams can be used interchangeably. According to different studies, a psychopath is an individual with a mental disorder who exhibits a pervasive pattern of violating other people’s rights at will. The behavior started at childhood or early adolescence and carried up to adulthood. The primary and central features of psychopathy are manipulation and deceit. People suffering from this disorder tend to violate other people’s right, by disregarding them or even stealing property that belongs to other people. All these bad behaviors portrayed by the psychopaths can either be traced from the biological factors or the environmental factors surrounding the psychopaths. Some people have argued out that genetic factors or nature solely causes the disorder while others argue that the environmental factors are responsible which is termed as nurture. However, the psychopath disorder is caused by both nature and nurture.
The first person to describe the psychopaths was Pinel who explained their behaviors 200 years ago. Pinel described a bunch of insane patients as those who lacked remorsefulness and empathy in their actions. The terms psychopath and sociopath have often been interchangeably used because these two disorders share almost the same characteristics. However, there is a minor difference between a psychopath and a sociopath. A psychopath has no sense of remorse for his or her wrong or heinous deeds while a sociopath will feel guilty in case he or she commits an offense (DeLisi, 2009). A sociopath, however, does not care about the social feelings, and he or she will violate the other people’s right if he gets satisfied by doing so. According to science, some common sociopathic characteristics include, elasticity, taking high risks, lousy attitude towards the opposite sex, inability to resist temptations and callousness.
Sociopaths do not stay in a relationship for long due to their inability to sustain relationships. On the one hand, while a psychopath has all the characteristics possessed by a sociopath, he or she completely lacks the remorsefulness and sense of guilt. According to Fox (2017), parenting is a critical factor and a critical mediator between self-control and criminality. Additionally, while biology is vital in what and how people learn, criminal behavior is attributable primarily to social learning. Fox (2017) further adds that psychopaths find perilous activities such as crime and violence pleasurable indicating their likelihood in participating in them. The increased aggressiveness and criminal behaviors portrayed by psychopaths can be traced from biological attributes strengthen by social learning principles.
Throughout history, the criminology study has faced with the dilemma of studying the real cause of psychopathy or criminal behavior. The emergence of nature versus the nurture theory has eased the burden of the study and has enabled the criminologist to under the primary cause of unlawful practices. For a long time, these behaviors have been associated with the environmental factors only but recently; the biological element has been found to play a critical role in the quest to study criminal behaviors. The theory has also helped to understand why society has a very high level of recidivism (Baschetti, 2008). We can now explain the theory of recidivism by the role of nature and the nurture. It demonstrates that those people who have at one time in their lives been convicted with committing an offense have a high chance of repeating the same felony even after they are punished. People who have never been penalized because of committing an offense will rare commit the crime. The explanation of this is that the urge to commit a crime is inborn and nature only plays a role to enhance the trait. Also, psychopaths only consider the reward of committing a crime and fail to recognize the punishment. The reason is that psychopathy in inborn and the psychopaths feel good when doing wrong.
The study aims to explain whether psychopathy is a result of human nature or nurture. The theory of nature or the nurture to explain the psychopathy has been a subject of discussion for many years, and it has perplexed psychologists up to date. There are many theories relating to psychopathy which have emerged today, but the nature versus the nurture dichotomy continues to bring confusion to many scholars (Paulsen, 2010). As the evidence that connects psychopathy to both the biological and the social factors continue to gain momentum, it has become challenging to ignore the role of environmental factors and the biological factors as the leading players in the behavior. Therefore, sociology and biology contribute almost by equal proportions to psychopathy.
The Elemental Nature of Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a clinical disorder that manifests itself in a related social issue which makes people treat others with contempt or callousness. The psychopaths are people with a wide range of antisocial behavior which seems to disturb others but is not a bother to them. By interpersonal terms, psychopathy is characterized by egoistic behaviors, a feeling of self-worth, superficial charm, narcissism, manipulation or conning pathological lying and lack of guilt or remorsefulness (Daversa, 2008). Another prevalent and evident characteristic of the psychopaths is the irresponsible behaviors, shallow emotions and lack of a sense of direction. In terms of lifestyle, the psychopaths lack real-life goals, are highly unreliable and always seeking high amounts of stimulation. Based on the antisocial behavior, the psychopaths, show early behavioral problems, lack behavioral control, are self-centered and have a parasitic orientation of survival. The desire to self-satisfy is accompanied by manipulation and use of force to acquire what the psychopath’s desire without worrying about the other person feels.
Lack of self-control is also another form of psychopathy as individuals who suffer this disorder show or no self-control at all. According to studies of human behavior, a psychopath lacks self-control, and he or she is willing to compromise everything for the sake of the current thirst or the desire to gratify his or her needs. These people are always involved in the acts of fraud or deceit, and they are very poor when it comes to compliance with the law and the social norms. Some of the common behaviors among this group of people are gambling, smoking, driving carelessly without wearing safety belts, cheating and engaging in practices and activities which give them temporary happiness but risky.
Neurochemistry in Psychopathy
The neurotransmitters refer to the chemicals in the brain cells through which the transmission of electrical impulses is transmitted and the information processed. The higher cognitive functioning of the brain and the central nervous system mainly uses the neurotransmitters for proper operation. The main reason why scientists study the hormones and the chemicals in the central nervous system is to determine their effect on human behavior when they become imbalanced.
In the criminal behavior exhibited by the psychopaths, the desire to satisfy their needs rules everything in their lives. A neurotransmitter imbalance may contribute to the behavior of a psychopath due to lack of impulse control. According to the psychobiological scientist, a psychopath has an appetite of doing wrong every time and feels satisfied when he or she does the wrong act. A psychopath seeks a hormonal imbalance of his body or that of his or her victim to be happy (Perez, 2012). The hormones which are known as the pheromones come in to play here. The pheromones are hormones secreted by the body whom secretion leads to an adverse reaction of the person producing them or the individual of the same species. An antisocial individual such as the psychopaths tends to have a lower level of serotonin hormone than the required ones. According to psychologists, the level of adrenaline is also very low in psychopaths which explains why they need a high amount of arousal.
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