Continuing on with my discussion of personality disorders, this week I will be focusing on Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)
ASPD
The DSM-5 splits symptoms of this disorder into two categories- impairments in self functioning and impairments in interpersonal functioning. In individuals with ASPD self functioning is flawed as they tend to be ego-centric and base their goals on personal gain while neglecting cultural norms and laws. On an interpersonal level these individuals fail to show empathy- this leads to a lack of remorse and a higher likelihood of using others, manipulating others, and even harming others. Individuals with this disorder also display an inability to maintain intimate relationships, this is because any relationships they do have are based on their need for control. They tend to be hostile, manipulative, callous and decietful. Beyond this they show an increased amount of impulsivity, irresponsibility and risk-taking behaviors.
Alongside having these symptoms, in order to be diagnosed with ASPD individuals must have shown these patterns of behaviors before the age of 15, and they must have been diagnosed with a conduct disorder in their youth. Most individuals with ASPD show some sort of trauma in their childhood. They tend to come from broken homes and have suffered some degree of physical, verbal, mental, and/or sexual abuse.
ASPD and Criminality
Due to their lack of empathy and remorse, individuals with antisocial personalities tend to be the same individuals that commit crimes in our society. Despite the somewhat misleading label of “antisocial”, these individuals are actually very in tune with the thoughts and cognition of others. This allows them to be manipulative as they can fake empathy and come across as very charming and caring. Unfortunately it can be difficult to treat individuals with this disorder as their ability to manipulate and act like they are remorseful can be very deceiving.
Psychopathy
ASPD does have some link to psychopathy- but there is some debate as to what this link is. One school of thought suggests that psychopathy is just a higher degree of antisociality. Psychopaths show the same tendencies as those with ASPD, just on a greater level. They tend to have more of the symptoms of antisociality, and may have already been diagnosed with ASPD. This seems to indicate that psychopaths are just severely antisocial.
On the other hand there are some major differences that differentiate psychopaths from antisocial individuals that may indicate psychopathy is a category on it’s own. For example, psychopaths do not exhibit the same childhood risk factors as ASPD (broken homes, abuse etc.). They also do not show normal fear responses while those with ASPD do. Finally, while those with ASPD may end up showing some level of remorse/empathy psychopaths do not.
ASPD Example
A very well-known example of this type of personality can be seen in the serial murderer Ted Bundy. Bundy was one of the most notorious killers in the 20th century as he was convicted of raping and murdering 30 women and It is estimated that the number of people he killed far succeeds this number. Bundy was described as intelligent, handsome, charming, and articulate. Before his execution, Bundy was interviewed about his remorse for the murders he committed. His words seem extremely forced and calculated and he quickly moves into blaming sources other than himself for the crimes he committed. In my opinion, Bundy shows almost all the traits of ASPD/psychopathy. This can be seen in the interview below:
Questions to explore: It is clear that individuals with ASPD can be very dangerous to our society, but are there any therapies that have been useful in treating ASPD/psychopathy? How can we move forward in the future to recognize these traits early and avoid harm to innocent people?
alison grasmeyer 
Great post! To the best of my knowledge, I do not think there is any cure for psychopathy. I mean, you cannot just talk evil out of someone. Pills or therapy cannot instill empathy into a person that lacks empathy. According to Blair (2013) both structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging studies can inform an account of psychopathy. This study reported a 30% reduction across much of cortex in adults with psychopathy relative to healthy comparison individuals. Individuals with
psychopathy show amygdala activity during moral judgment and also a weaker positive association between amygdala activity and severity ratings of transgressions than is seen in healthy individuals. In addition, violent schizophrenic patients with psychopathy show reduced amygdala responses to fearful expressions. In recognizing these traits early, maybe, when a person starts exhibiting antisocial behavior, an MRI should be done to check the amygdala activity. I know this is far-fetched but we have to start somewhere, right?
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Click to access DialoguesClinNeurosci-15-181.pdf
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Very cool!
I was really interested in how psychopathy and ASPD differ, so I found an article that discusses a triarchic model of psychopathy, which consists of inhibition, meanness and boldness. After studying participants from two different prisons, the study found that psychopathy differs from ASPD the most through boldness; in other words, individuals with significant symptoms of boldness that outweighed meanness and inhibition were easily predicted to having psychopathy rather than ASPD. According to the authors, boldness is “ relative fearlessness, resilience to stress, and social dominance.” So, in essence, psychopathic individuals have a lack of fear, a high tolerance for stress, and thrive on social dominance more so than individuals with ASPD, in addition to the differences that you discussed.
I look forward to reading more of your blogs! 🙂
Venables, N.C., Hall, J.R., & Patrick, C.J. (2014). Differentiating psychopathy from antisocial personality disorder: a triarchic model perspective. Psychological Medicine, 44, 5, 1005-1013.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.uleth.ca/docview/1506758263?pq-origsite=summon
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I find antisocial behavior has become an increasing occurrence with the increase of technology as you no longer need to interact with people if you do not wish to do so. Self checkouts, online shopping, online dating sites etc. Face-to-face interactions are a rarity and be completely avoided the these technological advances. With on of my blogs an article I read actually theorized that children with ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) often grow up to be extremely antisocial. Could be interesting to focus you topic on antisocial behavior as a side effect or symptom of cognitive deficits. Check it out 🙂
reference;
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Great topic choice, I found it very interesting to read about. Especially learning about that just because an individual is anti-social does not mean they are oblivious to others thoughts and emotions. That they are in fact aware of others cognition and thoughts of other. I didn’t know that so it was quite interesting to learn about. However, with every mental disorder comes cognitive defects which in the case of anti-social personality disorder can be a lack of cognitive control which also can be linked to psychopathy or as they say. But the article I found actually also focuses on how psychopathic individuals actually have great cognitive control which is contradictory to many found articles. The article is titled “Cognitive Control Deficits Associated with Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy” In this article, a study is done on those are imprisoned and have been evaluated and tested positive for symptoms of anti-social personality disorder as well as psychopathy. They are given a response competition task. “The findings suggest that psychopathy and APD symptoms are both associated with deficits in cognitive control, and that this deficit relates to general antisociality as opposed to a specific antisocial syndrome.” (Zeier, J. D 2012 et. al).
References:
Zeier, J. D., Baskin-Sommers, A. R., Newman, J. P., & Racer, K. H. (2012). Cognitive Control Deficits Associated with Antisocial Personality Disorder and Psychopathy. Personality Disorders, 3(3), 283–293. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0023137
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Always love a post that mentions serial killers. Also, that interview with Ted Bundy is great in a twisted way. When I was looking into this I found that ASPD it actually one of the most common personality disorders in serial killers overall. Obviously, it is not what makes someone a serial killer, but it does contribute to the problem. Even on a broader scale, ASPD “only affects 0.6% of the population, it may affect up to 47% of male inmates and 21% of female inmates.” (ForensicsCollege) So without a doubt, this disorder is linked to crime, in some way or another. Again, not everyone associated with crime will have this, but a large amount seem to. Some cases must go undiagnosed as well, such as Dean Corll, known as the ‘Candy Man’ killer. Though he was guilty of heinous and violent crimes against other humans, he remained undiagnosed of a mental disorder. Dean is not the only case like this, so it seems that many more possible cases of ASPD go unnoticed.
http://www.forensicscolleges.com/blog/resources/dangerous-minds-criminal-mental-illness
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/blame-the-amygdala/201304/what-would-we-find-wrong-in-the-brain-serial-killer
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