Robert Hare's Psychopathy Check-R

Definition of psychopath is someone who with a sociopathic personality; a person with an antisocial personality disorder.

In fact,because psychopaths are not able to feel empathy involuntarily, they are able to turn the feeling on. It is very common for psychopaths to have “ a false belief in their own superiority, a sense of entitlement and a complete disregard for social norms” (Paula, year). Psychopathy had recently been changed into ‘antisocial personality disorder’ in the updated version of the FBI’s mental health book, DSM-III. It was changed for the reason of the personality not always being reliable, as well as psychopathy symptoms crossing over antisocial personality disorder symptoms. Another reason for the change was because it is believed that focusing on behavior instead of the why helped identify the disorder easier. The new research was highly and widely discussed among many physicians because some felt unsure of the change, but they were also for the change with consideration of the evidence that was found. The usual psychopath is not found to be violent. If they are violent, they are considered more dangerous than others and will most likely reoffend sooner and worse than the first time. Between psychopaths and non psychopaths, psychopaths have a longer criminal history which varies in crimes. Their patterns are unique when compared to a non psychopath, but due to their inability to have emotion, they are able to be more observant on their next chosen

The PCL-R was first created by Robert Hare in the 1980 and then revised in 1991. The test is a twenty-item rating scale, which compares the test subjects score against the score of an archetypal psychopath. It measures traits such as glibness and superficial charm, grandiose self-worth, and lack of remorse or guilt. The person is rated through two parts. The first part includes an extensive review of collateral sources of information (e.g., reports about family, education, extra-curricular activities, work history, relationships with family and friends). The second part of the assessment is a detailed life history interview with the patient. The scores on the PCL-R range from 0 to 40. The average PCL-R score is 4 out of 40. The mean PCL-R score in prison samples is 22. A score of 30 or higher is considered a high

“Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by an inability to form human attachment, aggressive narcissism, and antisocial behavior defined by a constellation of affective, interpersonal and behavioral characteristics, most of which society views as pejorative” [1]. Some of these characteristics include irresponsibility, grandiosity, cunning, deceitfulness, selective impulsivity, sexual promiscuity, lack of empathy, etc. People who are psychopathic display not only antisocial behavior but also emotional impairment such as the lack of guilt. They are able to prey on others using their charm, deceit, violence or any other methods that allow them to get what they want. A strong feature of most of the behavior

Psychopaths are typically devoid of emotion, and have an inherent sense of superiority that drives them to take actions that society considers

Therefore, as a strength of the PCL-R system, unlike APD, an antisocial lifestyle is only part of the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy (Fine, & Kennett, 2004, p. 425). Where as psychometric analysis of the PCL-R consistently identifies two factors. One of the factors corresponds to personality features, such as lacking guilt or remorse, or a lack of empathy, while the other looks into features of antisocial lifestyles, such as impulsivity or poor behaviour controls (Fine & Kennett, 2004, p. 425). The PCL-R gives individuals that are being assessed in these traits and behaviors a score from a 3-point scale (0,1, 2) (Hare et al., 2006, p. 59). Where 0 indicates that the characteristic being assessed was definitely not present or did not apply, 1 stating that there

According to “Dictionary.com” the definition of a psychopath is “a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.” In the short story The Most Dangerous Game by: Richard Connell General Zaroff demonstrates these characteristics in the text and there are actual facts and information from the text that prove that Zaroff is a psychopath. On a yacht boat bound for Rio, Whitney points out an Island in the distance. Him and his friend Rainsford are are both big hunters bound for a hunting trip in the Amazon River. But When Rainsford falls into the sea trying to catch his pipe, his life had just instantly changed. He heard three gunshots and followed them to shore. Rainsford reaches the rocky shore and falls into a “very deep sleep.” As Connell explained.

According to most common definitions of psychopathy, the psychopath suffers from a shallow and antisocial personality, egocentrism and (most importantly) an inability to feel empathy for others. This does not match McMurphy’s motivations, which become increasingly reliant upon empathy. While McMurphy is arguably driven by his own mischievous instinct at the start of the text, he later continues his resistance out of empathy for his fellow Eid 9 patients, even though he knows this will affect himself negatively. Examples of

Of all the psychiatric disorders, none are more chilling to the world then the psychopaths and sociopaths. These two disorders, categorized as antisocial personality disorders, bring about the absolute worse people and killers that the world has ever known. The infamous serial killers, the people who do the unimaginable, were all psychopaths. The ability of these people to do what they do and know that what they are doing is wrong, is perhaps one of the most chilling and shocking characteristic of these people. Psychopaths and sociopaths are very often thought by most to be the same disorder, yet they are different when classified by many psychiatric researchers. The people classified as psychopaths and sociopaths are separated by one main difference, and that is if they were born with a lack of the ability to empathize or if they were affected as children in a traumatic environment. Although both of these horrible disorders derive from a different area, the reality is that they are unpredictable, undetectable and most importantly, they can be very dangerous.

The concept of psychopathy originated in the 1800s to describe individuals that consistently failed to conform to societal norms and exhibited antisocial behavior that did not fit the concept of mental illness of the time period. While, psychopathy was a common term used to describe individuals suffering from this disorder other descriptions were coined such as “Pinel’s term “manie sans delvie” meaning mania without delirium in the 1700s, to describe patents whose ‘affective faculties were disordered’” or Pritchard’s term “moral insanity” (Ogloff 520). In the 1930’s Partridge argued that psychopathy was a social rather than a mental disorder and proposed that the concept of sociopathy be introduced as a more accurate description. The American Psychological Association adopted Partridge’s term for their Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel in 1952. However, in 1968 the American Psychological Association changed the diagnostic label from sociopath to “personality disorder, antisocial” for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel – II that continued through to the DSM - III in 1980 and the DSM - III-R in 1987 and the DSM - IV in 1994. Today the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel categorizes antisocial personality disorder as a personality disorder and it is named as such. Unfortunately, not much research has been conducted

Fifty years ago, a person breaking the law would either be called crazy or a criminal. Today, the mental health community has much more specific diagnoses. However, the explanation of certain behaviors may be difficult because there is much overlap among mental conditions. In Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, the protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is apparently simply a psychopath. However, Bateman can be diagnosed with other mental illnesses such as Asperger’s syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder. In both the book and film adaptation, Bateman’s actions can be understood more accurately when analyzed in light of modern psychology.

Furthermore, psychopathy was considered during the twentieth century, the most widely used term to describe antisocial behavior (Reed, 1996). In the 1980s, the committee who devised the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for the American Psychiatric Association recommended the term antisocial personality syndrome to be changed to antisocial personality disorder (Ellis & Walsh, 2000). Antisocial Personality Disorder Hare & McPherson (1984), were successful in pushing the idea that there is a significant correspondence between violent and persistent delinquent and criminal histories and antisocial personality disorder diagnosis. Acute persistent child conduct disorder behavior symptoms, also known as conduct disorder, have been directly linked to serious criminality and antisocial personality disorder (Ellis & Walsh, 2000). Although criminality and antisocial personality disorder ought not be equated, they should be seen as closely linked behavioral phenomena (Ellis & Walsh, 2000). Vitella (1996) believes that individuals with childhood conduct disorder have a higher than normal probability of being both criminal and diagnosed antisocial personality disorder in adolescence and adulthood, and persons with serious criminal records have a higher probability of being diagnosed psychopathic than those with little or no criminal history. Nevertheless, Ellis & Walsh (2000) in caution pointed out that these

There are various methods to identify psychopaths and forms that psychosis may occur. In the mind, there is no physical location that can be analyzed by an x-ray, a dissection, or a microscope to determine psychopathy; therefore the diagnosis of a mental disorder is known as subjective judgment. One complex system that is used is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM III (Hollin 101). Another method mentioned in The Psychopath and the Hare by Danielle Edgar used to identify psychopaths is The Hare, officially known as the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), which was developed

They’re distinctive traits include living a parasitic lifestyle, lack of responsibility for their actions, glibness, and a lack of realistic long term goals (“Psychopathic”). They do not learn from their experiences and cannot form meaningful relationships. They continuously engage in antisocial behavior, punishment does not have an affect on their behavior, and they are emotionally immature (Hare, Psychopathy 9). They find it hard to control their impulses and commonly hold many short-term relationships, often engaging in promiscuous sexual behavior. (“Psychopathic”). Frequently, they fail to plan ahead, have a low frustration acceptance, and have no problem lying blatantly to someone’s face. Psychopaths don’t feel remorseful if they mistreat or hurt someone, in fact, the person’s safety, as well as their own, is disregarded in order for the psychopath to get what they want (Hare, “Psychopath vs. Antisocial”). An easy way to describe a psychopath is a human who lives a predatory lifestyle (“Psychopathic”).

Doctors use a simple test to predict psychopathy called a Psychopathy Checklist-Revised or known as the PCL-R test. This is a checklist that has twenty items on it that included: glibness or superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth, need for stimulation/proneness to boredom, pathological lying, conning or manipulative, lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect, callous and lack of empathy, parasitic lifestyle, poor behavioral controls, promiscuous sexual behavior, early behavioral problems, lack of realistic, long-term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility, failure to accept