CRJ302Psychopathic Behavior Arizona State University Hypothe, Lecture notes of Accounting

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Psychopathic Behavior Arizona State University Hypothetical Research Design and Methodology This paper will address the study of early childhood development resulting in psychopathic personality. This issue pertains to the mental state of children raised in a bad environment and the damage it can cause on a developing brain. This fact in turn can result in the making of a psychopath. One research question relating to such study is, can how one is raised create psychopathic personality? Another question I would like to address is, are psychopaths born or built? Without understanding if psychopaths are born or built, we cannot know the true results of the research done trying to understand if one’s early childhood creates a psychopath. “Having the genetic disposition to psychopathy or Antisocial Personality Disorder (also known as ASPD) is a necessary but not sufficient condition to becoming a sociopath. There appears to be an environmental component that triggers this mindset in many of those afflicted with ASPD” (Crime Traveller, 2020). The mental process of psychopaths is so complex, understanding how and why they act in dangerous ways can lead to new revelations in criminology. These revelations are key to expanding our discovery of not only psychopaths but human behavior and emotions. This subject is important because when we try to begin to understand why psychopaths do what they do, and understand them on a psychological level, we can unlock the understanding we need in order to create a safe environment for everyone. Psychopathy is a complex

personality disorder, characterizing individuals with emotional deficits who lack a regard for social norms, empathy, and remorse. We need to know what they think, why they think it, and how they plan on conducting that thought process. To catch a criminal, you must think like one, it is the same concept but deeper. Once you have caught them, you must now try to figure out what caused them to behave unlawfully. To succeed in understanding this, you must start in the first psychological phase, early childhood because, “Both ASPD and psychopathy have been associated with adverse early life experiences, including childhood abuse” (NCBI, 2015.) One can be shaped to have psychopathic behavior due to their early life experiences but is most likely paired with genetic psychopathic traits. This event enhances the likelihood of one becoming a psychopath. The hypothesis of the study of early childhood trauma resulting in psychopathic personality is relevant in modern criminology. “The link between early traumatic experiences of abuse/neglect and criminal behavior has been widely demonstrated. Less is known, however, about the relationship between these experiences and the development of psychopathic personality” (NCBI, 2013). Though it is currently being studied, the mind is so vast, we barely know a fraction of it. This is why studying and researching human behaviors and brain function is key to unlocking the hidden areas of our brain. Each decision someone makes comes from a psychological level, good or bad, what we need to try to understand is why for some people the bad choices come easier to them, what caused this malfunction in the brain? It is relevant in criminology to prevent the crime from happening to do so, we should bring awareness to people who might know a psychopath. We do not know much about the study of psychopathy in the realm of criminology, and it is time we start paying more attention to the mental state of criminals. Target Population

To understand how the development of psychopathy, we need to study the environment of children, or the early childhood of identified psychopaths. Asking them questions like, how they are disciplined? What they do for fun? How do you treat your siblings? Etc. This response will lead to an opening for the children to talk and express their emotions. This idea should give us the ability to examine how they react in situations giving us insight into their personality. Another way to test this is to ask those same questions but to the identified psychopaths. This way, we can see what caused them to have this psychopathic personality and if the children interviewed answer generally in the same way, we have a link between the two and can possibly prevent it. We can also do brain scans. “Jim Fallon, a UC Irvine School of Medicine neuroscientist, in his research he found that many psychopaths show distinctive patterns of brain activity” (Insider, 2017). What we do know is, “those born with the genes, and perhaps associated brain structures, of a psychopath are not guaranteed to become one. Likewise, those who suffer some form of childhood trauma or abuse are also not likely to become psychopaths. It is when both these conditions are met that psychopathy occurs” (Crime Traveller, 2020). Psychopathy has a reciprocal agreement with childhood trauma and genes. This fact is a dangerous combination, which seems to lead to the result of criminal activity and psychopathic behavior. Sampling Design/Plan The matter of the fact is, we do not know much about the study of psychopathy, and in the realm of criminology, we should do our best to study it and figure it out. “The study of psychopathy may provide better understanding of not only fundamental social phenomena like empathy and aggression, but of the basic emotional processes that motivate these behaviors” (NCBI, 2013). We will be able to unlock so many questions by looking at the start of psychopathic behavior. Not only that, but we may find ways to prevent psychopathic behavior. Or we may be able to find ways to help people change their psychopathic behaviors.

New psychopathy research published in Development and Psychopathology by lead author Dr. Catherine Tuvblad from the University of Southern California had informative results. “Interestingly, the data indicates that if these rapid gene-environment based changes in psychopathic traits occur early on any later additional environmental changes to psychopathic traits would be minimal. In other words, once the psychopathic personality traits are set during puberty, they tend to last into later years. Other research has found that there may be other key turning points on route to becoming a psychopath much earlier in life. One study found that the total number of early negative life events between the ages of 0-4 were positively correlated with the emotion-based aspects of psychopathy. The findings suggest that early environmental factors could have important implications for the development of psychopathic traits and may also impact attachment to parents for children with genetic potential for psychopathy” (PsychCentral, 2017). It has been shown that a key factor that people with psychopathic behavior are missing is love. Proper love that was not received as a child allowed the psychopathic behavior to breed. This issue is why aa great deal of people with psychopathic tendencies results in criminal activity. “Interestingly, the data indicates that if these rapid gene-environment based changes in psychopathic traits occur early on any later additional environmental changes to psychopathic traits would be minimal. In other words, once the psychopathic personality traits are set during puberty, they tend to last into later years. Other research has found that there may be other key turning points on route to becoming a psychopath much earlier in life. One study found that the total number of early negative life events between the ages of 0-4 were positively correlated with the emotion-based aspects of psychopathy. The findings suggest that early environmental factors could have important implications for the development of psychopathic traits and may also impact attachment to parents for children with genetic potential for psychopathy”

(PsychCentral, 2017). It has been shown that a key factor that people with psychopathic behavior are missing is love. Proper love that was not received as a child allowed the psychopathic behavior to breed. This issue is why aa great deal of people with psychopathic tendencies results in criminal activity. Anticipated Number of Cases 10 - 20 cases should meet exactly was is needed to figure out the base of the study. Method of Data Collection It may be hard to try to understand the mental state of psychopaths. One reason is because we need to be able to talk to them and they are not always the opening type. We need to go off previous information gained from psychopaths that have been caught. From there, we can move to their past and look for triggers that would lead them down such path. If we can understand why, they did it, maybe we can figure out signs that lead to such behavior. For instance, “sometimes children are brought up with a psychopathic or narcissistic parent. In these cases, the child may grow up thinking they can only get attention and resources by being manipulative” (Insider, 2017). More of an inductive reasoning study approach, collect data, use data to develop a theory, then test the new theory until we have a proven result. Evidence of Reliability/Validity and Addressing Concerns Research done on conduct disorders (CD) and psychopathy in children and adolescents linked the idea that a child’s environment and how they are raised can breed callous unemotional traits (CU). CU is linked with psychopathy, “CU traits include lack of empathy, sense of guilt and shallow emotion, and their characterization in youth can improve our diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic abilities” (NCBI, 2017). So, we know from previous studies that childhood can produce psychopathic behavior. Now we need to figure out if you can be born with psychopathic

traits and if ones’ childhood just triggers the brain to react in a negative manner. According to a study led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers, “the study compared the brains of 20 prisoners with a diagnosis of psychopathy with the brains of 20 other prisoners who committed similar crimes but were not diagnosed with psychopathy. Images of prisoners' brains show important differences between those who are diagnosed as psychopaths and those who are not, the decision-making study showed indirectly what this study shows directly that there is a specific brain abnormality associated with criminal psychopathy” (Public Health, 2017). From the previous study shown above, we see that a psychopath has a different brain. Now we need to look at the idea of childhood trauma and brain abnormality associated with criminal psychopathy intertwining. We need to take the two studies and put them together to find the answer. We know psychopaths do not have normal brain function. We also know that the environment in which one is raised can lead to psychopathic traits. According to an article posted by Cambridge University, “other behavioral and environmental factors may influence gene expression in ways that genetic research has yet to predict. For instance, several of the same genetic polymorphisms have been investigated in both psychopathy and ADHD research. Indeed, subjects with ADHD were the focus of Fowlers research. However, childhood ADHD is associated with significant problems in social, school, and emotional functioning” (Cambridge, 2019). So many areas are yet to be researched. Starting with childhood and psychopathic behavior can open the door to so many other things. References

Craparo, G., Schimmenti, A., & Caretti, V. (2013, December 20). Traumatic experiences in childhood and psychopathy: a study on a sample of violent offenders from Italy. European journal of psychotraumatology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24371511/. Dargis, M., Newman, J., & koenigs, M. (2015, September 21). Clarifying the link between childhood abuse history and psychopathic traits in adult criminal offenders. Personality disorders. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26389621/. Delgado, M. (2020, November 5). Psychopaths – Born Or Made? Crime Traveller. https://www.crimetraveller.org/2020/03/psychopaths-born-or-made/. Dodgson, L. (2017, August 3). Both DNA and upbringing can determine whether a child will grow up to be a psychopath - here's how. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-make-a-psychopath-2017-8. JE;, F. A. F. P. A. G. (2019, October 23). Born this way? A review of neurobiological and environmental evidence for the etiology of psychopathy. Personality neuroscience. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32435743/. Marsh, A. (2013, March 1). What can we learn about emotion by studying psychopathy? Frontiers in human neuroscience. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23675335/. Pisano , S., Muratori, P., Gorga, C., Levantini, V., Luliano, R., Catone, G., Coppola, G., Milone, A., & Masi, G. (2017, September 20). Conduct disorders and psychopathy in children and adolescents: aetiology, clinical presentation and treatment strategies of callous-

unemotional traits. Italian journal of pediatrics. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28931400/. Psych Central Guest. (2017, January 21). The Science of Preventing Dangerous Psychopathy. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-science-of-preventing-dangerous- psychopathy.