Psychopathy And Antisocial Personality Disorder Research Paper

I have been curious as to what psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder is, as are other people. We often associate psychopaths to crazy, killers, or our exes. I have done that a time or five myself. Now, bear with me here because a lot is still left to discover about psychopaths and antisocial personality disorder. Some common questions I have asked myself (and researched) and others may have wondered are the ones not completely answered yet. What is antisocial personality disorder? Antisocial personality disorder, also known as APD, is a person who has a constant pattern of experiences and behaviors that is different than what would be out of line with their own culture and societal rules. A few symptoms are that they have no regard …show more content…
The causes still remain a mystery, but researchers have narrowed it down to what areas of the brain control certain functions. One of those areas being the amygdala, which is our main center for emotion and motivation. There are several theories surrounding what part the amygdala plays in psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder. One of them is possible lesions in the basolateral nuclei of the amygdala that interrupts association, stimuli, and rewarding behaviors (Wright, 1997-2016). Researchers used MRI's to unveil and explore the amygdaloid volume and the range of psychopathy using a PCL-R with violent criminals. A PCL-R is basically a psychopathy checklist. He found that the lower the amygdaloid volume, the higher the level of psychopathy (Blair, 2003 …show more content…
He wanted to see what happened with their neural responses. Decreased amygdala response was found in the higher scoring group than the lower scoring group (Blair, 2003 Jan.). The more disruption to the neural systems, in this case for emotions, the more it increases "antisocial tendencies" (Raine and Yang, 2006). Researchers also think that the orbitofrontal cortex and dorsolateral prefrontal areas also have a part to play in abnormalities in APD individuals. Some believe that those areas have lesions which results in impulsiveness and not exactly concerned with the consequences of their actions. Two MRI's also revealed decreased gray matter volume in the OFC. (Raine and Yang, 2006). Raine, a British psychologist, decided to take a volumetric MRI of the higher scoring group on the PCL-R. He had an issue trying to find the difference between what was the grey matter and what was the prefrontal cortex (Blair,