A Lack of Empathy: Antisocial Personality Disorder
When you hear the word antisocial it brings to mind someone who is a shut in, who doesn’t get out much. However, when it comes to Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) it’s not just about not socializing. Antisocial Personality Disorder refers to a disorder that disregards social norms, those with Antisocial personality disorder will disregard laws or anything else that gets in the way of their immediate goals. Individuals with ASPD tend to be callous, impulsive, and ego centered. Both Psychopaths and Sociopaths fall into the Antisocial Personality Disorder.
What does Antisocial Personality Disorder entail?
According to DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder - 5) a …show more content…
[3] This may be due to behavior factors rather than environmental factors, mostly involving hormones.
What causes ASPD?
Behavior and environmental factors are the main causes of Antisocial Personality disorder. Behavior refers to inborn things, such as damage to the brain or just it being underdeveloped in some respects. Environmental factors are the outside forces affecting a person. The social constructs of one’s life – like if one was raised by abusive parents. Though the exact causes of ASPD are still widely debated there are some suspected causes. Chemical imbalances in the brain or social factors are thought to contribute to ASPD even if they don’t directly cause it.
One such chemical imbalance involves serotonin. Serotonin levels in the brain being too low are often found in those who have ASPD.[3] Serotonin can regulate mood, cognitive functions, appetite and sleep. People with lowered serotonin levels can be erratic impulsive, and violent towards themselves or others. The impulsiveness is a symptom of …show more content…
ASPD is associated with violent uncaring behaviors and because of that many people are turned away from therapists simply because of the label associated with it. [5] Many adults don’t seek treatment due to the impulsive nature of the disease and because of the stigma associated with it many can’t [5, 3]. Almost 80% of the prison population meets the criteria associated with ASPD. [4] Those who do get treated often do so because they are mandated which leads to a high rate of ineffectiveness in therapies. Much of the research associated with ASPD only concerns the criminal element, in how to predict or prevent crimes rather than how to help an individual learn how to feel for lack of better words.
When you hear the word antisocial it brings to mind someone who is a shut in, who doesn’t get out much. However, when it comes to Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) it’s not just about not socializing. Antisocial Personality Disorder refers to a disorder that disregards social norms, those with Antisocial personality disorder will disregard laws or anything else that gets in the way of their immediate goals. Individuals with ASPD tend to be callous, impulsive, and ego centered. Both Psychopaths and Sociopaths fall into the Antisocial Personality Disorder.
What does Antisocial Personality Disorder entail?
According to DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder - 5) a …show more content…
[3] This may be due to behavior factors rather than environmental factors, mostly involving hormones.
What causes ASPD?
Behavior and environmental factors are the main causes of Antisocial Personality disorder. Behavior refers to inborn things, such as damage to the brain or just it being underdeveloped in some respects. Environmental factors are the outside forces affecting a person. The social constructs of one’s life – like if one was raised by abusive parents. Though the exact causes of ASPD are still widely debated there are some suspected causes. Chemical imbalances in the brain or social factors are thought to contribute to ASPD even if they don’t directly cause it.
One such chemical imbalance involves serotonin. Serotonin levels in the brain being too low are often found in those who have ASPD.[3] Serotonin can regulate mood, cognitive functions, appetite and sleep. People with lowered serotonin levels can be erratic impulsive, and violent towards themselves or others. The impulsiveness is a symptom of …show more content…
ASPD is associated with violent uncaring behaviors and because of that many people are turned away from therapists simply because of the label associated with it. [5] Many adults don’t seek treatment due to the impulsive nature of the disease and because of the stigma associated with it many can’t [5, 3]. Almost 80% of the prison population meets the criteria associated with ASPD. [4] Those who do get treated often do so because they are mandated which leads to a high rate of ineffectiveness in therapies. Much of the research associated with ASPD only concerns the criminal element, in how to predict or prevent crimes rather than how to help an individual learn how to feel for lack of better words.