Nowadays Psychology as One of the Most Popular Disciplines - Essay Example

Media Portfolio s Nowadays psychology became one of the most popular disciplines for consideration, study and research. Most people face different problems in their daily life, which make them learn certain psychological principles in order to reveal the basic issues, which trouble them. However, psychology can be presented in different ways. Some modern published sources use this area for entertainment goals, while others practice a scientific approach for psychology in order to use the achieved information in the further medical researches. Anyway, psychological articles can be analyzed according to the type of published source. The aim of this work is to analyze the modern psychological disorder “sociopathy” on the basis of five different published editions (article, magazine, newspaper), revealing the main essence of the articles, the differences in their description and vision of the problem, making the appropriate conclusions on behalf of the held researches. The paper also aims to describe the style and audience for such sources, giving the reader an opportunity to choose the paper for his own interest. Modern newspapers, articles and magazines study a great number of psychological issues. Nowadays there are a lot of areas of this sphere of study. Most of them bear the entertainment character, reviewing the issues of family and gender relations, work position development, facing stressful situations and so forth. However, such entertainment articles rarely research the questions of psychological abnormalities. Here belong schizophrenia, different types of phobias, panic disorder, anorexia, kleptomania and others. This article is dedicated to one of the most frequent psychological disorders of the XXI century – sociopathy. Sociopathy is a behavioral disorder, when a person ignores or violates the rights of people, refusing to comply with the social standards and norms. To make the long story short, sociopath is an individual, who is completely deprived of consciousness. Living in the society, a person shares and uses the spiritual and material culture together with other people. The qualities of humanity have been grown and strengthened in a genome of a person for thousands of years. Nowadays, the nervous system of the person is formed and assimilated to the processes of socialization: education, accepting social norms and so forth. According to the scientific researches, sociopaths are born with a genetic disorder and cannot live and function as active members of the society due to the disease. However, different sources view this problem differently. In the newspaper article “What is sociopathic disorder” written by Nina Golgowsky, the author makes the analysis of the content of sociopathy on the basis of the crimes of a famous sociopath Ariel Castro. Living as an ordinary person in a small house in Ohio, he managed to hold illegally and kill three innocent women. According to the words of Dr. Jack Levin, who made a careful research of the case, Castro managed to live an ordinary life, meeting with friends and maintaining good relationships with his neighbors. No one had any suspicious as for his psychological state. The definition of sociopathy in the article is made on the basis of the description of the disease by the specialists of Mayo Clinic. They stated that socipathy belongs to a mental disorder, which has a destructive influence on the person’s wellbeing. Nina Golowsky describes this disease as a hidden one. True sociopaths never reveal themselves. They are the last people, whom you can accuse in crimes or social dysfunctions. These people are usually polite and smiley, never showing their true nature. The author provides some hits on how any person can recognize a sociopath, though all of them are quite approximate. The author of the article states about sociopaths: "The typical [one] looks to the world as charming, innocent, decent, as an upstanding citizen and thats part of the secret to his success at getting away with murder and rape” (Golowsky, N., 2013). The whole participants of the case (medicals, criminalists, witnesses) at the end of the article confess that they are unable to reveal the sociopathy as a diagnosis and provide a treatment for it. The author describes, that the accused Castro did not recognize his fault and stated that the police should have come earlier, shifting the responsibility to local authorities. It means that sociopaths do not feel any flour of conscious for the actions they commit. This situation made criminalists confused. They stated "Were still in the dark as to where this kind of hideous crime comes from. Were starting to look at the genetics, biology, organic brain function, as well as the effect of a terrible childhood but we really dont understand this phenomenon. That is why Im against the death penalty for [men] like Castro because Id like to see him remain alive so we can better study him ... to understand him" (Golowsky, N., 2013). Summarizing this article, we can state that it is written in more colloquial style, than in the formal one. It provides a certain facts and data, provided by the criminalists. However, the article is oriented to an everyday reader. The purpose of the author was to provide evidential information without burdening the audience with complicated terms. The next article for consideration is taken from the magazine “Psychology today” and is written by Thomas M. The name of the article is “Confessions of a Sociopath”. The article was created in the form of interview. Its content is similar to the previous newspaper articles in terms of topic. However it possesses the differences in the analysis and description of the problem. In this case, the article reveals thoughts from inside of the person, who has this disease. A girl tells her story from the very beginning, describing how the process of her illness began till the very end, narrating what influence it had on her life. This article brings to our imagination the image of a beautiful, strong and self-confident girl, who turned out to be a sociopath. However, trying to stay optimistic, she describes the benefits of the sociopathy. The girl considers it as a power, an inexhaustible source, which can give people strength and provides them with the opportunity to achieve what they want. It does not matter who will be hurt in the process of achievement these goals. The thoughts and destiny of other people is of no importance for the main character of the article. The most interesting is that despite all these facts, she constantly works with people, being a professor of the university, writing psychological articles and giving charity. The paper describes the type of hidden and so-called “save” sociopathy. Such kind of sociopaths control their thoughts, emotions and actions, without strong harm for other people. They usually take high positions in the society and have strong influence on others. The main character of the article states “aggression, risk taking, and a lack of concern for ones own health, or that of others, are hallmarks of sociopathy” (Thomas, M. E., 2013). She also describes the reasons of constant aggressiveness, which appeared in her childhood as a result of difficult relationships with father. The interesting point in the article is the description of sociopathy from the religious point of view. The girl managed to control this disease by means of her faith in God and regular attending of the Mormon Church. Analyzing this article, we can see that it is written in the style of a conversation. The optimistic feature is revealed in the understanding that total control over sociopathy can make the ill person a respectable member of the society and is not an obstacle for building future career or living a normal life. The third article is taken from the journal “Sociopath world”. The article is called “Portrait of a sociopath” written by Craig M. In this case, we observe a formal style article with total data and statistic figures. The author divides the article into three main parts: the description of the diagnosis and statistics of ill, the reasons of its emergence, the necessity of the punishment for sociopathic criminals. The main issue here, which was not described in the previous articles, is what punishment should bear the sociopathic criminals for their actions. Modern medicine often approves mental disability of the person in criminal cases, which decrees the level of penalties. However, this issue is quite disputable. Many criminals explain their actions as being forcible under the state of their mental disorder. They blame their illness in the actions, they commit. In this case medicals study the history of disease of such a patient. However, this diagnosis was not recognized as a reason for release criminals from lawful punishment or its abatement. The author of the article states “Psychopaths know right from wrong – they just don’t care. That is what society calls “bad”, not “mad” (Craig, M., 2009). Consequently, at the moment of crime committing a person completely understood his actions, being in conscious, which does not release him from the further responsibility. To sum it up, it is necessary to state that the article is more interesting for the educated people, who have a primary knowledge in the sphere of medicine, than for the ordinary reader. It has more scientific than entertainment data and is aimed to make the analysis of the disease from the medical point of view. The fourth paper is a kind of a brief research paper written in formal style and seeking to provide the information on the disease. The paper was written by Tracey Allard and is called “Sociopathic Personality Disorder”. Though the article possesses rather formal shape, it is obviously intended for ordinary readers, as it has general information on typical traits of sociopaths and also provides advice on dealing with people suffering from this disease as well as keeping away from their influence. Allard refers to previous researches in this field to identify twenty common traits possessed by sociopaths. In the end of the paper, the common methods of deception and manipulation are described. Notwithstanding that the paper has the formal structure, it contains no statistical or research data, no figures or precise information, instead giving the general facts on this disorder. Finally, the last source under discussion is a chapter from the book edited by Alexandra Perry and written by Audrey Anton called Ethics and Neurodiversity dealing with the issue of sociopathy. The chapter (as the entire book, naturally) addresses the more sophisticated target audience that is familiar to some extent with the key issues of psychology and psychological disorders. The chapter deals with the key aspects of the disorder and its contexts, extending the knowledge of a reader and providing achievements of other researchers who deal with this problem. Hereby, the author also provides different definitions of sociopathy given by different scientists and complementing each other. The chapter is written in a rather easy-to-understand style, yet the character of the data presented in it gives us a hint that the target readership for it includes people connected with psychology as a discipline. In conclusion, it is important to mention that all five articles reveal the same topic, but, each of them is completely different in its expression. The essences of the articles form a particular auditory and this fact predetermines the style of writing. Gathering all the data, the reader achieve the full picture of information about a particular case, but accepts it in his own way. The individual approach of each author in relation to the attended audience makes him use special stylistic methods in order to attract people’s attention. They can be expressed in different ways, for example by means of direct address, rhetorical questions or unusual word order. Analyzing this, it becomes clear that all authors achieved their goals in describing and expressing the idea of sociopathy. They managed to reveal its main essence and content, reasons and treatment, legal responsibility and internal contradictions. The articles are complementary and have a significant influence on the formation of the opinion of both ordinary reader and scientific researcher. Works Cited Allard, T. Sociopathic Personality Disorder. Retrieved from: http://www.academia.edu/5711319/Sociopathic_Personality_Disorder Anton, A. (2013) The Virtue of Sociopaths: how to appreciate the neurodiversity of sociopathy without becoming a victim, in Ethics and Neurodiversity, Perry A., Herrera C.D. (Ed.). Retrieved from: http://www.academia.edu/2034622/The_Virtue_of_Sociopaths_how_to_appreciate_the_neurodiversity_of_sociopathy_without_becoming_a_victim Craig, M., Catani, M. Portrait of a sociopath. Sociopath World. http://www.sociopathworld.com/p/portrait-of-sociopath.html Golgowsky, N. (September, 2013). What is sociopathic disorder? Ariel Castro’s mental state could have been studied to prevent future predator attacks. Daily News. Retrieved from: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/sociopathic-disorder-ariel-castro-condition-explained-article-1.1445248 Thomas, M. E. (May, 2013). Confessions of a Sociopath. Psychology today. Retrieved from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201305/confessions-sociopath Read More