Understanding Psychopathy - Essay Example

Understanding Psychopathy Understanding Psychopathy The term psychopathy refers to a condition or a personality based disorder experienced by an individual who exhibits behavior that is deviant in nature and continues to do so for a longer period of time. Individuals that are experiencing the disorder may exhibit various signs that any individual in their best health may depict and that is one reason why it becomes quite difficult to diagnose an individual suffering from this disorder. These individuals may a trail of behavioral characteristics that helps in diagnosing them and these behavioral characteristics may differ when comparing males and females.

One of the most problematic and controversial area of psychopathy is childhood or juvenile psychopathy. Behavioral Characteristics of Psychopaths The most common behavioral characteristics exhibited by psychopaths include extraordinary charm. These individuals have the ability to create such positive stories of them that they may seem more of people who are heroes rather than deviants (Bartol, 2013, p.94). Furthermore, these individuals hold high self-worth for themselves and when they indulge in a conversation they may depict higher level of confidence.

These individuals even indulge in excessive lying and may be able to come up with such exaggerated reality that may be entirely different from their true story. They have the ability to manipulate anyone in order to attain their objectives (Bartol, 2013, p.94). They do not think of others as human beings and rather consider others as objects that do not have feelings. Due to this they indulge in performing scams that may cause heavy losses and damages to others. Behavioral Characteristics Of Female Versus Male Psychopaths.

The behavioral characteristics that are depicted by psychopaths are quite similar when a comparison is conducted between the female and the male gender. But the way they perform deviant acts may vary and have varying impacts on the victims. According to Wynn there are immense difference in which male and female psychopath express their behavioral characteristics (Wynn, 2012). The researcher states that both the male and the female genders exhibit manipulative behaviors but the females are more likely to exhibit this behavior by flirting with others and males may exhibit the same behaviors by committing a fraud or con (Wynn, 2012).

Similarly, there is a difference in how these individuals may exhibit aggressive behaviors, the male mostly indulge in physical coercion and the females depict vocal aggression. Controversy Of Juvenile Psychopathy The main controversy that is surrounding Juvenile Psychopathy is the issue of labeling youth as well as children as psychopaths. The controversy is that it is wrong to label children as psychopaths because during early ages children are still experiencing development of their emotions due to this development it is quite normal that they exhibit deviant behavior (Bartol, 2014).

Secondly, labeling children as psychopaths can have a negative impact on their future and their development. This is because labeling any individual as psychopaths is highly stigmatized and if children are labeled as psychopaths they might be treated in a negative manner as others and may not get a chance to correct their behaviors. References Bartol, C., & Bartol, A. (2014). Criminal behavior. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education. Wynn, R., Hoiseth, & Pettersen, G. (2012). Psychopathy in women: theoretical and clinical perspectives.

 International Journal Of Womens Health, 257. doi:10.2147/ijwh.s25518 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3379858/