Should Psychopathy be a Distinct Category?

actually it's not adding anything new so nvm.

Disappointed.

oh look at you feigning interest. not necessary love

There is also a theory on psychopaths that claims they are completely capable of having mostly normal emotions but they do not take note of them mentally. The theory suggested this was caused from the brains concentration, what it chooses to focus on (what it determines is important). There was a study conducted with people who had been previously scored on the PPI. It showed the more psychopathic ones released far more dopamine from reward. Which would mean they are far more motivated to reward. The mind could possibly become unconcerned about other factors.

Particularly too it was noted that psychopaths when learning, pick things up slower if there is a negative outcome from failure than non-psychopaths. However when there is positive gain from success psychopaths were much faster at learning. The fearlessness could be caused because they are orientated to focus completely on the task (be sharp and quick, extremely focused). A calmness can wash over them because of how focused the mind is.

oh ya LBL spoke of that...the attentional bias

now THAT is a thread worth linking...

brb!

-- Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:50 pm --

found it!

antisocial-personality/topic87543-10.html?hilit=attention



-- Mon Dec 10, 2012 7:53 pm --

Little Boy Lost wrote:I was looking around on that site and a few recent studies found that clinical psychopaths have normal fear potentiated startle responses if their attention is directed towards the threat.

Here is the first one: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2795048/

A quote from the abstract: "The results provide unprecedented evidence that higher-order cognitive processes moderate the fear deficits of psychopathic individuals. These findings suggest that psychopaths’ diminished reactivity to fear stimuli, and emotion-related cues more generally, reflect idiosyncrasies in attention that limit their processing of peripheral information. Although psychopathic individuals are commonly described as cold-blooded predators who are unmotivated to change, the attentional dysfunction identified in this study supports an alternative interpretation of their chronic disinhibition and insensitive interpersonal style."

Here is the second one: http://psych.wisc.edu/newman/SecurePDF/ ... e_2011.pdf

that's fuking crazy! it overturns like all our paradigms...

There is also a theory that psychopaths are better at reading and identifying emotions. Understanding and not caring. Explains good manipulative skills and also the claim some have to know who is a victim and who is not (just by their walk). High PPI scorers (even more specifically the ones who scored highest in the coldheartedness part) showed higher activity in parts of the brain dealing with processing pain in others compared to low PPI scorers. The researchers described the high PPI people as appearing to actually have a talent for identifying emotions in others, which surprised them.

uh oh...this is devolving into a theory thread...we're going to get yelled at soon I know it lol

I actually read psychopaths are not so good at reading, or at least processing the meaning of words and use language atypically, like their logic

I think it was dubbed - semantic aphasia?

crystal_richardson_ wrote:uh oh...this is devolving into a theory thread...we're going to get yelled at soon I know it lol

I actually read psychopaths are not so good at reading, or at least processing the meaning of words and use language atypically, like their logic

I think it was dubbed - semantic aphasia?

What you read was that psychopaths show an even understanding of words across the board while non-psychopaths show an elevated understanding to emotional or social words. Not sure understanding is the right word. They reacted evenly to all words.

brit_brat wrote:There is also a theory that psychopaths are better at reading and identifying emotions. Understanding and not caring. Explains good manipulative skills and also the claim some have to know who is a victim and who is not (just by their walk). High PPI scorers (even more specifically the ones who scored highest in the coldheartedness part) showed higher activity in parts of the brain dealing with processing pain in others compared to low PPI scorers. The researchers described the high PPI people as appearing to actually have a talent for identifying emotions in others, which surprised them.

Yeah well I find that identifying emotions and relating to them are different. The first is a lot more empyrical. It's about body language and face expressions and the changes that happen in both in context with what's going on and what's being said. It's also about responses to mirroring. The ability to pay attention to detail pays off here. The latter, on the other hand, is more about empathy and it's pretty much a role-taking ability. Psychopaths see it but they don't know what it's like to be it.

Yurippe wrote:Psychopaths see it but they don't know what it's like to be it.

That's one way of looking at it. Another is that they understand how to be it but they don't care. Like the connection between knowing and caring is poor.