Sociopathy and AsPD

Is there a difference between sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder?

basically yes, it was meant to encompass all anti social personalities. I like the factor 1 and factor 2 models. Psycopathy being factor 1 and sociopathy being factor 2 which is mostly anti social behavior: I think the difference isn’t really that important except for therory and for the sake of discussion purposes.

Thanks!

HSS wrote:Is there a difference between sociopathy and antisocial personality disorder?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/sociopathy

Sociopathy is an informal term that refers to a pattern of antisocial behaviors and attitudes. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), sociopathy is most closely represented by Antisocial Personality Disorder.

- Brandon

Thank you

The topic of psychopathy/sociopathy is not all black and white. Some try to make distinctions between the words psychopath and sociopath (E.g. psychopaths are products of nature, sociopaths are products of nurture). However, both are pop psychology terms that are not well-defined in academic literature which causes many disagreements and confusion surrounding them. Regardless of how one refers to it, it's probably much more common than most people think. For instance, in 1995, American authors Gustafson and Ritzer presented their idea of what they called Aberrant Self-Promotion (ASP). They viewed ASP as a subclinical form of psychopathy and the difference being one of degree, not kind. ASPs are said to display certain patterns of personality traits; for example, low socialization and high narcissism. According to Gustafson and Ritzer,

ASPs often have a desire to appear competent and to further their own interests, or to 'self-promote.' Other common aspects of the ASP profile are lack of guilt or empathy, exploitativeness, and manipulativeness, and violation of social norms and rules of behavior. Not all ASPs engage in criminal or antisocial behavior, but most still are destructive enough to be described as 'aberrant.'

In one sample featuring American students, the authors found that 6% matched the ASP profile, and in another, 11% did. So, while experts believe that approximately 1% of the general population would score high enough on the Psychopathy Checklist, Revised (PCL-R) to indicate clinical psychopathy and about 3% could be diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (often referred to as psychopathy or sociopathy), there is much more to simply having the condition or not. In fact, everyone has more or less of these traits. Yet, it's obvious that some people are far more affected than others.
Many experts in the field of psychology believe that psychopathy is not treatable if it isn't recognized by adulthood. However, what if we were able to identify young, budding psychopaths and effectively treat them before they grow up and wreak havoc on those around them? Considering the fact that psychopathic behavior has such a negative impact on society, we should continue to gain knowledge and educate the public about it so that treatment can be initiated for those displaying psychopathic tendencies as soon as possible.