Preview

Nine Year Old Psychopath

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
514 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nine Year Old Psychopath
Can You Call A Nine Year Old A Psychopath? A psychopath is someone who is callous and someone that has no concern for others. Based on the New York Times article “Can you call a nine-year old a psychopath” by Jennifer Kahn, it is difficult to determine whether you can truly be judged a psychopath or not as a child. We like to automatically put a label on people who are a little bit off center from the rest of us whether there is something really wrong with them or not. This is hard for the kid growing up knowing they are being judged so a lot of them act out making it worse than what it truly is. Take Michael for example. He is a nine year old by in the article who starts acting out after his parents bring a new baby into the family. They …show more content…
In this regard, and because the concept and measurement of psychopathy have been developed in reference to adults, there is reason to be concerned about potential developmental sources of false positives when measuring psychopathic traits in juvenile offenders. I don’t think it’s fair to put that label on a nine year old. They are still learning and they may have a little grasp on the way they need to act but they still have those moments, I’m eighteen and I know I still do. There are so many things out there now that someone could be. You can go to the doctor with just one symptom of something and you automatically have ADD, ADHA, or whatever it may be. That is hard and may be embarrassing for some people but most of all they just put it into most people’s heads. Granted some kids do need medicine but also a lot of the parents just don’t want to deal with their kids when they act out so they go and get them medicine. Although Kahn doesn’t state whether Michael was labeled as a psychopath or not I don’t think that you should be able to tell a nine year old that they have a condition that they have to deal with for the rest of their lives and take medicine in the time being as

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Psychopathy is defined by three domains they are an interpersonal style characterized by arrogance, manipulation, and deceit; a behavioral style characterized by impulsivity and irresponsibility; and an affective experience characterized by shallow emotions and a lack of empathy (Sadhu, 2015). Neumann, Hare, and Newman (2007) suggest that psychopathy involves a four factor model which are an interpersonal factor that includes superficial charm, grandiosity, pathological lying and manipulation; an affective factor that includes callousness, lack of remorse, shallowness and failure to accept responsibility; an impulsive lifestyle factor that comprises impulsivity, sensation seeking and irresponsibility; and an antisocial factor that involves…

    • 138 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is a psychopath? How would we describe a psychopath? Although people may have a different opinion of the description of a psychopath, there are some aspects that most people will agree on. From our understanding, psychopaths are impulsive, ego-centric, and sometimes violent individuals, who lie and manipulate others for their own personal gain. At the same time, psychopaths can be charming which explains how they manage to easily manipulate others. The most intriguing characteristic, however, is the lack of conscience within a psychopath. We can all agree, it seems as if psychopaths feel no remorse or guilt after exhibiting their…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Approximately 840 students at Harvard University may be psychopathic; a shocking suggestion, but one that is tackled by psychologist and former Harvard professor Martha Stout in her book The Sociopath Next Door. Stout suggests that up to 4% of the population meets the diagnostic criteria of ‘sociopath.’ Colloquially, the term ‘psycho’ is often used, but its actual meaning includes several specific traits: a failure to conform to social norms, impulsivity and indifference to name a few. In the simplest of terms, psychopaths lack conscience. It is generally agreed that psychopathy and sociopathy are synonymous terms and are referred to in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD).…

    • 1013 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout Michael’s life, detailed in Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?, Michael can go day to day ranging between fits of absolute primitive, horrific rage, only to be immediately followed up by a calm, albeit cold, adult-like demeanor. This shift between extremes is bizarre for anyone, let alone a 9 year old boy with two younger siblings not showing the same issues with temper and emotions. Making these decisions voluntarily, and without regret or ever choosing to do the virtuous thing for sake of it being the right thing to do, means Michael is a vicious person, choosing to live a vicious life. I will argue that Michael cannot avoid vice because in his mind, vice is seen as good from birth and he will always commit vicious acts because of this.…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A sociopath is a person with an antisocial personality, usually a criminal who lacks a sense of moral responsibility. In the comic book, television show and movies; the character the Joker is the king of Sociopaths. He again and again commits crimes with no hint of remorse. The Joker has much charm. He charmed his way into convincing a psychiatric counselor into letting him out of his holding cell. He convinced her that they were meant for each other. This same psychiatric counselor would end up being his infamous partner in crime Harley Quin, who continually falls for the Joker’s charm. The Joker is very manipulative as well. He believes that no one else in the world matters except himself and Batman.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This article discusses psychopathy as a personality disorder and delves deeper into the understanding of the disorder. The article explains how it relates to forensic evaluations. This gives the support needed to show the connection between psychopathy and criminal profiling.…

    • 1865 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A psychopath is someone is has a mental disorder or display violent behaviors. A psychopath also has a personality order and loves to manipulate others, lacks empathy of others, emotionless, and fearless. There is nothing that scares them, there are four subtypes of psychopaths.…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociopath Research Paper

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Ever wonder what it was like to be inside a disturbed individual’s head and find out what makes him/her tick? To find out how him/her got to be that way and what him/her inner most thoughts and dark secrets are? The people who look just like a neighbor, a parent, or a friend, may possibly be what doctors might call a Sociopath. He/ she are very complex and secretive that to the untrained eye, he/she seems to be in a perfect state of mind; when really he/she is screaming from the inside. Symptoms vary widely with disorder and can be closely related to a psychopath in the works of “The Sociobiology of Sociapathy.” According to the “Profile for the Sociopath”, a person might be a sociopath if he/she: is manipulative and cunning, has a grandiose sense of self, is a pathological liar, has no remorse, has shallow emotions, incapable of love, needs stimulation, lacks empathy, has an impulsive nature, has early behavior problems, is irresponsible, promiscuous sexual behavior, and lacks a realistic life plan(par3).…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The psychological school of crime causation calls a psychopath a person who has a mental disorder or personality disorder. Charles Manson had a combination of both; a true psychopath. “Henry Cleckley described the psychopath, also called a sociopath, as a ‘moral idiot’ whose central defining characteristics is the inability to accurately imagine how other think and feel” (Schmalleger, 2007, p. 95). Charles Manson did not care how others felt or what they thought. He was brought up in a world where he knew his mother did not care about his feelings as long as she met her needs. Charles Manson could, if he wanted to, inflict so much pain on his victims and never care about the amount of suffering they would be going through. He was quoted as saying to “a television reporter, ‘I could take this book and beat you to death with it, and I wouldn’t feel a thing. It’d be just like walking to the drug store” (Schmalleger, 2007, p. 95).…

    • 2034 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socipathis Behavior

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages

    According to Sadie Davis from the Psycology.about.com website created on February 21, 2009. A sociopath is a liar and a user, plain and simple. They have no sympathy or empathy for anyone but themselves. They do not know, or want to learn, how to care about someone else. They are great actors for a while until they think they've got you hooked. Then you become nothing more than their victim. Davis stated that their ultimate goal is to rule the world, including all the people in it. A person with sociopathic tendencies tells you everything you want to hear and behaves exactly as you want them to behave. They sweep you off your feet and make you fall instantly in love with them. They're charming and sweet and lying! A sociopath wants everything that everyone else has. They're very jealous of material things. They have a huge sense of entitlement. They will tell you that they don't love themselves. This is not necessarily true as research shows that they only love themselves.…

    • 1586 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tests have shown that the nervous systems of psychopaths encounter less fear and anxiety than normal people. Tests have proven that low arousal levels have caused these individuals to project impulsive thrill-seeking behavior. Proven by one experiment, a group of healthy individuals and a group of serial killers were given the task of finding which lever out of four turned on a green light. One of the levers gave the subject an electric shock. Though both groups made the same number of mistakes the sociopaths took much longer in learning to stay away from the lever with the electric shock. This higher need for stimulation leads these individuals to seek dangerous situations. In fact most serial killers have a desire to become cops, the intensity of the job makes it exciting and desirable to them. The famous serial killer John Wyane Gacy, responsible for the rape and murder of 33 teenage boys and young men, told…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psychopaths

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When one thinks of psychopaths, they may think of serial killers such as Ted Bundy or Albert Fish. The reality is that psychopaths come in all forms and are much more common than one would think. A psychopath can be defined by a combination of multiple traits, such as lacking conscience, empathy and remorse, and irresponsibility and impulsiveness. This disorder is a type of antisocial personality disorder. Psychopathy is also a spectrum disorder, where psychopaths can exist anywhere on the spectrum using the 20-item Hare Psychopathy Checklist: a tool used to measure psychopathy (Kiehl & Hoffman, 2011). Psychopaths are affected in every aspect of their life due to this disorder, such as family and relationships, which causes issues as it prevents sufferers from functioning well in society. Issues with this disorder also include the fact that it is among the most difficult disorders to spot, yet psychopaths make up 1-2% of the population (Rogers, 2012), and 20-25% of the criminals in prison (Cohen, 2011).…

    • 901 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psychopathy

    • 1852 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Nucci, L.P., & Herman, S. (1982). Behaviorally disordered children’s conceptions of moral, conventional, and personal issues. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 10, 411-425.…

    • 1852 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psychopathy In Psychology

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Psychopathy is a personality disorder, mainly characterized by a lack of remorse or empathy, and is highly associated with antisocial behavior alongside other symptoms (Pozzulo, 301). Research shows that psychopathy can develop during childhood and adolescence (Pozzulo, 314). Psychologists are able to present to court the most probable criminal behavior of an young offender, as well as how specific models of psychopathy should be addressed, and how the offender should be punished including specific aspect of the sentence. However, psychologists’ expert testimonies labeling an offender as psychopath can lead to biased jurors’ sentences. Moreover, psychology is far from a perfect science and therefore contains many contradictions on psychopathy…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Iago In Othello

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A psychopath is defined as “a person with a psychopathic personality, which manifests as amoral and antisocial behavior, lack of ability to love or…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays