Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is the main question of Raine’s anatomy of violence?
Are dangerous people born or made?
Are dangerous people born or made?
It’s a combination: (innate) susceptibility for abnormal behavior + negative contextual factors that trigger that abnormal behavior. There is a small group with innate aberration (deviation) at the neurocognitive level, exposing them to antisocial behavior regardless of environment.
Adrian Raine: modern brain scanning technology + interdisciplinary approach
How to classify normal vs abnormal behaviour?
Normal vs. Abnormal behavior
What is abnormal/atypical/antisocial? → Different criteria
● Cultural/social/ethical → Differences in cultural and social norms. Cultural and social norms also involve ethical perspectives of a society.
● Statistical model → The majority of us are located within the middle of the bell curve, and you have some extreme cases (low and high). Low and high extremes are depending on what variable or concept you are interested in.
● Medical model → Psychiatry is a subdiscipline of medicine. The DSM fully ignores comorbidity (a key concept; comorbidity is having multiple psychological/psychiatric disorders at the time; this is not the exception but the rule. Trauma is rampant). The DSM describes every disorder as being discrete, and sees them as perfectly isolated disorders.
What is Conduct Disorder?
A common and highly impairing psychiatric disorder, usually emerges in childhood or adolescence.
It is characterized by severe antisocial and aggressive behavior. Frequently co-occurs with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and often leads to antisocial personality disorder in adulthood.
Below the age of 18 or 19, if they are older you should assess whether they fulfill the diagnostic criteria for another disorder; antisocial personality disorder (the adult form of conduct disorder).
What are the symptoms of conduct disorder?
Symptoms
● Aggression to people and animals
● Destruction of property
● Deceitfulness or theft
● Serious violation of rules
● Limited prosocial emotions: to qualify for this specifier, an individual must have displayed at least two of the following characteristics persistently over at least 12 months and in multiple relationships and settings
○ Lack of remorse or guilt
○ Callous - lack of empathy (disregards and is unconcerned about feelings of others)
○ Unconcerned about performance
○ Shallow or deficient affect (does not express feelings/show emotions, except in ways that seem shallow, insincere, or superficial)
What is the Societal Relevance of Conduct Disorder
● Prevalence ± 7%
● High referral rates
● Societal/economic/emotional burden
● Precursor to adult psychopathology*
● Highly chronic and persistent
● Notoriously difficult to treat
*Externalizing disorder domain: the problems are most often externally directed (ADHD; being disinhibited, lack of attention, being busy and disrupted, externalizing problems. Conduct disorder; being violent, stealing, theft, aggression to others)
Internalizing disorder domain: depression, anxiety, trauma, wherein the majority of the symptoms and consequences are internally directed, less directed to surroundings
What is psychopathy?
Psychopathy is a personality disorder characterized by a set of dysfunctional interpersonal, emotional, lifestyle, and antisocial tendencies.
What are the Psychopathy Factors/Symptoms?
Factor 1: Interpersonal/affective
● Interpersonal facet
○ Glibness/superficial charm
○ Grandiose sense of self-worth
○ Pathological lying
○ Conning/manipulative
● Affective facet
○ Lack of remorse or guilt
○ Shallow affect
○ Callous/lack of empathy
○ Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
Factor 2: Chronic antisocial lifestyle
● Lifestyle facet
○ Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
○ Parasitic lifestyle
○ Lack of realistic long-term goals
○ Impulsivity
○ Irresponsibility
● Antisocial facet
○ Poor behavioral controls
○ Early behavioral problems
○ Juvenile delinquency
○ Revocation of conditional release
○ Criminal versatility
What is the Societal Relevance of Psychopathy?
Societal Relevance Psychopathy
● Prevalence 1% of general population
● 30% incarcerated population
● No effective treatment
● More male than female
What is the popular depiction of psychopathy?
● Psychopathy is often synonymous with extreme violence and serial killings, but not all psychopaths commit violent acts
● In fact, there are many ‘successful psychopaths’
What are Neurodevelopmental Disorders?
Neurodevelopmental disorders can occur when the development of the nervous system doesn’t follow the usual pattern (abnormal neurodevelopment), affecting the brain’s structure, function, and connectivity. These deviations lead to problems in behavior, cognition, and emotion. Neurodevelopmental disorders are driven by genetic and environmental interactions, with specific interactions per developmental stage. Environment typically ignites genetic risk.
How can someone have CD or Psychopathy?
Both Conduct Disorder and Psychopathology are neurodevelopmental disorders.
Neurodevelopmental disorders can occur at different time periods; in the uterus, during birth, during childhood, and during adolescence.
It is an interaction between innate genetic factors and environmental factors (eg. in the uterus: maternal smoking, stress, drugs and alcohol abuse; during birth: birth complications, parental psychopathology; during childhood and adolescence: actively involving him/herself in contexts that may trigger genetic susceptibilities, harsh and inconsistent discipline from parents, low socioeconomic status, school, friends, nutrition, health, exercise).
Genetic susceptibilities/dispositions can expose themselves in certain environments. Structural connections are needed in the brain to ensure that different brain regions can communicate with each other in order to function. Neurodevelopmental disorders not only affect brain structures, but also affect how the brain functions, leading to changes in behavior, cognition, emotions, and actions. The brain has developed in a suboptimal manner, both structurally and functionally. An interactive setting is needed wherein genetic predispositions and negative environmental factors interact in a complex manner.
