the law and being reckless. I will be referring to the story of a young man’s life,
named Bill, who has shown implications of antisocial behavior all his life as I
discuss the implications behind antisocial personality disorder.
What biological and psychological inconsistencies are researchers finding that
are a basis for this disorder? There are several areas that are related to
antisocial behaviors. The first of these factors being the role of the family. As in
the story of Bill, his father was known in the neighborhood as being an alcoholic
and frequently out of work. Bill and his brother reported frequent beatings and
being unpredictable in his punishments. Bill was allowed to get away with things
that other children in the neighborhood were not, such as staying out late. The
family is recognized as teaching children the standards of acceptable and
unacceptable behavior. McCord and McCord (1964) concluded that a lack of
affection and parental rejection were the prime reasons for the development of
psychopathic behavior. Other reasons included failure to discipline consistently,
like Bill’s father, and lack of the parents teaching their children their
responsibilities to others. It has also been proposed by Moffitt (1993), that
antisocial behavior begins with deficits in the neurological functions, such as
attention and impulsivity. These characteristics can cause the parents to
discipline their children the type of way described in what causes psychopathic
behavior later in the child’s life.
Another variable researched was the role of emotions. Bill, even at an early
age, showed no signs of remorse or apprehension in his actions, such as in his
acts of vandalism and petty theft. These actions served as a source of
excitement and drove Bill to excel to greater offenses. Antisocial behavior
characterizes these emotions as feeling no need to avoid the negative
consequences of social misbehavior because the individual feels no anxiety in
the wrong-doing. Hare (1978) has found that psychopaths who are anticipating
an aversive stimulus are able to recognize it and “tune it out,” resulting in lower
levels of skin conductance. As in Bill’s case, his lack of emotions results in his
ability to steal from his own friends and family and even to possess a casual
attitude about raping a 12-year-old girl.
In regard to behavior genetic research, it has been found that both criminality
and antisocial behavior have heritable components. Twin studies done by
Gottesman &Goldsmith (1994) have concluded that genetics play a role in the
likelihood of a person committing a criminal act. Adoption studies have also
shown that there is higher rate of presence of antisocial behavior in adopted
children from biological parents with antisocial personality disorder (Cadoret et
al., 1995). So, you can hypothesize that Bill’s alcoholic father had antisocial
behavior disorder from his inconsistent parenting skills and irresponsible work
ethics that went along with his alcohol abuse.
Hope for Bill’s future is disappointing. Treatment procedures, such as
psychoanalysis, milieu therapy, group therapy, medications, aversive
conditioning, and psychosurgery, have proven to be unsuccessful. There have
even been conclusions of some sorts of therapy having negative effects on
psychopaths. Reasons for ineffectiveness of therapy may be a result of the
antisocial individual’s lack of being able to form an honest, trusting relationship
with a therapist, since they are a person who possesses unemotional feelings,
lying characteristics, and few regrets. The only relief to society for people like
Bill, would probably be imprisonment until further research can determine
treatment for this life debilitating disorder.