How does a person become a serial killer? A terrorist? A gang member? An outlaw? Were they forced into it because of their surroundings? Or had they been wired since birth? If they are "wired" that way, are they at fault for their actions? Could we identify these individuals earlier in hopes of preventing future actions?
These are just some of the questions psychologists are trying to answer. This article looks at some characteristics that can be seen in early childhood that can lead to psychopathy.
http://personalitydisorders.suite101.com/article.cfm/early_signs_of_antisocial_personal
Since I found that website very interesting, I wanted to know if there were any physical differences in psychopathy. This article examines the difference between brain scans of psychopaths:
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001998.html
These are just some of the questions psychologists are trying to answer. This article looks at some characteristics that can be seen in early childhood that can lead to psychopathy.
http://personalitydisorders.suite101.com/article.cfm/early_signs_of_antisocial_personal
Since I found that website very interesting, I wanted to know if there were any physical differences in psychopathy. This article examines the difference between brain scans of psychopaths:
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001998.html
While the research seems interesting it still lacks any real evidence that would convince me that a person is BORN with a certain type of PERSONALITY disorder. A personality disorder to me is something that is developed through social facilitation, in other words were not born with certain DNA that will allow us to see what we will be like personality wise. In the aspect that there are signs of development of ASPD as early 3 years old is bit of stretch, to say that they studied the child's response to startling stimuli is getting awfully close to questions of ethics after the little Albert and operant conditioning study years ago.
This article raises some interesting theories. It may be possible that 3 year olds already begin to show psychopathic ways and emotions, but I would like to see the data of this study. It says in the article that there are significant correlations between adults who score higher on a psychopathy test and what their scores were when they were three but I would like to find out how significant the correlations were. More research on this topic would be very helpful because understanding what signs children show that may hint towards them being psychotic would obviously be very helpful so that maybe they could receive psychiatric aid before acting out based on their emotions. After reading this article I find myself asking if the timing a child develops feelings of guilt, shame, and fearfulness has more to do with if they lack guilty feelings at age three. What I'm saying is all kids develop differently and at different times so maybe they are lacking guilt because they have not yet developed it due to the environment they are growing up in. I don't quite think yet this study showed all the answers but it is a good start.
I thought this idea of detecting psychopathy in toddlers was interesting and what to see what the article had to say about it. They said that there are signs as early as the age of 3 in toddlers with tempermental and psychological differences that other children their age didn't show. I thought three was really early to be determining a child's propensity of being a psychopath or serial killer. I think these underlying temperment and psychological problems may be indicative of the possibility of becoming one; however, I believe that certain experiences and parenting practices influence the developmental trajectory of a psychopath/killer. Similar to biology, I think certain child may have the phenotype for it but only some go on to actually express the trait (genotype) because of what they have been exposed to that influences the development of that trait.
Also, when the article was discussing the method of the study it said that the adults with higher psychopathic scores marked differences as early as three years old than adults with lower psychopathic scores. However, I think the results are subject to bias because they rely on self-report data from the psychopath participants. I don't think many of us can remember what happened when we were three, nor or psychological state. In addition, if you consider infantile amnesia (most children don't remember anything from their childhood before the age of 3), then it is very hard to say whether the reports from these psychopaths are actually accurate and legitimate enough to use as evidence of psychopathic signs in three year olds.