Are psychopathic and sociopathic behavior a learned behavior or what?

Question

As I understand it..:
Sociopathic bahavior is on who can manipulate you with fake emotion...but have none.
Psychopathics can manipulate with one emotion...anger.
Is is learned or genetic or what.???
No jokes please... Thanx

Answer 1

sociopaths cannot relate to others emotion,,you are right,they do not understand how to feel what we feel so they can often immitate,to a degree,,sociopaths can be formed in childhood,,usually ,,unstable parenting,,a dimineering mother helps,,,moving home making it impossible for the child to form normal friendships,,some form of abuse is usually documented,,psychopaths on the other hand,,feel hate in some form,,they too have usually been abused be it physically or mentally but feel the need to harm others as a way of payback,,where as a sociopath does wrong without feeling they are out of control,,unlike a pshycopath who knows he is doing wrong and can go to great lengths to cover the crime commited,,they know the implications of their actions and still feel no remorse.

Answer 2

The following is based on disorders in DSMII - the main US phychology diagnostic manual. I'm not an expert, but can see that you've received some misinformation. By the way, DSMIV has been out a while so there may be refinements to the older manual.

Sociopathic behaviors are those having to do with problems functioning in society -- truancy, delinquency, persistent lying, theft, etc. These are not due to lack of feelings. People with Antisocial Personality Disorder often feel personal distress, tension, depression, inability to tolerate boredom, and feel that people are hostile towards them.

Whereas Antisocial Personality (sociopath) is formally recognized in psychology as a disorder, there isn't a specific disorder labeled psychopath. The closest to the lay usage (lacking feelings) would be Schizoid Personality Disorder. These folks lack emotions, do not typically have close relationships, do not function well in society. They are not necessarily violent or manipulative, but due their blunted emotional affect, are most likely capable of much colder and crueler behavior than folks with normally experienced feelings.

My view is that sociopathic behavior may be learned or a reaction to the environment. Schizoid behavior most likely is a physical illness. It has similarities to schizophrenia but no psychosis (hallucinations) and the lack of emotions is present (not necessarily so for schizophrenics). I would think both a sociopath and a psychopath could manipulate with fake emotions, but it's the latter that actually does not experience feelings as the rest of us do.

Answer 3

There is a debate in medical fields, as to whether Psycopaths or Sociopaths are born that way or created. Nature versus nurture.

Psycopathic and Sociopathic behaviour is definitely gentic, in the sense that it can be an inherited gene. Conditioning also plays a part. For example certain chilhdood experiences, dysfuncional family, lack of maternal emotion, can trigger a dormant gene.

Psychologists say that dysfunctional family life seems to be a common theme or prerequisite trait for those who embark on a career in politics. So a damaging childhood experience and an inherited psycopathic gene seems to be a prerequisite for becoming a President or Prime Minister.

Just look at the character traits of the current President.. He displays all the characteristic traits of a Psycopath.. Meglomaniac, Power Mad, Delusional. Total lack of Conscience

Consider the loss of life of over 100,000 Iraqi civilians. Was there an apology, show of emotion over such a catastrophic loss of life? Not at all. Just cold callous and clinical. All the hall marks of a cold blooded psycopath with absolutely no conscience for human life or sense of remorse.

Answer 4

It really depends on what theory you look at. All learning theories suggest that EVERYTHING is learned. Biological ones suggest that everything is "hard wired". Most psychologists would agree that it's probably a combo of both. There's research that suggests that people who have antisocial persoanlity disorder (psychpaths) don't really learn from punishment as easily as others do. Imagine if you were punished for something..and never changed your behavior? Then you would just do whatever you wanted to do and wouldn't feel guilty about it. This is actually not much different than what Freud (yes him) suggested. That people wtihout a superego (the part that makes us feel guilty or proud) would just act on what their Id (instincts) wanted. Without any guilt..we'd just do whatever all the time.

Answer 5

Its important to note that psychopaths and sociopaths are the same thing. the latter is usually employed by sociologists who stress a more sociological viewpoint on this construct. The former is described by more psychological terms and is the one I prefer. There is research to suggest both a genetic/biological (e.g., brain abnormalities) and learned/psychological causes (e.g., attachment theory)
There is also a debate on whether they have any emotion or whether they have such emotions but just don't care and are not effected by them

Answer 6

Learned. Usually impressed on the mind of the person through experiences with family members or close acquaintences. Some behavior is learned through reading, listening, seeing related things, whether real or fiction, and trying to act them out themselves with another person.

Answer 7

Both learned and genetically linked.

Answer 8

No, I heard these behaviors show up as a chemical ring on MRIs

Answer 9

I think they are born that way.

Answer 10

i found an article, it is not the answer of your question but maybe you are interested :

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p020128.html;jsessionid=U3HHAJ30CVV52QSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?_DARGS=/GLOBAL/apps/quickPolls/showQuestionPoll.jhtml