Psychological Profile Of A Psychopath, In 12 Unmistakable Traits
The term “psychopathy” It is unclear to most people because multiple meanings are attributed to it. In fact, even within psychology this word is used to designate very different realities, the most questioned criterion being the relationship between psychopathy and crime.
Authors such as Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare have tried to define the psychological profile of psychopaths, describing personality traits and behavioral patterns characteristic of those to whom such adjective is applied. Let’s see what conceptualizations exist around psychopathy and what the classic profile of this alteration is.
Psychopathy is a personality disorder not recognized by major diagnostic classifications. It is characterized by a lack of empathy and feelings of guilt, as well as by egocentrism, impulsivity and the tendency to lie and manipulation. In contrast, sociopathy is associated to a greater extent with antisocial personality disorder.
In popular language this term is usually associated with criminal behavior, especially serial murders; However, the truth is that psychopaths They do not always commit crimes and may be perfectly adapted to society. In fact, authors such as Kevin Dutton (2013) have claimed the virtues of the psychopathic personality in the current context.
The current conception of psychopathy draws heavily on the works of Hervey Cleckley and Robert Hare in his book The mask of sanity (1941) Cleckley made the most influential description of psychopathy to date, while Hare built on this work to create the well-known PCL scale (1991), which assesses psychopathic traits.
According to the triarchic model of Patrick et al. (2009), psychopathy is made up of three main traits: boldness, disinhibition, and meanness. It is known that psychopaths They feel less afraid than other people who have more difficulty controlling their impulses and that their lack of empathy leads them to use others for their benefit.
For his part, Garrido (2000) divides psychopathy into two dimensions: the emotional and interpersonal area and lifestyle. In the first he includes signs such as egocentrism, the tendency to manipulate and lack of guilt, while among the behavioral factors he includes the need for stimulation, impulsivity and criminal behavior.
Psychological profile of psychopaths
In this section we will synthesize personality traits of psychopaths according to the classifications made by Cleckley and Hare.
The presence of these characteristics, therefore, indicates the similarity of a given person with the concept of psychopathy used by experts.
1. Lack of empathy
Psychopathy has been related to a deficit in empathy, that is, the ability to understand the mental state of other people or to put oneself in their place. However, studies suggest that psychopaths have the ability to empathize, but they “activate” it at will; This would explain both the coldness and the social skills that characterize them.
Simon Baron-Cohen, who popularized the concept of “theory of mind,” stated that psychopaths have cognitive but not emotional empathy, and therefore the suffering of others does not cause them discomfort These deficits have been associated with lower activation in the fusiform cortex and extrastriate, which are related to face recognition.
2. Egocentrism and narcissism
Egocentrism, or the inability to assume points of view other than one’s own, is closely related to the lack of empathy. Very often psychopaths are also narcissists; this means that They tend to think they are superior to others and more important than them.
The typical profile of the psychopath is that of a charming and sociable person, with good social skills. An extreme example can be the case of murderer Ted Bundy, who seduced his victims to gain his trust and received multiple love letters and marriage proposals after being sentenced to death.
4. Emotional poverty
The brain alterations typical of psychopathy mean that the range of emotions that these people feel is limited. Specifically, in addition to emotional coldness, psychopaths are characterized by feel fewer negative emotions, especially fear while it is believed that they feel positive emotions normally.
5. Antisocial and criminal behavior
Scores on psychopathy tests correlate with substance abuse, incarceration, gender violence, rape and pedophilia. Economic and war crimes, as well as participation in organized crime, are also more frequent in psychopaths than in the general population.
Like antisocial disorder, predisposition to psychopathy can manifest in childhood in behaviors such as theft, frequent lying, vandalism and violence towards people and animals; These signs are classified as “dissocial personality disorder.”
6. Difficulty learning from experience
According to research, psychopaths’ problems learning from experience are due to alterations in the connection between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. These structures are related to executive functions and emotional learning, respectively.
Apparently psychopaths have more difficulty than the general population in associating the punishments they receive with the behaviors that caused them. Another biological explanation is the presence of reduced levels of cortisol and serotonin, related to aversive conditioning and behavioral inhibition
7. Impulsivity and lack of planning
The impulsivity of psychopaths may be caused by decreased activation in the frontal cortex, combined with increased testosterone levels and reduced serotonin levels. All of this could reduce self-control facilitating impulsive behaviors such as drug abuse or physical attacks.
This is also related to a lack of long-term planning. There is usually an absence of vital goals; Behavior is guided to a greater extent by momentary impulses.
8. Insincerity and manipulation
The insincerity and tendency to manipulation typical of psychopaths can manifest themselves with greater or lesser subtlety, but they are two very common characteristics in people with moderate levels of psychopathy who may not manifest many of the other traits we have seen.
9. Predisposition to boredom
The biological alterations of psychopaths lead to a need for continuous stimulation This makes it easy for them to become bored, a trait shared by highly extroverted people (who have a low level of resting brain activation) and others with disorders that affect the brain, such as ADHD.
10. Parasitic lifestyle
The manipulation and egocentrism of psychopaths make them tend to take advantage of others to satisfy your basic needs. Thus, they often live off the money of other people, such as their parents or their partners.
11. Absence of regrets
Even when they carry out behaviors that harm other people, such as some of those we have mentioned in the previous sections, psychopaths They do not usually feel guilty for their actions ; Their lack of emotional empathy allows them to commit crimes or manipulate others without remorse.
12. Sexual promiscuity
Psychopaths often They have many different relationships that last a short time Furthermore, given their interpersonal and commitment difficulties, they become involved in them in a superficial way and are mainly concerned with sex and the practical benefits they can obtain from their partners.
