Developmental Transitions &Sociopathy

I. The Mid-Life Crisis

A. Mid-Life Crisis: a stressful life period precipitated by thereview and reevaluation of one’s past, typically occurring in theforties or fifties.

B. Mid-Life is just one of many transitions.1) Middle Age may be stressful, but no more than other stagesof life.

C. Turning Points: psychological transitions that involvesignificant change in a person’s life that happen throughoutthe lifespan.

II. Timing of Events Model of PersonalityA. Timing-of-Events Model: a theoretical model of personalitythat describes social and emotional development as a responseto the expected or unexpected occurrence and timing ofimportant life events.

1) Social Clock: a set of cultural norms or expectations for the times oflife when certain important events, such as marriage, parenthood, entryinto work, and retirement, should occur.

III. The Father Figure

A. Father Figure: usually an older man, normally one with power, authority, or strength, with whom one can identify with on a deeply psychological level and who generates emotions generally felt towards one's father.

IV. Personality Disorders: enduring patterns ofperceiving, relating to, and thinking about theenvironment and oneself that are exhibited in awide range of social and personal contexts, areinflexible and maladaptive, and cause significantfunctional impairment or subjective distress.

B. Electra Complex: the belief that girls have a sexual interest in their father as a result of experiencing gender identification with their mother and are therefore competitively aggressive towards their mother for possession of their father.

A. Other Key Characteristics…

1) Lack the ability to experience fear, although the startleresponse still remains.

2) Lack the ability to feel guilt, remorse, or empathy forothers.

V. Antisocial Personality Disorder: a chronicpsychiatric condition characterized by behavior,possibly criminal, that manipulates, exploits, orviolates the rights of others (a.k.a. the sociopathor the psychopath).

5) Often excel at “Self-Monitoring”: being aware of how oneis presenting oneself in a social context and being able toadjust that image in different social contexts to createfavorable impressions.

6) Some poor decision making skills.

7) Having Conduct Disorder prior to age 18 is often aprecursor to Antisocial Personality Disorder.

8) Mostly found among men between the ages of 18 to 40.

9) More than five times as common among men asamong women.

4) Often remarkably charming.

3) Lack of a “Conscience”: internal standards of behavior,which usually control one’s conduct and produce emotionaldiscomfort when violated.

3) Serial killers are often diagnosed with AntisocialPersonality Disorder and are often highly intelligent.

C. Treatment and Outcomes

1) As with most people suffering from PersonalityDisorders, treatment for Antisocial Personality Disorderis usually ineffective.

2) Antisocial Personality Disorder often “appears” todisappear after the age of 40.

B. Criminal Activity

1) Most people with Antisocial Personality Disorder doNOT commit crimes.

2) Most people with Antisocial Personality Disorder thatdo commit crimes are NOT murderers.