Evaluate the evidence that antisocial personality disorder stems from physiological abnormalities
What will be an ideal response?
Research demonstrates genetic influences surrounding antisocial personality disorder. There is some twin study evidence indicating that antisocial personality disorder may be an inherited problem since identical twins have higher concordance ratios than fraternal twins. These adoption studies, which separate the influence of genetics and environment, show that adoptees separated from their biological parents who have antisocial personalities raised by non-antisocial parents still exhibited higher rates of antisocial characteristics.
What exactly is inherited is more difficult to determine. Some evidence suggests that antisocial personalities have abnormally low autonomic arousal, which explains both their inability to learn from experience and their tendency to be thrill-seekers. Because they are underaroused under normal circumstances, they are easily bored. Desiring stimulation, they engage in the impulsive, antisocial behaviors that foster arousal. Psychopaths learn more slowly and tire of learning more quickly than nonpsychopaths. Researchers emphasize the fearlessness and thrill-seeking characteristics of antisocial personalities, which they see as stemming from lower autonomic reactivity in situations where nonpsychopaths become fearful and frightened. Even when psychopaths report being fearful, they seem not to be able to produce physiological signs of fear. Combined, the evidence seems strong that psychopaths are less reactive autonomically, although it is still unclear why.
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In an experiment, Wundt instructed participants in one group to concentrate on perceiving a tone when it sounded before pressing a button. Participants in another group were simply instructed to press the button as soon as the tone sounded. Wundt found that participants in the first group responded slightly more slowly. This experiment was designed to distinguish between:
A) the sensation and perception of a stimulus. B) reaction time and accuracy. C) the perception and interpretation of a stimulus. D) the sensation of a stimulus and reaction time.
Studies (cited in Chapter 7) of Puerto Ricans in New York City, Latin American immigrants in Washington, D.C., and Russian Jewish teens who had immigrated to the U.S., found that when compared to other acculturative strategies,
a. biculturality was less common. b. biculturality was more common. c. biculturality was more adaptive. d. assimilation was most adaptive.
What is the name of memory strategies that adolescents use more frequently than younger children that involves organizing information into coherent patterns?
a. learning devices b. long-term memory devices c. mnemonic devices d. virtual memory devices
Which of the following is associated with crystallized intelligence rather than with fluid intelligence?
A. Pattern recognition B. Speed of learning C. Size of vocabulary D. Abstract reasoning