Question

Give two causes and two symptoms of the following:

Antisocial personality disorder.

Answer 1

Anti-social Personality Disorder- Symptoms- (According to DSM-IV-TR):

A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years as indicated by atleast three of the following :

1. Failure to consider social norms and repeated law breaking.
2. Deceitfulness.
3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead.
4. Irritability and aggressiveness.
5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.
6. Consistent irresponsibility.
7. Lack of remorse.

Causes :
(i) Biological factors :
Genetic influences: There is moderate heritability for anti-social or criminal behaviour. Researchers found that individuals with low MAO-A activity are more likely to develop Anti-social personality disorder if they had experienced early maltreatment.

Neurological factors: Certain brain areas like temporal lobe and pre-frontal cortex regulate mood and behaviour. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that can be linked with impulsive and aggressive behaviour.

(ii) Psychosocial factors:

Low fear hypothesis: Research suggests that psychopaths have low trait anxiety and show poor conditioning of fear. They are slow at learning and stop responding in order to avoid punishment.

Emotional deficits: There is a more general difficulty among psychopaths to process and understand the meaning of emotional stimuli. There is a lack of empathy.

Early parental loss, rejection and inconsistency: The aggression is a result of damaging effects of parental rejection, abuse and neglect accompanied by inconsistent discipline.