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What's the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?

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https://www.zmescience.com/science/diffe...sociopath/

EXCERPTS: . . . Right off the bat, it’s worth noting that both terms are more at home in a Hollywood crime drama than in a psychiatrist’s office. Psychopath and sociopath can be considered pop psychology terms since they do not appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders V (DSM-V), the ‘bible’ of psychiatry, as a diagnosis.

Instead, ‘psychopath’ and ‘sociopath’ are terms used to describe and sometimes differentiate people who are formally diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Since the two terms are not very well and precisely defined in clinical research and the scientific literature, it’s not at all surprising that many people employ the terms rather confusingly.

[...] it’s worth going through what constitutes a formal ASPD diagnosis. ... According to the DSM-5, antisocial personality is diagnosed in people who have at least three of the following traits:

• An impaired moral conscience that leads to making decisions driven purely by one’s own desires without consideration for the needs or negative consequences imposed on others.

• A habitual and pervasive disregard or violation of the rights and considerations of others without remorse. This lack of remorse is often accompanied by rationalizing their antisocial behavior.

• An inclination for engaging in behavior which could be grounds for criminal arrest and prosecution, or which skirts the edges of the law. This may include engaging in fighting and other aggressive behavior.

• A propensity for manipulating and emotionally hurting others in ways that are not sanctioned by the law but which are nevertheless widely regarded by society as unethical, immoral, irresponsible, or in violation of social norms and expectations. This includes repeated lying, the use of aliases, and cunning others for personal gain or pleasure.A history of irresponsible behavior and difficulties meeting financial obligations.

• An inability to plan ahead, prefering to always ‘wing it’, which may lead to dangerous impulsive behavior.

• Little to no regard for the safety of others.

Individuals with an antisocial personality disorder will often act in a highly selfish, reckless, and irresponsible manner, employing deceit and sometimes physical coercion to reach their goals. Some signs of these symptoms most of the time surface before the age of 15.

[...] What’s the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath?

Individuals with antisocial personality disorder, or ASPD, are sometimes unofficially called ‘sociopaths’. Meanwhile, psychopaths have a set of personality traits that overlap with sociopaths, chiefly aggression and lack of remorse. It’s one of the reasons why the American Psychological Association describes psychopathy as another term for ASPD. However, psychopaths can take it to the next level, since their antisocial personality traits tend to be more severe.

If you imagine ASPD as a spectrum, psychopaths lie at the very extreme. That’s because psychopathy can sometimes lead to violence, especially physically.

While sociopaths are notorious for their lack of remorse and abusive behavior, they may still be cognizant that they are doing something wrong but rationalize their behavior. Individuals with psychopathic traits have a noticeable lack of guilt and empathy, as well as a generally unstable, and deviant lifestyle. However, sociopaths are considered more ‘hot-headed’ and prone to fits of anger and rage while psychopaths are more cold and calculated.

Sociopaths also tend to be more open about their deviant behavior, often making it clear they care little to none about how others feel in reaction to their behavior whereas psychopaths are more inclined to pretend to care.

Both types of antisocial personality disorders are thought to be caused by both environmental and genetic factors. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that psychopathic traits are mostly inherited while sociopathic traits are environmental, a byproduct of traumatic childhood experiences. Psychopaths are born and sociopaths are made is a phrase that seems to resonate more and more with psychiatrists.

“Evidence indicates that psychopaths are a stable proportion of any population, can be from any segment of society, may constitute a distinct taxonomic class forged by frequency‐dependent natural selection, and that the muting of the social emotions is the proximate mechanism that enables psychopaths to pursue their self‐centered goals without feeling the pangs of guilt. Sociopaths are more the products of adverse environmental experiences that affect the autonomic nervous system and neurological development that may lead to physiological responses similar to those of psychopaths. Antisocial personality disorder is a legal/clinical label that may be applied to both psychopaths and sociopaths,” Anthony Walsh and Huei-Hsia Wu from the Department of Criminal Justice at Boise State University wrote in the journal Criminal Justice Studies.

It’s estimated that between 1% and 3% of the male population and less than 1% of the female population are psychopaths. But not all that surprisingly, 20% of the American prison population meets the ‘gold standard’ for measuring psychopathy, the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) developed by Canadian psychologist Robert Hare, who defined psychopaths as “social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life.”

Psychopaths tend to be quite intelligent compared to the general population and can be from any socio-cultural background, whereas sociopaths score lower on IQ scores and tend to come from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Psychopaths also tend to be more violent and less likely to improve (in the sense of becoming less antisocial) with age compared to sociopaths... (MORE - missing details)
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