December 31st, 2015, 04:24 AM
(This post was last modified: January 5th, 2016, 06:23 AM by Space Marshal.)
''Antisocial'' and ''loner'' or ''intraverted'' are used interchangeably or synonymously, which is shameful and reprehensible. In fact, anti-social behaviour is extraverted, and is allotropic, i.e., the illness is harmful to others, while in autism, for instance, the illness is autotropic, harmful to the patient. Most or all anti-social behaviour falls into the category of abnormal (aka neurotic or unstable) extraversion. The reason is that extraverts are uninhibited, and intraverts are inhibited, and antisocial personality disorder (aka sociopathy or psychopathy) is an extraversion disorder, which is usually called externalizing, and introverts are internalizing.
In "Psychology of School Shootings"(on-line), Dewey Cornell, of the U of Virginia, identifies 3 types of young people who commit homicide and the largest group, making up 67 %, is anti-social, i.e., aggressive and impulsive, in other words, abnormally extraverted.
Also, other studies have concluded that there is, indeed, a close relationship between criminality, especially or particularly psychopathy, and extraversion (Belson, '75; Stott, Marston, and Neill, '75 (Taxonomy of Behaviour Disturbance)). Most other studies are inconclusive or show only weak support for the link but, as explained by Eysenck in Chapter 3, Crime and Personality, of The Causes and Cures of Criminality, '89, this is because they are flawed, i.e., control groups were not carefully selected, the data were misinterpreted (e.g., very high levels of dissimulation were not used), the heterogeneity of criminals was disregrded, i.e., there are several differing subgroups, questionaires and inventories were not well suited, and inmates have a tendency to underrate their extraversion. The 3 studies cited above controlled for all these factors.
Furthermore, at least 20 studies (out of 20) demonstrate that anti-social behaviour is common among cholerics (abnormal extraverts, also called undercontrolled personality) and rare in other personality types (qv, John, O., Srivastava, S. 1999. The Big 5 trait taxonomy: History, Measurement, and Theoretical perspectives, in L. Pervin and O.P. John (Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (2nd ed.), Guilford, New York; Scholte, R.H.J. et al (2005), Adolescent personality types and subtypes and their psychosocial adjustment, Journal of Developmental Psychology, 51, 258-286). In fact, the abnormal intravert is low in psychoticism, that is, high in agreeableness and conscientiousness, while the abnormal extravert is high in psychoticism.
Moreover, the diagnostic criteria for ASPD based on the DSM-IV in Abnormal Psychology, 13th ed., 2007, by Butcher, Mineka, and Hooley, my course book, which number 9, do not include introversion nor anything similar.
Part of this obscene myth that was created by the entertainment media, especially shows like Criminal Minds and NCIS, is that the typical serial murderer is a loner. Criminologist Scott Bron debunks this myth explicitly (excerpts at ScientificAmerican.Com). Unfortunately, the title of his book is ridiculous and just as obscene as the myth and doesn't merit repeating. He also egregiously says the APA doesn't recognize sociopathy or psychopathy as mental illness. Lamentably, I wasn't able to find a better source that explicitly debunks the myth. In Serial Killers by Peter Vronsky, it does at least imply that it is a myth, stating of the organized subcategory of the most common group of serial murderers, sexual homicide, ''Usually he is socially competent and gainfully employed as a skilled worker.''(p. 101, Amazon Look Inside).
Another myth about serial murderers is that they have above average intelligence. The organized subtype is generally in the bright normal category, which is above average or upper average depending on the classification, and is my category and also Jack Kennedy's and about 1/3 of the population, and if we include the other typees and subtypes, as we should, then the serial murderer's IQ is very average or below average. The abnormal extravert's intelligence is generally below average.
Notice also the word ''kill' or ''killer'' is usually used instead of ''murder'' or ''murderer'', implying, deliberately or not, that it isn't necessarily illegal.
And I suspect the small minority of sociopaths who are supposedly introverted are not really introverted -- the ''introversion'' isn't part of the etiology, just as it isn't in positive schizophrenia, where it sometimes occurs but is secondary and caused by external factors, contrary to negative schizophrenia, where it is part of the etiology and in fact defines it, but isn't really schizophrenia (which is mispronounced as if it was a German word, btw, probably because it was coined by a German) and is like saying ''negative mania'' (that is, the person isn't manic). And a related myth is that schizophrenia is split personality, when the 2 are totally unrelated, and the latter is dissociative neurosis (aka dissociative identity). Another related myth is that the sociopath is not mentally ill because he knows what he's doing, but this is, of course, only the legal definition, which has nothing to do with psychiatry/abnormal psychology.
In "Psychology of School Shootings"(on-line), Dewey Cornell, of the U of Virginia, identifies 3 types of young people who commit homicide and the largest group, making up 67 %, is anti-social, i.e., aggressive and impulsive, in other words, abnormally extraverted.
Also, other studies have concluded that there is, indeed, a close relationship between criminality, especially or particularly psychopathy, and extraversion (Belson, '75; Stott, Marston, and Neill, '75 (Taxonomy of Behaviour Disturbance)). Most other studies are inconclusive or show only weak support for the link but, as explained by Eysenck in Chapter 3, Crime and Personality, of The Causes and Cures of Criminality, '89, this is because they are flawed, i.e., control groups were not carefully selected, the data were misinterpreted (e.g., very high levels of dissimulation were not used), the heterogeneity of criminals was disregrded, i.e., there are several differing subgroups, questionaires and inventories were not well suited, and inmates have a tendency to underrate their extraversion. The 3 studies cited above controlled for all these factors.
Furthermore, at least 20 studies (out of 20) demonstrate that anti-social behaviour is common among cholerics (abnormal extraverts, also called undercontrolled personality) and rare in other personality types (qv, John, O., Srivastava, S. 1999. The Big 5 trait taxonomy: History, Measurement, and Theoretical perspectives, in L. Pervin and O.P. John (Eds.), Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (2nd ed.), Guilford, New York; Scholte, R.H.J. et al (2005), Adolescent personality types and subtypes and their psychosocial adjustment, Journal of Developmental Psychology, 51, 258-286). In fact, the abnormal intravert is low in psychoticism, that is, high in agreeableness and conscientiousness, while the abnormal extravert is high in psychoticism.
Moreover, the diagnostic criteria for ASPD based on the DSM-IV in Abnormal Psychology, 13th ed., 2007, by Butcher, Mineka, and Hooley, my course book, which number 9, do not include introversion nor anything similar.
Part of this obscene myth that was created by the entertainment media, especially shows like Criminal Minds and NCIS, is that the typical serial murderer is a loner. Criminologist Scott Bron debunks this myth explicitly (excerpts at ScientificAmerican.Com). Unfortunately, the title of his book is ridiculous and just as obscene as the myth and doesn't merit repeating. He also egregiously says the APA doesn't recognize sociopathy or psychopathy as mental illness. Lamentably, I wasn't able to find a better source that explicitly debunks the myth. In Serial Killers by Peter Vronsky, it does at least imply that it is a myth, stating of the organized subcategory of the most common group of serial murderers, sexual homicide, ''Usually he is socially competent and gainfully employed as a skilled worker.''(p. 101, Amazon Look Inside).
Another myth about serial murderers is that they have above average intelligence. The organized subtype is generally in the bright normal category, which is above average or upper average depending on the classification, and is my category and also Jack Kennedy's and about 1/3 of the population, and if we include the other typees and subtypes, as we should, then the serial murderer's IQ is very average or below average. The abnormal extravert's intelligence is generally below average.
Notice also the word ''kill' or ''killer'' is usually used instead of ''murder'' or ''murderer'', implying, deliberately or not, that it isn't necessarily illegal.
And I suspect the small minority of sociopaths who are supposedly introverted are not really introverted -- the ''introversion'' isn't part of the etiology, just as it isn't in positive schizophrenia, where it sometimes occurs but is secondary and caused by external factors, contrary to negative schizophrenia, where it is part of the etiology and in fact defines it, but isn't really schizophrenia (which is mispronounced as if it was a German word, btw, probably because it was coined by a German) and is like saying ''negative mania'' (that is, the person isn't manic). And a related myth is that schizophrenia is split personality, when the 2 are totally unrelated, and the latter is dissociative neurosis (aka dissociative identity). Another related myth is that the sociopath is not mentally ill because he knows what he's doing, but this is, of course, only the legal definition, which has nothing to do with psychiatry/abnormal psychology.
