Studies Suggest Psychopathic Tendencies Present in Babies

Indy Anna

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A study led by Australian researchers claims that psychopathic traits can be identified in children as young as three.

It comes after British researchers stated it was possible to predict if babies as young as five weeks would develop traits leading to adult psychopathy.

The University of New South Wales-led study measured how youngsters reacted to different facial expressions and neutral or distressing images.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ected-just-THREE-years-old.html#ixzz3lgZpOfHO
 
An interesting study however, one criticism I have is that autistic infants and preschoolers may also demonstrate lack of empathy or show skewed response to social cues.
 
"Autistic people are anxious and misread social cues, but they typically care about not hurting others; they are also often incapable of manipulation. Those with antisocial personality disorder, however, are masters of bending people to their will and tend to have little fear. They actually enjoy causing people pain."

http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/...tism-and-antisocial-personality-in-the-brain/

"Although there was some correlation between the two types of traits — meaning that a person who had some autistic traits was also more likely to have some antisocial traits — that probably reflects the fact that both conditions can produce behavior that doesn’t conform to social norms, rather than genuine similarities in the underlying causes.

Indeed, the authors write: “Notably, the [brain] regions associated with autistic and antisocial traits were largely anatomically distinct,” calling them “strikingly different.”"
 
I am a bit skeptical of this part about the 5 week old babies:


"Scientists showed in that study it was possible to predict at five weeks old if they would develop 'callous-unemotional' (CU) traits by checking if they preferred to look at a human face or an inanimate object such as a ball.
Children with CU traits are defined as showing impaired emotion recognition, reduced responsiveness to others’ distress and a lack of guilt or empathy.
"


I think that's a bit of a stretch to assume that if a 5 week old baby gazes at a picture of a bright red ball longer than a picture of a human face, that it means the baby might be psychopath. :no:
 
An interesting study however, one criticism I have is that autistic infants and preschoolers may also demonstrate lack of empathy or show skewed response to social cues.
Ray, ITA. I don't see where these are long-term studies; I assume these are cohort studies and will follow the children into adulthood. At this point, I don't see how the researchers can make a correlation. I took child psychology in college and also worked with children who have developmental disabilities, including autism. All children are egocentric; they see themselves as the center of the universe, so they normally don't identify with what others are experiencing until later in development. And, because autistic children can show affection, we know that being emotionally delayed doesn't equate to being psychopathic.

There was a "teddy bear study" where the researcher placed a teddy bear at different positions within a room and asked children to describe what the teddy bear saw. IIRC, children weren't able to perform this task accurately until about 7-8 years old, maybe older. A child's social and emotional development are contingent upon their environment. Children learn by imitation. If a child is emotionally detached as a toddler because he/she is raised in an unloving home, the child may develop emotionally into an empathetic adult due to experiences in school or with other adult relatives, e.g. IMO, there are many factors involved in social and emotional development ~ proper nutrition being another. The discussion has arisen on certain WS threads questioning why some people respond to personal suffering by becoming more sympathetic toward others while other people respond by becoming emotionally detached.


Dr Rachael Bedford of the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, said; ‘We do not yet know about the stability of these behaviours i.e, whether high callous unemotional traits measured in toddlerhood remain high into adolescence and beyond, nor do we know how strongly early callous unemotional traits predict later behaviours.’
<snipped>[snipped]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ected-just-THREE-years-old.html#ixzz3lh08lXz4</snipped>
 
An interesting study however, one criticism I have is that autistic infants and preschoolers may also demonstrate lack of empathy or show skewed response to social cues.

In my18 years teaching pre-k and with 100's of children, all of the children were typical little people developing normally.Except 1 child at the age of 4/5 I was worried about. I still Google his name and look for him in the news.

I wanted to add that I know he is most likely a normal functioning adult.
 
Lead author of the paper, Dr Rachael Bedford of the Institute of Psychiatry, King&#8217;s College, London, said; &#8216;We do not yet know about the stability of these behaviours i.e, whether high callous unemotional traits measured in toddlerhood remain high into adolescence and beyond, nor do we know how strongly early callous unemotional traits predict later behaviours.&#8217;

Dr Kimonis said the Australian study, which had been published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, would have important implications in the treatment through parenting styles and developing the child's emotional skills of children at risk of criminal behaviour in later life.

JMO if these kids are still toddlers it's a bit of a stretch to say they will develop to be psychopaths or criminals later on.

They might... but based on this research they don't know.

I am a little worried that if we start labeling babies as future psychopaths it will lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ected-just-THREE-years-old.html#ixzz3liYo4ffn
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
JMO if these kids are still toddlers it's a bit of a stretch to say they will develop to be psychopaths or criminals later on.

They might... but based on this research they don't know.

I am a little worried that if we start labeling babies as future psychopaths it will lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ected-just-THREE-years-old.html#ixzz3liYo4ffn
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
BBM

Bingo! And it might also lead to many children and adults becoming over-medicated, underachieving zombies.
 
In my18 years teaching pre-k and with 100's of children, all of the children were typical little people developing normally.Except 1 child at the age of 4/5 I was worried about. I still Google his name and look for him in the news.

I wanted to add that I know he is most likely a normal functioning adult.
Lol. There was a boy in my class in elementary school (in the 60's) who always harassed me. A while back, I looked him up on the Internet and searched through criminal databases in the states where he's lived, certain that he had accumulated a long criminal record by now, but found nothing....nada. Yep, likely he grew into a normal functioning adult.
 
Very interesting discussion generated here though Indy Anna. While I was reading the posts I had a flashback to stories my DH told me about his early childhood. One was being chased home daily by a big bully-type. A couple of times he ran into a phone booth and called his mother to come and pick him up. I asked DH if he knew what happened to the guy. And he said, "Oh yeah, he's in jail for murder" and it was true! It was a coffee spewing moment for sure.
 
BBM

Bingo! And it might also lead to many children and adults becoming over-medicated, underachieving zombies.

Yes, and there is already too much of that IMO.
This worries me:
Lead author of the study and UNSW senior lecturer Eva Kimonis said the diagnostic tool developed to identify the traits during the study would allow children at risk of psychopathy to get treatment earlier.

Just as it's dangerous to base a kid's future based on pre-school IQ tests, I think the same thing is true here. The whole self fulfilling prophecy and labeling stuff is not helpful. Starting an otherwise normal child in treatment "early" because of the possibility of being psychopathic is only going to make things worse in the majority of these cases, IMO. There is no need for treatment unless something truly alarming has happened.

I don't necessarily believe that any kids are born as "bad seeds". I am sure there can be some genetic or otherwise obtained at birth traits that could make some more at risk to be psychopaths, but I think it's often that tendency paired with something else (combination of nature and nurture) that determines who actually end up as psychopaths.

I'd love to see a long term study to see how these kid determined to show these traits ended up, and if any of them did end up having problems, what other factors in their lives could have contributed to it.
 
So what do you do if you have your baby tested at 5 weeks old and find out you just gave birth to a future psychopath?
 
Personally I'd say do nothing, for fear of changing the child by treating him or her differently and inadvertently making these tendencies worse, or making them true when they weren't, based on how they are treated. That's assuming this study even means anything. Honestly I think it's junk and even if it's true at that age, doesn't mean it will be true going forward. However if we've already labeled that baby as a psychopath and intervene somehow we could be doing more harm than good.
 
So what do you do if you have your baby tested at 5 weeks old and find out you just gave birth to a future psychopath?
Actually, that's a scary thought. I can imagine some parents using it as an excuse for murdering their babies and, then, people saying something like, "It's just as well. He was bound to become a psychopath just like his mother/father. :eek:

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, even before it could become a self-fulfilling prophecy for the baby, the label of "future-psychopath" could cause the parents to view their child with contempt. There are already enough parents (usually mothers) who murder their babies claiming that the baby was possessed. So, the self-fulfilling prophecy would likely be transferred to the parent, in the above situation, who would then be labelled as a psychopath by the public. KWIM?
 
Personally I'd say do nothing, for fear of changing the child by treating him or her differently and inadvertently making these tendencies worse, or making them true when they weren't, based on how they are treated. That's assuming this study even means anything. Honestly I think it's junk and even if it's true at that age, doesn't mean it will be true going forward. However if we've already labeled that baby as a psychopath and intervene somehow we could be doing more harm than good.
Unfortunately, I think it would invariably affect the way a parent perceives and treats the child. And that is very dangerous. Even a double-blind study would leave the parents feeling suspicious of their child through the years. Any misbehavior of the child might be perceived as proof that the child is a future psychopath. JMO
 
There are differences in the brains of many that can be identified as 'psychopathic' too. When these tendencies are present the nurture over nature comes into play. Just working on this very topic with a doctor friend since I have adopted such a child. It is exhausting, scarey, and often begins with attachment disorders.
 

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