Are people born sociopaths?

Question

i am doing a paper..are they strictly born sociopaths or can it be a learned condition? possibly from years of systematic abuse?

Answer 1

I don't think that people are born socoipaths. Human beings are elements of their environment; what they learn and are taught is what they turn out to be. It's like when you think of a baby. A baby knows nothing when it is born. As it gets older it develops the skills to talk and interact with its environment. You don't see young children having the characteristics of a sociopath because they haven't come to learn that. I have a stepbrother who i would classify as a sociopath and i know for a fact that he is a product of his environment. His parents raised him that way and he was just the model of their distruction. I hope this helps

Answer 2

Interesting question. As far as I know (and I've read a few books about psychopaths/sociopaths) the pathology is innate, not created. The truth of the matter is that at age two...everyone is a sociopath. Most of us outgrow it, some don't. I'm not aware of any research indicating that sociopaths have any more abuse in their upbringing than anyone else, plenty of sociopaths come from perfectly normal backgrounds. It's a poorly understood pathology, they don't make good experimental subjects. :)

Answer 3

I reckon they are raised

Answer 4

How interesting!!!!!! I think its both, born with the capacity..and raised in an enviroment that feeds it!

I have a known a few...including some in my family,

they are all different!

Answer 5

" Most Evil " is an American forensics television program on the Discovery Channel starring forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone it is very interesting and this is the subject he talks about alot. He goes threw all of these serial killers and sociopaths life's and places them in categories of evil and he questions if people are born evil or if this is something that happens by the way people are brought up. You should watch the show highly recommended.

And i personally think that it is a little of both if born from a mother of drugs and Alcohol i think it may effect the brain in someway and having a terrible childhood too i think could maybe be the cause of evil people some studies say that some of the serial killers had a bad head injury when they were kids and they wonder if they should factor that into their problems...i don't know what to think of that i guess anything is possible but i don't think a normal healthy baby is born evil i think it is the up bring like i said above i think a child who is born with substance abuse has more of a chance to have some sort of mental problems but that being said i don;t think that means all babies born from drug users are going to turn out evil they can lead a completely normal healthy and stable life.

I loved this question it is very interesting, i just wish more people would respond. great question

x*x

There is this book call "Born Evil"  about

Homeless and living in his truck, forty-year-old Hadden Clark often drew stares in Bethesda, Maryland. He also slept with a teddy bear, and, dressed as a woman, strolling through town, he carried 28 carving knives ... find it on amazon.com

Answer 6

they're trained through their experiences.

Answer 7

I believe they are born sociopaths. There is nothing that can be done to change them. It is nature over nurture. I have first hand experience with this.

Answer 8

No we're not, otherwise we'd be killing each other for not liking the right kind of apples

Answer 9

It's the age old "nature vs. nurture" debate...and an on-going one still, at that.  Neither theory by itself accounts for or explains every case.  You can have sociopaths that come from what appear to be normal families.  You can have extremely dysfunctional families that DON'T produce sociopaths.  So it's difficult to say how and why they come to be what they are.  I just did a research paper on psychopaths last quarter in abnormal psych.  It was a fascinating subject to study- as there are many theories but none explain all.  It is true that sociopaths probably can be born, but also produced.  Perhaps even a combination of both nature and nurture.   I think it's a combination of both.  A pre-disposition, perhaps, combined with just the right environmental and social factors to manifest this personality disorder.  We know (from research) that sociopaths didn't just become sociopaths as adults.  They have a history of anti social behavior that dates far back into childhood.  Even early childhood.