ASPD

• Criminal and anti-social behaviour may be a result of unresolved psycho - sexual stages in childhood. 

  • Weakness: Freud claimed that the death instinct of Thanatos explains motivations that underpin aggressive, criminal and anti-social behaviours, so it is not a personality disorder. 
• Social learning theory would suggest criminal and anti-social behaviour is learned from role models.  

  • Weakness: Anderson and Dill (2000) found a correlation between violent video games and increased aggression which would suggest the criminal and anti-social behaviour is a result of media rather than ASPD.
• Antisocial personality disorder is a form of innate pathology in brain functioning such as the prefrontal cortex.

  • Weakness: The labelling of an individual as pathological criminal could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, which could actually be what causes criminal behaviour. 
• Antisocial personality disorder can be caused by brain abnormalities. 

  
  

  Strength: Yang (2008) found that anti - social individuals had impaired amygdala - hippocampal systems in brain, therefore ASPD can be linked to criminal behaviour because of reduced emotional responses.  
• Anti-social personality disorder requires a clinical diagnosis to be made from a standard set of signs and symptoms. 

  • ASPD can be clinically identified giving it scientific credibility due to empirical testing of clearly identifiable traits.
• Personality explanations are nature orientated and focus on differences with the individual.  People with anti-social personality disorder can be deceitful and reckless.

  
  

  Antisocial personality disorder is characterised by a disregard for social norms, impulsive behaviour and manipulative tendencies.
• DEFINITION & EXPLANATION

  • Anti-social behaviour is when someone acts in a way that harasses or causes distress to one or more people. 
  • Antisocial personality disorder is linked to abnormalities in the brain which leads to impulsive anti-social behaviour this disregard for social norms can lead to criminal and antisocial behaviours. 
• CREDIBILITY

  • Brain - imaging techniques can be used to look at structural and functional impairment in individuals with ASPD which can be empirically tested so gives a credible explanation for ASPD.
  • Yang et al. (2008) used fMRI techniques and found that in the frontal regions of the brain, emotional information was not processed in individuals with ASPD.
  • Longitudinal studies such as Simonoff et al. (2004) also provide credibility as they interviewed 225 childhood twin pairs diagnosed with conduct disorder which predicted ASPD in adulthood in those who showed criminal behaviour.