Brain Points

Dr. Joseph Newman described what a psychopath is and used his own research as examples.  He explained that psychopathy is abnormal behavior where a person acts as with little fear of any consequences.  One research experiment that affirms this hypothesis is when psychopaths were shown disturbing images, they didn’t react as strongly as normal individuals.  Psychopaths tend to have tunnel vision, where they focus on a goal, then try to get to it, but ignore everything else around them, including the law and morals.  All of their attention goes to that one goal, and none is left for the interpretation of the consequences.   The people who are psychopaths can sometimes appear as normal individuals because they can lead totally normal lives, until one day one of their goals interferes with the law.  Dr. Newman gave examples of successful people, such as a young woman named Karla Homolka who grew up popular, but after meeting a man named Paul, ended up as an accomplice to her own sister’s murders, along with the rapings and murders of many others, and he gave examples of people who their whole lives were seen as misfits that couldn’t do anything quite right.  Dr. Newman explained that one test that has been studied is the Stroop test which emphasized the attention modulation of psychopaths by making them be able to focus on relevant or winning information, and ignore the rest.  The Stroop test is done by having a subject click a button indicating the color of the box, when the box surrounding that word is also a different color, or a word will be one color, but spell out a different color.  They found that psychopaths were much better at getting the correct answer when being asked to specify the color of a certain point.  They even demonstrated less startle-ness compared to normal people when interrupted during an attention holding task.   Newman also mentioned his prison studies that emphasize these same ideas.

A modern day psychopath is Joran van der Sloot, who is suspected of killing Nataee Holloway in 2005, and was charged in 2010 of killing Tatiana Flores Ramirez.  Sloot had appeared to be a charming, gentle man, but that was just a mask for his aggressive behavior.  One ex-girlfriend, Melody Granadillo, recalled that he was very romantic and playful, but when caught in a lie would turn quite serious.  Sloot had always appeared as a normal man and lead a normal life style.  No one ever looked at him and thought “murderer” as I’m sure no one looked at Homolka.  And as Homolka, even knowing that a crime is wrong, he believes that he’s an exception and that he didn’t do anything wrong.

Moscovici, C. (2010, September 20). What is a psychopath? The case of Joran van der Sloot. Retrieved from http://psychopathyawareness.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/what-is-a-psychopath-the-case-of-joran-van-der-sloot/