Attachment is centered by emotions between an infant and its caregiver. It is the primary mechanism for emotional, cognitive, behavioral and social development. An infant’s personality is determined and developed from his/her childhood experience. When the infant is not loved and given the attention needed then its most likely for the infant to develop psychological destruction in cognition, attachment, trust and self control. Psychopathy is a mental illness that is characterized by a lack of empathy and remorse, manipulativeness, risk takers, pathological liars, narcissists, grandiose, intelligence, arrogance, and superficial charm (Itzkowitz, 2018). When caregivers fail to give their infants the attention they need, children then tend to build up a sense of distrust which affects their lives in the future. Attachment styles is what shapes a person, when someone is classified with a type of attachment then it is most likely for them to be classified with the same style later in adulthood.
(Khetrapal,2009).
The peer review paper I am choosing to write about for this paper talks about how insecure types of attachment causes the development of psychopathy. It is stated that for proper development, a secure attachment style to the parents is necessary. The human brain consists of two hemispheres: right and left. The left side of the brain, deals with logic, science, analytical thought whereas the right side deals with compassion, holistic thought and creativity. When there’s a imbalance between the right side and left side, it contributes to psychological side effects. Psychopaths are very obsessed with authority and dominance, and they tend to have a left brain dominance that is characterized by malicious behavior and the suppression of emotion. When parents fail to respond to a child’s needs then there would be improper development of the right side of the brain leading the left side to be dominant.
There are two types of attachment: secure and insecure. Avoidant, resistant/ambivalent, and disorganized styles stem out of insecure attachment. A child with an insecure avoidant attachment style would avoid seeking out a parents for comfort in times of distress because their parents tend to be emotionally unavailable or unresponsive most of the time. These parents promote premature independence and discourage crying. They tend to have little to no desire in seeking support or help from other people (self-contained). Children with an ambivalent attachment tend to cling to to their caregivers but are not comforted nor satisfied. Caregivers act in ways that are insensitive, which triggers emotional hunger that is also caused by inconsistent and unreliable parenting. Parents that give that attachment can be overprotective and tend to focus on the physical appearance and the performance of the child. They often violate personal boundaries and invade their children’s privacy. This would make their children more self critical and insecure as they grow up into adulthood. Children who form a disorganized style of attachment are often confused and hesitant to seek comfort from parents. Unpredictable and disorganized behavior in parents is key to this type of attachment. Disorganized attachment derives from from early frights such as abuse, neglect and unresolved traumas. Having these experiences in a person’s early life can affect their lives in so many ways. Children with attachment have trouble with emotional and social skills along with having a difficulty with managing stress which results aggressive behavior and sustaining solid relationships. Negative early life experiences can cause a child to view life as an unsafe place. According to previous research, it has been noted that psychopaths are specifically associated with the disorganized type of insecure attachment. This research study concludes that insecure attachment and the lack of hemispheric integration causes troublesome behaviors in people. The insecure type of attachment this paper focused on is the disorganized style, and this unstable type of attachment not only causes negative psychosocial effects but also negatively impacts the brain in ways that it disrupts the neurobiological system. When this system impaired, then the processing of emotions and social adjustment are also harmed. On the other hand, secured attachment strengthens the connectivity between the two hemispheres thus help with the psychosocial aspect in a person. A disorganized attachment that is shared with children and their parents contributes to the development of psychopathic characteristics.
The three key concepts i am going to be choosing are attachment, self regulation and violence. According to Bowlby, attachment is defined as a ‘lasting psychological connectedness between human beings’. Behavioral and cognitive aspects of social connectedness are influenced by parent-child interactions in the early stages of life (Mcleod, 2017). Attachment is more than just a connection, it is a bond that involves want of frequent contact in times of happiness and distress. The development of psychopathy is aided by attachment with caregivers in the early years life. When a child is surrounded by people that show love, care and affection the child is going to live life knowing that he has people that are there for him no matter what. Caregivers that have children forming secure attachment with notice sensitive cues and expressions given off by the child. When children form secure attachment bonds, they regulate and identify their own emotional experiences. The theory of mind comes into play with those who practice this attachment style, children would be able to understand how others are thinking and feeling, they have empathy. Unlike children that have a disorganized attachment style with their caregivers they grow up lacking that empathy . When the person is able to sustain their own emotions, they are more likely to develop rewarding interpersonal relationships ("The Keys to Rewarding Relationships: Secure Attachment"). People that develop psychopathy don't have healthy relationships with their caregivers, which makes them develop psychopathic traits later on in development. Having a healthy and insecure relationship with caregiver sin early stages in life would most likely make the person psychologically healthy later in life. Self regulation is the ability for a person to manage their own emotions feelings and behaviors. This includes being able to withstand upsetting situations, provide self comfort, adjusting to change and preventing outbursts in times of annoyance and anger (Pietro, 2018). Psychopaths are characterized by poor self regulation. At a young age, children are taught how to control themselves. Children that form a secure attachment with their caregivers are good at expressing and regulating their emotions because they are listened to and cared for. Whereas children who have a disorganized attachment style with their caregivers have a hard time expressing themselves due the failure of responding to the child in times of distress which creates that anger in them. The lack of care would cause the child to keep in that anger and then burst it out at some point without knowing how to control it. They tend to self harm (eg. bang their head and hit themselves) to seek that psychological relief. Sadly, they do not turn to their parents when they actually need someone to rely on because their parents never gave them a chance to do so when they were younger. Parenting refers to the acting as a father or a mother to someone. Violence refers to one of the highest forms of aggression. Examples of violence include murder, rape and assault. There are various causes of violence such as exposure to violence through media, in the household, neighborhood, frustration and lack of self control. Family violence is a huge contributing factor to the development of psychopathy. Family violence could be physical, verbal, psychological, emotional and sexual. Verbal, psychological and emotional abuse includes using hurtful words in order to insult, humiliate and intimidate a person. Most psychopaths must have gone through this in their lives, they've been put down by their parents (people who should be always lifting up), yelled and swore at, threatened and made less confident by the things said or done. Physical violence also contributes to the development of psychopathy such as punching, hitting, smacking, slapping and choking ("Family violence: what is it?", 2017). A huge part of parenting is promoting habits that will be adopted by children throughout their lives. Parents are their children’s role models, every child look up to their parent. When we have parents always yelling, swearing, criticizing, humiliating their children then these children are most likely going to turn up just like them when they go into adulthood. Providing safe, healthy and violent-free environments for children during infancy is a best way to prevent them from developing psychopathic traits. All these concepts relate to one another and are interdependent. Parenting and attachment determine one another. Good parenting involves good attachment styles and vice versa.
The major theories often known as meta theories develop from looking at different behaviors and characteristics of humans that have and still influencing world cultures. The first assumption I am going to be talking about for this paper is human nature. It focuses on the important characteristics such as feelings, behavior and psychology that is shared by all humans. Humans are assumed to be good or bad by other people. My paper argues that psychopaths are good but are influenced by their surrounding environment. My paper focuses on how unhealthy attachment causes the development of psychopathy, which means that we need to rule out the possibility of the people being bad and going with the assumption that they are born good. If we say that these people are born bad then we wouldn’t be gaining anything, because the development of psychopathy based on attachment has to do with external cues rather than pre-developed internal cues. The second assumption I am going to be talking about is stability vs. change. Some theorists say that our personality traits are stable and unchangeable throughout our development whereas other theorists say that we change by time by our own choice through interactions with people in their environment. My paper focuses on how attachment in infancy causes a person to become who he really is in adulthood. When infants form insecure attachments with their caregivers, their most likely going to have emotional detachments, aggressive behavior problems , lack trust with everyone and relationship challenges because of what they’ve been going through their years of infancy, childhood and adolescence. But when infants form secure attachment bonds with their caregivers, then the would have basic trust with anyone they interact with, good self esteem, positive image and autonomy, good problem solving skills and strong relationship skills.
In conclusion, early attachment is what shapes a person. Caregivers are the key to their children’s development because the way they are treated and dealt with in the years of infancy initiates a form of attachment which could come out to be something good or something bad. Secure attachment brings out the best outcome, because when children form secure attachments with their caregivers, then they are most likely to develop into physically, psychologically and emotionally healthy adults. Unlike children that form insecure attachments, they come out socially, psychologically and emotionally unhealthy which increases the possibility of a person becoming a psychopath. Psychopaths are characterized by lack of empathy, aggressive, lack of remorse, poor self regulation, impulsivity and having short-term relationships. Based on the peer reviewed article, it is advocated that disorganized forms of attachment influences the child’s psychological and neurobiological growth that might predispose her/him towards developing psychopathy.
References
References
Attachment Theory | Simply Psychology. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/attachment.html
Howell, E., & Itzkowitz, S. (2018). Psychopathy and Human Evil: Introduction. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 54(1), 5-16.
Khetrapal, N. (2009). The Early Attachment Experiences are the Roots of Psychopathy. Interpersona: An International Journal On Personal Relationships, 3(1), 1-13.
Konicar, L., Veit, R., Eisenbarth, H., Barth, B., Tonin, P., Strehl, U., & Birbaumer, N. (2015). Brain self-regulation in criminal psychopaths. Scientific Reports, 5(1).
Schimmenti, A., Passanisi, A., Pace, U., Manzella, S., Di Carlo, G., & Caretti, V. (2014). The Relationship Between Attachment and Psychopathy: A Study with a Sample of Violent Offenders. Current Psychology, 33(3), 256-270.
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