There is no official difference between a psychopath and a sociopath; symptoms of any of these usually appear around the age of 15 and can include cruelty to animals.
There is no official definition of the difference between a psychopath and a sociopath, with some saying the terms are largely interchangeable. In fact, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) lists psychopathy and sociopathy under the heading Antisocial Personalities. Both psychopaths and sociopaths engage in similar actions and tend to have similar traits. The idea of psychopathy is older than that of sociopathy and has a more definite means of diagnosis. Some differentiate between these conditions based on their proposed causes, but others disagree with this method as the causes of both conditions are not definitively known. Furthermore, both conditions are generally considered to be different from psychosis and Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), although these terms are sometimes associated with them.
Characteristic
Antipsychotic medications may be prescribed to treat psychopathy and sociopathy.
Both the psychopath and the sociopath completely ignore the feelings and rights of others. This usually appears around the age of 15 and can be accompanied by cruelty to animals. These traits are distinct and repetitive, creating a pattern of misbehavior that goes beyond normal teenage antics. They both feel no remorse or guilt. They seem to have no conscience and are totally selfish. They routinely ignore rules, social customs, and laws and don’t care about putting themselves or others at risk.
Features of histrionic personality disorder are often seen in psychopathic and sociopathic behaviors.
There is a lot of debate about the presentation of a psychopath versus a sociopath. Some people say that a psychopath is extremely well organized, secretive, and manipulative, while a sociopath is disorganized, unable to pass for “normal,” and more disordered in his crimes. Others say the opposite. People may try to differentiate between a psychopath and a sociopath based on their ability to feel compassion, saying that a psychopath does not feel compassion for anyone, while a sociopath may feel compassion for her family or friends. However, there is no consensus on these distinctions, and since individual psychopaths and sociopaths have distinct personalities, the behavior of a person diagnosed as one or the other may differ completely from another person with a similar diagnosis.
diagnosing
Sociopaths and psychopaths do not feel remorse or guilt.
There is no widely accepted set of diagnostic criteria for sociopathy, so it is usually diagnosed using the criteria for psychopathy. Psychopathy is commonly diagnosed using Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist – Revised (PCL-R). It is divided into two factors: “aggressive narcissism” and “socially deviant lifestyle”. Factor one includes traits such as a lack of empathy, a lack of acceptance of responsibility for one’s actions, and an inflated sense of self-worth, among other things. Factor two includes things like continually sucking off other people, being easily bored and impulsive, and not having long-term goals. There are other traits that do not fit either factor, such as sexual promiscuity and many short marriages.
Both psychopaths and sociopaths often struggle with interpersonal relationships.
There are other models proposed for the diagnosis of this condition, including the Cooke and Michie model, which contains three behavioral axes: Arrogant and Deceitful Interpersonal Style, Poor Affective Experience, and Impulsive and Irresponsible Behavioral Style. Some people also use the DSM-IV list of traits for ASPD to diagnose psychopathy. This includes four criteria, including disregarding the rights of others, being at least 18 years old, having a conduct disorder before the age of 15, and not having another disorder that can cause the same symptoms. Others disagree with this form of diagnosis, as ASPD is not strictly the same disorder. The character traits associated with a psychopath and a sociopath also tend to overlap with the DSM-IV criteria for narcissism and histrionic personality disorder.
Proposed Causes
A narcissistic psychopathic person often exhibits a feigned and exaggerated display of success.
Some separate psychopathy and sociopathy based on their proposed causes. For example, some people say that a person is a psychopath if they developed psychopathic characteristics primarily due to a genetic predisposition, and a sociopath if they developed the characteristics primarily in response to environmental factors, such as abuse. Others say that both are just different ways of describing ASPD. This method of differentiating between a psychopath and a sociopath is sometimes criticized, as the causes of psychopathy, sociopathy, and ASPD are not entirely clear and are likely to be a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
Psychopathy and sociopathy versus psychosis and ASPD
People often confuse the idea of psychosis with psychopathy or sociopathy, or think that all psychopaths are psychotic. These disorders are actually very different and rarely overlap. Someone who is psychotic tends to lose touch with reality, usually to the point of having hallucinations or delusions. Psychopaths and sociopaths are often very grounded in reality: they understand what they are doing and the consequences of their actions, but they don’t care. A psychopath or sociopath might kill someone’s dog because he wants to cause emotional trauma to the owner; someone who is psychotic might kill the dog because he thought he was a robot sent to take over the world.
Both the DSM and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) list both terms as synonyms for ASPD, but the terms are generally not interchangeable. ASPD is a much broader diagnosis than psychopathy and focuses primarily on behavior rather than neurological characteristics or differences. Although some consider both psychopathy and sociopathy to be subtypes of ASPD, others claim that they are very different conditions.
