January 16, 2013<\/p>\n
The President wants studies done? Well, I started one.<\/p>\n
Today, the President of the United States gave his response to the “gun violence” problem in America. If I read it correctly, he is tasking\/asking the CDC to research gun violence. Mr. President, I have started the research for you! Maybe save the taxpayers (debtors) a few bucks.<\/p>\n
In 2010 I wrote and submitted a casual research paper for my graduate work in psychology. The topic wasn’t gun violence but a rather a paper that addresses the causes of these tragedies, like the most recent in Connecticut. I left out the literature review and some other, quite boring, details from the research paper as they would make this post VERY LONG. Here is the synopsis:<\/p>\n
Abstract<\/b><\/p>\n
The term psychopathy has long been noted as an evil outlier of human behavior that is thought\u00a0to be\u00a0attributable to only a small percentage of the entire population of the United States. The purpose of this paper and study is to create awareness of and support a hypothesis that the choices and actions at a societal level are creating and psychopaths. Further society is making psychopathy the new normal behavior in the United States, by the changing cultural values and societal boundaries which mold each new generation. A brief literature review has been conducted\u00a0and included in this paper that will describe in greater detail individual characteristics that will support the overarching hypothesis proposed. Also in an effort to support this hypothesis a phenomenological study has been designed that will research previously written information on the subject and provide a study that collects new data on the subject.<\/p>\n
Causal Factors for the Increasing Prevalence of Sociopaths in American Society<\/b><\/p>\n
Can psychopathic behavior be taught? It is the purpose of this literature review and paper to discuss and explore the hypothesis that not only can be\u00a0taught, but is an every growing normative cultural phenomenon.\u00a0 The hypothesis is that the literature review will support this theory and that the trends, choices and actions of the predominant culture in the United States of America are creating and nurturing sociopath. Further, the theory is that the nurturing of psychopathological\u00a0behaviors will have a result of those behaviors that are currently classified as negativistic and maladaptive will become the norm for the collective US culture.<\/p>\n
The outcome of the condition of society\u2019s members is due to the choices, actions and guidelines set forth and judged by that society. The hypothesis is that society\u2019s trend for values, choices and expectation has changed and the result is a negative effect on the recent generations of young people in a way that creates and promotes psychopathy. Commonly witnessed negative behaviors such as selfishness, manipulation, attention seeking and leaching can no longer be ignored by being viewed as singular groups. Collectively, these negative behaviors should be viewed as an increasing and significant trend of developing and nurturing psychopathy in our young people.<\/p>\n
Based on the information received through the brief literature review, It is concluded\u00a0that the hypothesis is worthy of pursuit of further study. American society has morphed into a culture of \u201cme\u201d and materialism and \u201canything goes\u201d beliefs. Systems such as the church and authority institutions have been eliminated or neutered through the constant onslaught of excuses, justifications and moral erosion of wrong-doing citizens.<\/p>\n
The Problems<\/b><\/p>\n
Any behavior can be\u00a0taught if it is physically possible to enact. Stepping away form an encapsulated concept of \u201cshould\u201d and \u201cought\u201d, a rational and logical observer can conceptual the following: A baby born and raised in family that does not promote social interaction and teaches that the child must \u201clook out\u201d for herself first, at all costs has a high probability of acting out in behaviors that promote her early learning. Conversely, a child who is raised in a home that promotes learning, morals, values, caring for other, altruism and a respect for others will more than likely have a higher probability of acting out with respect to her early learning.<\/p>\n
In the United States, some cultural and societal factors that promote psychopathic tendencies are: lack of remorse modeling, encouragement of leaching, reduction of consequences, erosion of moral and other authority, technological advances resulting in social and interpersonal connectedness, self-centered modeling, and superficial behaviors modeling.<\/p>\n
Definitions<\/b><\/p>\n
Psychopathy is a learned behavior and not a genetic malfunction. Harenski\u00a0et al describe psychopathy as \u201cthe willingness to intentionally commit moral transgressions against others without guilt or remorse.\u201d The DSM IV-TR does not specifically address psychopathy as a disorder, but rather uses Antisocial Personality Disorder. Another kindred term for similar behaviors and choices is \u201csociopath\u201d. It is collectively though that the differences between a psychopath and psychopathy are the degrees of danger each pose to society. It is believed\u00a0that sociopaths are equally disconnected from others, but far less dangerous in the behaviors.<\/p>\n
Collective perceptions of the characteristics of a psychopathic personality are: glibness\/superficial charm, grandiose sense of self-worth (invisible audience), lack of empathy, me-centered behaviors, and a lack of meaningful interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n
Summary<\/b><\/p>\n
The result of the inattentive and improper actions of multiple generations has had a terrible effect on the subsequent generations. Morals and values are not taught, family cohesiveness is ever increasingly absent and the appropriate and healthy modeling of traditional America is in sharp decline. Children learn much from their caregivers, institutions and through observation learning from watching tertiary acts in their environment.<\/p>\n
Inconsistent application of rules and even more inconsistent delivery of consequences teach more about how to be\u00a0irresponsible and disconnect than helps the youth by showing care through leniency. Since the advent of the concept of precedent type of law in the late 1800\u2019s, each allowance of less-than ideal behavior becomes a reason for being allowed to engage in future negativistic behaviors by others, thus eventually becoming the normative behavior in the culture. This study will demonstrate many of the points outlined in the literature review.<\/p>\n
— R. A. Grier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
January 16, 2013 The President wants studies done? Well, I started one. Today, the President of the United States gave his response to the “gun violence” problem in America. If I read it correctly, he is tasking\/asking the CDC to research gun violence. Mr. President, I have started the research for you! Maybe save the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quod-erat-faciendum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128,"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126\/revisions\/128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ragpages.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}