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introverts can often feel like
antisocial at least in a way they can
feel pretty anti being social preferring
to end a long week by doing their own
thing instead of living it up at a big
party but when psychologists talk about
being antisocial that is not what they
mean instead they're referring to
behaviors like manipulation
deceitfulness and recklessness in other
words someone isn't avoiding social
interactions they are engaging in
negative ones
and when those behaviors become a
primary part of someone's personality
they might be diagnosed with antisocial
personality disorder or a SPD it's one
of the most easily misunderstood
conditions out there and it's often easy
to portray someone with it as heartless
but that's totally not true here's
what's really going on a SPD affects
around one to three percent of the
population and according to the dsm-5
the latest version of the handbook
doctors used to make diagnoses it
requires a few key symptoms first
individuals have to show impairments and
regulating their own behavior that could
look like being strongly self-centered
or having trouble conforming to laws or
ethical norms they also have to show
impairments in interacting with others
like by exploiting people as their main
way into relationships or by not having
remorse after hurting someone and they
should frequently show so-called
antagonistic or disinhibited personality
traits which include things like
manipulation hostility risk-taking and
impulsivity finally these impairments
should all be stable over time and in
different situations and shouldn't be
better explained by things like
medication or someone's social and
cultural environment it's also important
to point out that although they often
get lumped together some psychologists
don't consider a SPD to be the same as
psychopathy another disorder not
included in the DSM it's an ongoing
debate but they argue that while these
conditions share a lot of common
characteristics and often happen at the
same time they don't overlap completely
so there's a lot that goes into a SPD
and the things that closet seem to be
equally complex from what researchers
can tell the disorder has a strong
genetic component but also an
environmental one one 2010 meta-analysis
suggested that around 56% - the
variation in symptoms can be a true
to genetics but studies looking at how
the condition develops show us that
that's not the whole story multiple
papers have found that factors like
abuse or neglect during childhood can
make someone more likely to develop a
SPD especially if one of their parents
was diagnosed with it that could be
because the stress in those environments
can influence gene activity which can
ultimately affect brain functioning but
that doesn't mean everyone with the
disorder had a rough childhood either
figuring out exactly what triggers this
condition has been tricky because it's
probably not just one thing besides
investigating where a SPD comes from
other researchers have also studied what
it looks like in the brain and they've
found that many of those with this
disorder have various a typicality x' in
their brain structure and function for
example a 2013 meta-analysis looked at
12 studies involving brain scans of
roughly 300 individuals with antisocial
behavior and almost 250 controls it
found that those with antisocial
behavior tended to have less gray matter
in three areas involved with emotional
processing gray matter is the type of
tissue that contains most of the brains
cell bodies and synapses this suggests
that those with a SPD aren't just
disinterested in other people's emotions
their brains actually have structural
differences that make it really tricky
to fully understand them this idea was
supported by another study in 2016 which
looked at 83 people who had committed
crimes it found that participants with a
SPD had more trouble visualizing the
mental states of others that likely
explains why many people with this
disorder become involved with things
like crime or illicit drugs if someone
can't easily picture other people's
reaction to their behavior it could make
those kinds of activities seem less
harmful thanks to its symptoms it can be
really easy to think a SPD makes someone
totally incapable of having close
relationships or that someone with it
wouldn't even want them but that isn't
true
many will love and appreciate a select
handful of close family or friends and
their symptoms might even be less severe
around them but outside of that inner
circle the condition makes it much
harder to have empathy or feelings
towards others still many with a SPD
will hide their diagnosis purely because
of the stigma attached
it which is never a good thing like with
any personality disorder it's important
to remember that even if someone's brain
works differently well that just means
it works differently it doesn't mean
they're a lesser person because of it
for psychologists the next big steps in
research are to learn more about what
causes the disorder and also how to
treat it
since these symptoms often disrupt
someone's quality of life that said
treatment options are pretty limited
right now some studies suggest that
methods such as cognitive behavioral
therapy which is designed to change
negative thought patterns and behaviors
may help but other studies showed no
effect the good news is we're getting
better at treating conditions like this
in general in the past
psychologists concluded that personality
disorders just can't be addressed with
treatment but that idea has recently
begun to change and we're starting to
see more effective therapies for other
personality disorders so maybe in the
future we'll see some reliable treatment
options for this one too thanks for
watching this episode of scishow psych
we believe psychology is all about
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