I'm sure we have all called someone a psychopath or referred to someone as a "psycho". Whether it be an ex-boyfriend, a teacher, or even your parents. But do these people really meet the criteria? Are we misdiagnosing people based on interactions that we have had? Are we passing judgment based on their true character or just on the situation that we have had where the person acts a little crazy or doesn't agree with us? (Oh yeah, I can be deep) :)
If you want here's the article: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dirty-minds/201203/psychopaths-everywhere
I don't think these people really meet the criteria of a psychopath, otherwise we'd really have a problem on our hands. But seriously though, I believe we are misdiagnosing people based on interactions we have had, and on false information we have been fed through sources such as the media and entertainment. Just as the neuroscientist at Harvard commented, not every narcissistic, impulsive person we meet is necessarily a psychopath. Checklists such as Ronson's seemt to be like those personality quizzes you'd find on Facebook, where a certain string of answers you choose might lead you to one overly generalized answer, while another certain string might lead you to another generalized answer. There's no basis for diagnosing someone as a psychopath through this method, and in doing so we are passing judgment based on the situation that we have had where the person acts a little crazy or doesn't agree with us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Regan, none of us actually has the ability to diagnose a person, especially with something as serious as a label of psychopath. Checklists don't really cut it when we start diagnosing, as Regan pointed out, if we overly generalize one answer, it may lead to overly generalizing another. You just can't diagnose someone as a psychopath with this method. If a person acts a little crazy in one situation or just has their own opinion differing from our own, we can't simply chalk if up to them being a psychopath. The world would be a mess if we did.
ReplyDeleteMost of the time these people are not psychopaths and like Regan said we can not diagnose people. Also, like said in class we should try not to use words that don't really describe a person. So I would say we do misdiagnose people just by having a conversation and we are passing a judgement on the situation or because someone doesn't agree with us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous comments: who are we to pass judgment in that way? Most of the time when people call someone a psycho, it's not meant in the way psychologists define psychopaths. If I've ever called someone a psycho, I didn't mean that they totally lack emotions or empathy. I would have meant simply that they're maybe a bit extreme to some degree and in certain situations. This in no way qualifies them as a psychopath. Often, I relate this situation to calling someone retarded. Just because the term has caught on in society among our culture and age group, people go around calling others retarded without thinking about what the word really means. Sure, everyone has their moments where they make a thoughtless comment, but that in no way warrants them a diagnosis of mental retardation. All in all, I think people need to think before they speak and consider the consequences of their words.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that most of us have absolutely no expertise or basis for diagnosing anyone with a psychological disorder, especially one as serious as being a "psychopath". I think that the everyday use of the word psychopath has come to take on a very different meaning than what psychologists would classify as psychopathic behavior, and I think that we usually will throw around the word psychopath if someone creeps us out or acts in a way that we either do not agree with or cannot understand because these are things that are usually associated with psychopaths as they have come to be understood in popular culture. I also agree with the article in that it is natural for some of the traits of a psychopath to be distributed among the population, and I think the problem is when a person we encounter demonstrates just one of these characteristics, we tend to classify them as a psychopath despite the absence of other essential characteristics. I think that most true psychopaths have traits that are so extreme and permeate every aspect of their lives to the extent that if their lives were to be studied, the difference between them and the "psychopaths" we encounter in our everyday lives would be extremely evident.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that most people misuse the phrase "psycho" since most people certainly do not have the expertise to diagnose people at all. I understand that when people, especially teenagers call someone a "psycho" they're not following scientific "criteria" but instead using a more direct term to call someone "Crazy". Either way, we as a society need to be more careful and mindful of what we say and the impact that words have on people.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that most people have no clue what a "psycho" actually is. Most people have either heard it in a movie or someone else use it and have just picked it up. I think that the world "psycho" is just like "thats so gay." When someone says that phrase they arent really thinking about the definition of the word they are really just thinking about the view its gets from society around you. Everyone judges people. Nobody can escape that. Some people do judge people based on snapshot moments but other people do judge people based on long moments. I think that your allowed to judge because thats what humans do but keep that judgement to yourself. Also dont let one moment dictate how you feel about that person.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Regan in that these people definitely can't be officially diagnosed as psychopaths just because we may disagree with them or they may act strangely in a certain situation. I feel like most people don't really understand what a true psychopath or "psycho" is, and just use the term to classify people who may be either annoying them or are different than them in some way. I think society in general took the term psycho away from it's original meaning and attributes it more to just a negative trait for a wide variety of people. Overall, I don't think that we can officially pass an accurate judgment on one's character, especially if we only witness how they behave in a certain situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all the statements that have been said above. I feel that we tend to call people "psychos" in order to exaggerate our point and to make ourselves feel better. Although we do not know what a true "psycho" means we tend to act as if we do by calling every one that does not act the same as our lovely selves a psycho. I don't think these people meet the criteria for a psycho. We are misdiagnosing people based on our interactions with each other. I feel that we are just passing judgement based on the situation that we have interacted with the person because the person may be completely different from how they might have been in that specific situation.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are times where I turn around and am convinced that the person I'm dealing with is a psychopath, I know for a fact they aren't really meeting the criteria and I am "misdiagnosing" them based on the interaction I've had with them. It's not that I really think they are psychotic. In society we've come to associate people who have moments of craziness as psychos. Again, I don't believe this means that we're really convinced the person is a psychopath. Instead, it's just become an adjective associated with someone who isn't acting "normally." Like Jacquie said, we are just passing judgement based on the situation we have with the person. We as humans can't follow someone around 24/7 to accurately label them, instead we use snap judgments and only take into account the information readily available to us, which could lead to misinformation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what everyone has stated above; that we are misdiagnosing people. We do that with many other disorders as well like when someone is having a bad day so we say they are bipolar. Often times we do not even realize what we are saying and know what the true meaning of the word is. If we called people psychopaths we are diagnosing them and I know for a fact I would have diagnosed a lot of people. We do not have the knowledge to even be close to being able to do that. We are just passing a judgement on their character therefore put a label on them.
ReplyDeleteLike my classmates have said, we do cannot diagnose people as psychopaths and even if we think we can these people do not meet the criteria. I have called people psychopaths when I thought they were being ridiculous or unfair during an argument, but that is just something out of anger to imply that the other person is being irrational. I personally have never meant it as a genuine diagnosis and i'm sure most people do not however I agree with my classmates that it can be construed as misdiagnosing and not accurately labeling them
ReplyDeleteWe are definitely misdiagnosing people when we say that they are psychopaths because they do not actually fit the criteria. We call our parents psychopaths sometimes if they don't let us out or if they yell for no reason, but really they do not meet the criteria whatsoever. I think that we do this with a lot of terms, as my classmates have said, like saying oh she's so bipolar. I think that we have to be more careful about what we say in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think we use this term in an incorrect setting all the time. Like many people have stated before, it isn't a misdiagnosis, it is simply ignorance to the criteria. I think we use this is a negative context because of the judgments that we do pass because of the strange or snippy comments of another person.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that people that we call psychos are actually psychotic. Rather, I think it is just us being over dramatic and calling someone something because they are not acting the way we normally would want them to act. If you actually think about, someone who is actually psychotic has major issues that cannot be taken lightly. We are misdiagnosing people based on what we find annoying or our of the normal. I think misdiagnosis is based on many things, one of which is based on one or two situations, rather than how they act in their whole life
ReplyDeleteThe individuals deemed 'psychopath' are rarely deserving of the title in most cases. I don't believe we are diagnosing them, but we are simply labeling them based on the small amount of qualities we, as a person, have observed and compared to others who have portrayed similar characteristics and own the diagnosis of 'psychopath.' I believe that the individuals are labeled in such a manner because the behavior they exhibit is so far off the the normal behavior we as a society view on a daily basis. I think that when tensions are high and emotions are running rapid throughout our bodies, we fail to think reasonably and responsibly with an appropriate response to the situation. I can see how judgement is passed against others this way and also in how individuals have a difficult time accepting blame of responsibility for faulty actions. This would bring about harsh labeling if the person feels as if the other is 'wrong,' that would cause the other person to feel under attack and provoke a response such as a title or label.
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