Aetiology
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Little is known for certain about the exact origins of personality. Genetic and environmental factors clearly play a part, and both of these are involved in psychological development. In addition, cerebral pathology may play a part in some disorders.
Genetic
Some general aspects of behaviour are inherited and can be seen even in very young infants. This is referred to as temperament. There is evidence that some temperamental characteristics persist over time. Adult mono-zygotic twins brought up apart share similar personality profiles. Twin studies of probands with dissocial personality disorder show a higher concordance rate for mono-zygotic twins than dizygotic. Note that genetic factors can greatly influence a persons interaction with their environment, with consequent "environmental factors" modifying personality. For example genetically determined behaviour may provoke specific types of responses that further reinforce the behaviour. In addition, the environment that an individual "seeks out" will depend in part on genetically determined factors.
Psychological Development
Different schools of thought speculate that certain different aspects of development are important to the origins of personality disorder. Thus attachment theory emphasises the role of disruption in a person's key relationships (i.e. mother/infant bond). Learning theory proposes that a person's experiences lead to some behaviours being reinforced by the patterns of rewards and punishments in their environment while other behaviours may be acquired by imitating (modelling) other people. Psychodynamic theory proposes that failure to negotiate certain critical developmental stages may lead to a person failing to relinquish patterns of behaviour characteristic of that stage of development. Thus a model for the development of dissocial personality disorder may be that:
- The individual did not enjoy a stable secure relationship with a mother figure (attachment theory).
- They failed to learn the normal rules of human behaviour either because his/her family of origin was antisocial or because they could not apply normal rules consistently (learning theory).
- Their development was arrested at the oral stage of libidinal development resulting in self-centred patterns of behaviour (psychodynamic theory).
Cerebral Pathology
A higher incidence of EEG abnormalities is seen among individuals with dissocial personality disorder.
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