Antisocial Personality Disorder is one of ten different personality disorders on the DSM-V list. “Of the 10 classified types of personality disorder, borderline and Antisocial Personality Disorder are the most prominent in forensic and psychiatric settings.” (Kendall, T. et al., 2009, P.293). The disorder is predicted to be more common in men than women. The disorder is associated with suicide, violence, and risk-taking behavior. (Guy, L. S., Poythress, N. G., Douglas, K. S., Skeem, J. L., & Edens, J. F., 2008). Antisocial Personality Disorder is commonly referred to as ASPD for short. For the convenience of the reader, ASPD will commonly be used in replace of Antisocial Personality Disorder throughout this paper. …show more content…
The general presumption is that genetic and environmental factors combine to form Antisocial Personality Disorder. Pemment (2013) stated “the gene C-521T, which is involved in the creation of the dopamine 4 receptor, has been implicated in novelty-seeking and impulsivity (as cited in Basoglu et al., 2011). Various personality disorders seem to have this gene, of them is ASPD. There have been several studies with an emphasis on brain structure of people with ASPD versus the general population. In a study by Yang, Raine, Colletti, Toga, and Narr (2010), psychopaths brain structure was captured through MRI imaging and compared to the general population. The results showed that the psychopaths had significantly less gray matter in three different parts of the frontal lobe. Based off of these results they concluded that the lack of grey matter in these regions predispose psychopaths to impulsive and risky behavior. Pemment (2013) (as cited in Yang, Y. Raine, A., Colletti, P., Toga, A., & Narr, K. (2010, p.546-554). There is still much more research necessary to gain a competent understanding of the genetic factors that contribute to ASPD. On the environmental side of things, the experiences one has in early childhood tend to shape a person’s life, way of thinking, and even brain structure dramatically. A significant amount of the people diagnosed with ASPD grow up in broken homes, where parenting is often