Lesson Plan 

What is the difference between sociopath vs. psychopath? 

Lesson Plan

Alyssa Clark

Objectives:

 

1. Students are able to identify the differentiate between sociopaths and psychopaths 

2. Students are able to identify the characteristics of sociopaths? 

3. Students are able to identify the certain characteristics of psychopaths? 

4. Understand how all these factors lead to a person being a successful serial killer. 

 

Lesson: 

1. What is the difference between sociopaths and psychopaths? Hook -  (3-5 minutes) 

   1. Ask the class to write down distinguishing characteristics  of themselves 

   2. Then put on the screen characteristics of sociopaths and psychopaths and have everyone make a note of how many are on the board. 

      1. Put in photos of what different psychopaths can look like 

2. Have students have an open discussion about what they feel is the definition of a psychopath. (3 minutes

 

1. History of a psychopath and characteristics of one. (Introduction) Lecture Source: Patrick, Christopher J., Bruce N. Cuthbert, and Peter J. Lang. - 10 minutes 

   1. “The lifestyle of the psychopath is distinguished by aimless-ness, impulsive behavior without regard for consequences, and an absence of long-term goals or plans. Cleckley (1941) hypothesized that these problems stem from a failure to process the emotional meaning of language, a deficit he called “semantic dementia” (523). 

   2. “The psychopath apparently cannot accept substantial blame for the various misfortunes which befall him and which he brings down upon others. … Whether judged in the light of his conduct, of his attitude, or of material elicited in the psychiatric examination, he [the psychopath] shows almost no sense of shame” (Campbell and Elison 96) 

   3. Examples of a psychopath Video Ted Bundy Interview before Electrocution Chair 

1. Interview with Ted Bundy  before he went into the electric chair and he was showing the true side of himself and the interview later describes how Ted Bundy is a psychotic man 

2. About the Video 

   1. On January 23rd, 1989

   2. Ted Bundy was a 1970s serial murderer, rapist, and necrophiliac. He was executed in Florida's electric chair in 1989. His case has since inspired many novels and films about serial killers. (Biography) 

1. History and definition of a sociopath (Lecture) Source: Patrick, Christopher J., Bruce N. Cuthbert, and Peter J. Lang. 10

2. “Includes emotional and interpersonal items (e.g. superficial charm, grandiosity, lying and manipulativeness, affective shallowness, and absence of remorse or empathy) that covary negatively with anxiety scales and positively with measures of narcissism (524).” 

3. How it goes hand and hand with a Narcissistic

4. “Narcissistic patients are very vulnerable and self-conscious, but they at times express this through complete denial of any faults or insecurities (Kemberg, 1984). Thus, narcissistic patients may deny the existence of their own vulnerability, self-consciousness, and hostility. On the sole basis of the DSM-111-R criteria for NAR, it may be predicted that narcissistic patients will score high on the Neuroticism facets of Self-Consciousness and/or Vulnerability (199).” 

5. Video of a conversation with a sociopath Video 5 minutes 

6. A little brief background on Jeffery Dumher and what his characteristics are and what he did to people 

7. Jeffery Dahmer was an American serial killer who took the lives of 17 males between 1978 and 1991. Over the course of more than 13 years, Dahmer sought out men, mostly African American, at gay bars, malls, and bus stops, lured them home with promises of money or sex, and gave them alcohol laced with drugs before strangling them to death. He would then engage in sex acts with the corpses before dismembering them and disposing of them, often keeping their skulls or genitals as souvenirs. He frequently took photos of his victims at various stages of the murder process, so he could recollect each act afterward and relive the experience. (biography) 

8. A successful serial killer (Lecture) Source: Anderson, Nathaniel E, and Kent A Kiehl. 

9. “The tendency to externalize blame continues to play an important role in the study of psychopathy as exemplified by the content of Item 16 on the “gold-standard” psychopathy measure, the Hare Psychopathy Checklist–Revised (PCL–R; Hare, 2003), which assesses a failure to accept responsibility for one’s actions. Item 16 of the PCL–R was designed to identify “an individual who is unable or unwilling to accept personal responsibility for his own actions (both criminal and non-criminal) or for the consequences of his actions” (Hare, 2003, p. 44). 

10. Instead of accepting responsibility for one’s actions, the psychopath produces “some excuse for his behavior, including rationalizing and placing the blame on others” (Hare, 2003, p. 26). Despite the enduring assertion that psychopathy or psychopathic traits in the general population are associated with an inability to experience and internalize shame, the issue has received scant attention in the psychopathy literature ((Campbell and Elison 96-97).” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annotated Bibliography

 

Anderson, Nathaniel E, and Kent A Kiehl. “Psychopathy: developmental perspectives and their implications for treatment.” Restorative neurology and neuroscience vol. 32,1 (2014): 103-17. doi:10.3233/RNN-139001. Accessed on Jan 12, 2021. 

 

In this article it provides information on the “official” definition of a psychopath and is a psychopath born or environmentally made. How psychopaths are made and what the characteristics of a psychopath are and what makes these type of people good criminals and how psychopaths are able to stomach what the actions they do. 

 

Campbell, Justin S., and Jeff Elison. "Shame coping styles and psychopathic personality traits." 

Journal of personality assessment 84.1 (2005): 96-104. Accessed on Jan. 14, 2021. 

 

In this article its talks about how a sociopath is able to use shame and ego as a way to cope with their actions. A sociopath is also able to manipulate people and use guilt and shame as a way to achieve a goal. That people who are sociopaths it is all about their social status and being viewed in high regard. 

 

Patrick, Christopher J., Bruce N. Cuthbert, and Peter J. Lang. "Emotion in the criminal 

psychopath: fear image processing." Journal of abnormal psychology 103.3 (1994): 523. Accessed on Jan.12, 2021. 

 

In this article it talks about the whirlwind of the combination of emotional, antisocial disorder, and mindset that makes a psychopath. This article goes into detail about the mindset of a psychopath and how a person who is self involved can have antisocial tendencies.