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A numbe of risk factors have been proposed as increasing the risk of conduct disorder
Lack of empathy[]
Some scholars have proposed that lack of empathy and empathic concern (callous disregard for the welfare of others) is an important risk factor for conduct disorder.[1] [2]
When youth with aggressive conduct disorder watch an individual intentionally hurting another (like closing a piano lid), regions of the brain that process painful information are activated, as are the amygdala and ventral striatum (part of the neural circuit involved in reward processing (Decety, Michalska, Akitsuki & Lahey, 2009).
Developmental psychologists and social neuroscientists have hypothesized that empathy and sympathetic concern for others are essential factors inhibiting aggression toward others.[3] [4]
The propensity for aggressive behavior has been hypothesized to reflect a blunted empathic response to the suffering of others.[5] Such a lack of empathy in aggressive individuals may be a consequence of a failure to be aroused by the distress of others.[6] Similarly, it has been suggested that aggressive behavior arises from abnormal processing of affective information, resulting in a deficiency in experiencing fear, empathy, and guilt, which in normally developing individuals inhibits the acting out of violent impulses.[7]
References[]
- ↑ Frick, P.J., Stickle, T.R., Dandreaux, D.M., Farrell, J.M., & Kimonis, E.R. (2005). Callous-unemotional traits in predicting the severity and stability of conduct problems and delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33, 471-487.
- ↑ Lahey, B.B., & Waldman, I.D. (2003). A developmental propensity model of the origins of conduct problems during childhood and adolescence. In B.B. Lahey, T.E. Moffitt, & A. Caspi (Eds.), Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency (pp. 76-117). New York: Guilford Press.
- ↑ Eisenberg, N. (2005). Age changes in prosocial responding and moral reasoning in adolescence and early adulthood. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 15, 235-260.
- ↑ Decety, J., & Meyer, M. (2008). From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: A social developmental neuroscience account. Development and Psychopathology, 20, 1053-1080.
- ↑ Blair, R.J.R. (2005). Responding to the emotions of others: Dissociating forms of empathy through the study of typical and psychiatric populations. Consciousness and Cognition, 14, 698-718.
- ↑ Raine, A., Venables, P., & Mednick, S. (1997). Low resting heart rate at age three years predisposes to aggression at age 11 years: Evidence from the Mauritius Child Health Project. Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 1457-1464.
- ↑ Herpertz, S.C., & Sass, H. (2000). Emotional deficiency and psychopathy. Behavioral Science and Law, 18, 317-323.