User:Kasandram/sandbox

Psychological Disorder Aspects
Psychopathic individuals are best known for their flagrant disregard for social and moral norms. Psychopaths have dysfunctional personal relationships, characterized by violence, exploitation, and philandering. Emotionally, they are incapable of feeling guilt or empathy, their fear and pain responses are abnormal, and their other emotions are shallow compared to the normal population. Psychopaths refuse to adopt social and moral norms because they are not swayed by the emotions, such as guilt, remorse, or fear of retribution, that influence human beings.

Psychopathy at its most basic represents a configuration of traits that are missing within a person's personality, such as a lack of empathy and remorse. Information concerning psychopathic traits has been shown to effect how people perceive adult and juveniles, particularly those who had committed crimes. Assessments of psychopathy are introduced to direct a relatively wide variety of questions in the legal system, so investigators have started examining the effects of psychopathy evidences. Through simulation studies, data suggested that attributing psychopathic traits to adult and juvenile offenders can have a pronounced negative effect on how these individuals are viewed by others. One of the key features of psychopathy, remorselessness, proves to be a strong predictor of juror attitudes. In a study by John Edens, a pool of offenders were labeled as either having a "disorder" or "no disorder" condition. Those labeled as "no disorder" were given a death verdict by mock jurors. In the study, ratings of traits, such as callousness, remorselessness, and superficial charm, were a strong predictor of negative consequences for the offenders. This study found that remorselessness has the most profound effect on the mock jurors' opinions of the "disorder" offenders and it explains most of the support for death sentence. The results of this study suggest that perceptions of a defendant's personality traits may have serious implications for conclusions regarding sentencing decisions in a capital case, independent of mental health testimony indicating the presence of a specific personality disorder.

Remorse versus Self-condemnation
Remorse is closely linked with the willingness to humble one self and to repent for one's misdeeds. Remorse is not as such when defined through the view of self-condemnation. Self-condemnation, more so than remorse, is said to be associated with poor psychological well-being. Remorse captures feelings of guilt, regret, and sorrow. Forgiveness does not eliminate all negative feelings, but it may entail the reduction of bitter and angry feelings, not feelings of disappointment, regret, or sorrow. A study by Mickie Fisher found that people who forgive themselves for serious offenses may continue to harbor remorse or regret. In contrast to remorse, self-condemnation reflects a more global, negative, severe stance toward oneself. Remorse may convey a sense of sorrow, while self-condemnation suggests the kind of loathing and desire for punishment that characterizes interpersonal grudges. Fisher suggests that self-forgiveness does not necessarily require one to get rid of feelings or regret or remorse. Based on the study by Fisher, self-forgiveness seems to relate more closely to self-condemnation and not remorse. When trying to convince people to forgive themselves, it is crucial to not erase the potentially adaptive feelings of remorse along with the more destructive self-condemnation. People can grow and experience prosocial behaviors once they accept responsibility for their own transgressions. For genuine self-forgiveness, one must first accept responsibility for their offenses and not rush to rid themselves of guilty feelings.