Psychopathy & ASPD

What is Psychopathy?

Psychopathy is a personality construct characterized by a combination of affective (emotional) and interpersonal (relational) deficits that include (Hare, 1996):

  • Limited or lack of empathy

  • Lack of remorse or guilt

  • Shallow emotional responses

  • Superficial charm

  • Grandiosity

  • Manipulation

  • Deceitfulness

This means that these individuals have a severe disconnect between internal and external experiences. They can exhibit a normal - even charming and delightful - external personality, but lack typical internal emotional experiences, particularly in the realms of empathy, guilt, and remorse.

Psychopathy is almost exclusively studied and diagnosed in prison settings, while research outside of criminal populations is based primarily on psychopathic traits as a proxy for a psychopathy diagnosis (Werner et al., 2016).

Although about 1% of nonincarcerated adult males qualify for a psychopathy diagnosis, Kiehl and Hoffman (2011) state:

“Psychopathy is astonishingly common as mental disorders go. It is twice as common as schizophrenia, anorexia, bipolar disorder, and paranoia, and roughly as common as bulimia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and narcissism. Indeed, the only mental disorders significantly more common than psychopathy are those related to drug and alcohol abuse or dependence, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.” (p.2)

Because psychopathy is a personality construct rather than a formal DSM diagnosis, researchers and clinicians use specialized assessment instruments to measure the traits and behaviors associated with it.

Click here to read about assessment tools to measure psychopathy.

There is abundant research that supports the idea of psychopathic personality developing from abnormal brain functioning in various neurological areas, specifically involving moral reasoning, emotional deficiencies, and behavioral inhibition. These traits can become apparent by the age of 10 (Anderson & Kiehl, 2011) though some of the associated antisocial traits can be witnessed as early as preschool (Torrico & Hanny, 2026).

Click here to read about how brain abnormalities contribute to psychopathy.

Does Psychopathy = Antisocial?

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

Antisocial Personality Disorder is a clinically recognized and diagnosed personality disorder, rather than a description of patterned behaviors. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, clinicians cycled through many terminological renditions in their attempts to classify a group of behaviors that they suspected were shaped by social and environmental factors. 

The 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) categorizes ASPD as:

“a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others, occurring since age 15” (p.659, as cited by Werner et al., 2016).

“Pro-social” behaviors are the acceptable and reasonable behaviors that foster a sense of community and create a generally safe environment for the masses to live with one another. Alternatively, “anti-social” behaviors typically go against the rights of others, primarily for the benefit of the individual. This greatly differs from the commonly used description of someone being “antisocial”, who is introverted and does not like to be around people. Being diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder is an even greater distinction, and requires that the individual

Behavioral characteristics associated with ASPD include (Torrico & Hany, 2026):

  • Rule-breaking and antisocial behavior

  • Deceitfulness

  • Pathological lying

  • Impulsivity and poor planning

  • Risk-taking

  • Aggression & irritability

  • Recklessness

  • Disregard for the safety of others

  • Difficulty maintaining employment

Overlapping Traits of Psychopathy and ASPD

Clearly, there is a significant overlap in the traits associated with psychopathy and ASPD. These terms are often incorrectly used interchangeably by law enforcement, the justice system, laymen, and even psychologists and psychiatrists. This leads to misconceptions, misunderstandings, misdiagnoses, and improper sentencing.

Researchers Torrico and Hany (2026) compare the two:

“ASPD is defined primarily by behavioral criteria (eg, criminal acts, irresponsibility), whereas psychopathy also includes core affective and interpersonal deficits, eg, a lack of empathy, grandiosity, and shallow affect. Therefore, psychopathy is often considered a more severe construct with a stronger prediction for instrumental violence.”

Researchers Anderson and Kiehl (2014) also discuss the differences:

“the core distinguishing deficits which set psychopathy apart from the more prevalent antisocial personality disorder (and conduct disorder in youth) are emotional in nature, ultimately serving one’s capacity to feel (or appreciate) remorse or shame and use cues of potential punishment or loss while governing ongoing behavior. The integration of basic emotional responses into monitoring and governing behavior through pursuit of reward and avoidance of punishment are primary motivational features that support a healthy, adaptive lifestyle—and these are in some way impaired in the psychopath.”

And finally, Robert Hare (1996), who created the gold standard assessment tool to measure psychopathy, offers:

“Most psychopaths (with the exception of those who somehow manage to plow their way through life without coming into formal or prolonged contact with the criminal justice system) meet the criteria for ASPD, but most individuals with ASPD are not psychopaths. Further, ASPD is very common in criminal populations, and those with the disorder are heterogeneous with respect to personality, attitudes and motivations for engaging in criminal behavior.”

Comorbidity

Psychopathy and ASPD are said to be comorbid, meaning that they occur at the same time. An Australian study that included 136 psychopathic offenders in a forensic psychiatric inpatient facility shares the statistic that

“over 65% of patients high in psychopathic traits received a diagnosis of APD while only 5.5% of patients with APD were high in psychopathic traits,” (James Ogloff, 2016)

This suggests that ASPD is extremely common among psychopathic individuals, while most individuals with ASPD do not automatically meet the criteria for having highly psychopathic traits. Werner et al. (2016) suggest that their “co-occurrence…represent[s] disorders at varying extremes on the same continuum.”

Consequences

Psychopathy and ASPD have different developmental factors and require different treatment options. Failure to correctly diagnose an individual could result in longer prison sentencing, even the death penalty, for individuals who have ASPD but are not psychopathic in nature (Hare, 1996). Likewise, psychopathic individuals could receive lesser prison sentencing if they are wrongfully diagnosed as only having ASPD.

Click here to read about psychopathy within the criminal justice system.