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“Just So” stories and sociopathy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Andrew Futterman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA 01610; futterman@hcacad.holycross.edu;
Garland E. Allen
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130. allen@biodept.wustl.edu

Abstract

Sociobiological explanation requires both a reliable and a valid definition of the sociopathy phenotype. Mealey assumes that such reliable and valid definition of sociopathy exists in her “Integrated Evolutionary Model.” A review of psychiatric literature on the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder clearly demonstrates that this assumption is faulty. There is substantial disagreement among diagnostic systems (e.g., RDC, DSM-III) over what constitutes the antisocial phenotype, different systems identify different individuals as sociopathic. Without a valid definition of sociopathy, sociobiological theories like Mealey's should be viewed as entirely speculative.

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Type
Article Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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