Question 1. Discuss the pros and cons of providing children who score highly on the Psychopathy Checklist–Youth Version (PCL-YV) with counseling as a preventative measure, regardless of whether they have committed a crime. Should the PCL-YV be administered to all schoolchildren at regular intervals?
The psychopathy Checklist-Youth Version is a common test used to assess traits of psychopathic personality disorder in youths. This test is particularly used to determine disordered behaviors, emotions, and thoughts. The psychopathic checklist youth version has proven to be effective in predicting the violent and general recidivism in youths. While providing counseling to the juveniles who score high in the psychopathy checklist Youth Version can be helpful, it can also pose danger to the juveniles especially to those who have already committed a crime. As noted earlier, the psychopathic Checklist-Youth Version is used to assess disordered emotions, behaviors, and thoughts. When making a diagnosis of the psychological disorder, the process may be complex and complicated.
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One of the benefits of providing counseling to the juveniles who score high in the psychopathy checklist youth version is that one is able to know whether or not the behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are attached to the cultural norms and if they are maladaptive and brings discomfort in other people or personal distress. To access disordered thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, clinicians can make observations on the behaviors of people or they may also conduct psychological tests to find if there are disordered thoughts, behaviors or emotions. Since one can determine these factors, it is easy to reduce violence and crime, especially amongst the juveniles.
One of the cons of providing counseling to the children who score high in psychopathy checklist youth version is that sometimes one may display symptoms and yet, in reality, one is not experiencing a psychological disorder. Some of the common character traits which are common to psychopaths such as defying the authority are also common to the other adolescents in different degrees. Just like the psychopaths cheat and do not show any remorse or empathy under different circumstances, many adolescents also exhibit similar character traits even those who are not psychopathic or criminal offenders. While counseling is important in getting to know the character traits and determining ways of getting solutions, it may also bring out symptoms which do not reflect the reality of the situation. Also, providing counseling to all children regardless of their history in crime would be unnecessarily expensive because not all children who have psychopathic traits turn out to be criminals in their adult lives.
Question 2. Personality traits tend to stay relatively stable over time and across situations. Discuss the possibility of psychopathic tendencies in children and adolescents remaining through adulthood and resulting in criminal activity.
According to the diathesis-stress model, people are predisposed to developing a psychological disorder. Additionally, environmental factors such as childhood trauma influence the future development of psychopathic traits. There is also a biopsychosocial approach including psychology such as emotions and thoughts, biology such as brain functions and social-cultural factors such as the economic status of an individual. People with antisocial personality disorder manifest character traits which are not socially acceptable and often find themselves committing acts of violence without feeling empathetic or remorseful. The environmental risk factors such as low economic status tend to influence the possibilities of juveniles having psychopathic tendencies remaining with similar traits throughout adulthood and getting into criminal activities. When psychopathic traits persist in an individual, it may be because of the environment in which the individual grows or because of the vulnerabilities of the individuals such as poverty. Managing certain environmental factors can help in improving the disorder. However, if the environmental factors are not managed, then the disorder may persist into adulthood. Children who exhibit psychopathic traits should be closely monitored by their guardians who should also be given training and counseling on how to stay with such children.
