Blog #6: Reflection
a. What challenges did you overcome throughout this inquiry project? How did you go about
overcoming these challenges?
Throughout this inquiry project, some challenges I had encountered were the lack of information and clarity on specific topics. For example, how much genetics influence the occurrence of psychopathy. While I did find several articles and journals on this, it was hard to comprehend and express the ideas in simpler words. The information was very detailed, but not a lot was useful to my particular topic. I tried my best to pick the parts that were relevant to my topic and crossed checked with other resources, and then put it in easier words. I had to make sure I was understanding the information right, as it is quite a complicated topic. Another challenge was keeping this topic interesting. Since psychopathy and sociopathy are heavy topics, I tried to shorten my posts so it would be an interesting read. I also tried to simplify the information, so it would be easier to understand, both for myself and others.
b. How did this inquiry change the way you think?
I used to think of psychopathy and sociopathy as 2 different topics. But after doing this inquiry, it’s clear to me that they’re closely related, but sociopathy is more environmentally influenced. I understand that there are genetic components to illnesses and that this is not an easy illness to treat. I learnt that psychopathy is more genetically based, and it makes me sad thinking that people could be born with the illness just like that. It’s pretty much a chronic illness. I think we need more education on people with these anti-social personality disorders. A majority of our society seems to think that they’re bad people, but really they’re just like any other person suffering from a mental issue. Another thought I had was that psychopaths could technically make more difficult choices which empathic people struggle with not because they’re ‘fearless’ or ‘heart-less’, just because they struggle with a genetic defect.
c. How did this investigation impact your future decisions?
I want to further study these anti personality disorders in hopes of one day, more people can understand the social phenomena like empathy, or the lack thereof. Sometimes, they just can’t control it as they’re born with these genetic ‘flaws’, and it motivates behaviours like aggression. A thought that I would keep in mind is that ASPD is very hard to spot, and if someone’s struggling to understand other’s feelings or struggling to be affectionate, it doesn’t mean that they don’t care, it’s just that they’re born to be like that and I should try to understand their point of view and not judge them based off their actions. I think this applies to a lot of other things too, it’s important that we don’t judge people just based on their initial actions, because there’s usually a logical explanation behind it.
d. What impact will this investigation have on others locally and/or globally?
This research could urge people to think about things in perspective. As I mentioned, they’re unable to express their feelings and feel empathic towards others. That doesn’t make them a bad person, and we should at least try and understand why they’re acting the way they are without making them out to be a bad person. That doesn’t mean that we should use ASPD as an excuse for immoral behaviours, but we should at least try to understand that they’re suffering too, and I think this applies to a lot of cases in our society as nothing is as it seems.