The nature vs nurture debate has been in motion for decades, looking at the true origins of how some people are psychopaths when others are not. In this essay, I will explore whether psychopathy is a predisposed trait, or caused through upbringings containing trauma, learned behaviors that caused the development of psychopathy ‘ or perhaps, a combination. The neuroscientist Dr. James (Jim) Fallon’s experiment suggests that there is not one clear answer for this debate, similar to the hypothesis of the Diathesis-Stress Model. His research indicates that the brain varies from neurotypical people to psychopaths, therefore indicating they are born this way. However, in the trialing of this hypothesis, he discovered his own brain had the same abnormalities as prosecuted psychopaths, yet he showed minimal symptoms of psychopathy due to his ‘normal’ childhood. Thereby implying that psychopaths need a physical emotional push to be made into a psychopath. This idea is enforced by the Diathesis-Stress Model, a theory that proposes that disorders develo
p from a biological genetic predisposition that once it is combined with stressful events causes the full development of said disorder. Alongside James Fallon’s research that deals with questions regarding predisposition versus upbringing, other scientists’ studies (for example Dr. Kent Kiehl ) have also indicated a psychopath’s brain function and structure differs from regular brains. Murderers such as John Wayne Gacy, Brian Dugan, Ted Bundy, and Ed Rein have had varying upbringings which led to their actions in later life. Dugan’s brain has also helped to prove there is a combination of the two facts, born and made, Dr. Kent Kiehl showed that Dugan’s brain had abnormalities in his structure, not only this but his parents were alcoholics giving Dugan a challenging childhood too. Alongside Fallon’s research proving both born and made, there are other serial killers (like Dugan) who have proved that the answer is not definitive. Therefore, there is no single answer to this question as it is likely to be a combination of both born and made.