Chidinma Anunagba

City College of New York

English 21003

Professor Slentz

November 1, 2022

The primary purpose of the study conducted by Lilienfeld, Watts and Smith was to provide a comprehensive overview of the factors causing successful psychopathy and to assess the dissimilarities between prosperous psychopaths and unsuccessful psychopaths. However, the most substantial barrier the authors experienced was describing the rules for success. The article describes success based on long-term and short-term achievements and behaviors that assist either a person or community (Lilienfeld, Watts & Smith, 2015). Psychopathic behavior includes being delightful, eloquent and non-anxiety-ridden. Conversely, psychopaths do not hold any responsibility, are self-absorbed, and remain aimless. Therefore, this opposing mix of characters explains why and how psychopaths can deceive people into believing them. In their article, Lilienfeld, Watts and Smith concentrated on psychopathy and how it can lead to an individual’s achievements. The authors first started by describing the meaning of psychopathy —an extremely delightful individual due to their ability to manipulate others for their benefits, and proceeded into more detail concerning a successful psychopath.

The targeted audience in the article includes both successful and unsuccessful psychopaths. They are informed that successful psychopaths do not support their character apart from other psychopaths, have a different character from unsuccessful psychopaths and are constantly at different concentration levels. In most cases, successful psychopaths are characterized by being more independent and self-determined compared to their unsuccessful colleagues (Lilienfeld, Watts & Smith, 2015). They tend to put more effort into their work, think cleverly and are more frequently manipulative. To research how successful psychopathy is, the authors showed their studies in public areas to observe how individuals appear like jailed psychopaths. Moreover, individuals were studied, irrespective of their position in society, like presidents, for psychology, depending on their traits. In this case, the study can assist the audience in differentiating between successful and unsuccessful psychopaths in the present society. It can also assist in improving an individual’s innovative mind when coming up with new narratives, particularly for authors. Moreover, assessing the achievement of audiences, particularly teenagers participating in sports, education and other essential activities in life, while still evaluating their personality traits, can assist in improving the study to a new area.

The study presented by the authors demonstrated that many individuals possess psychopathic traits but have stayed out of prison. Nonetheless, describing their success was not as expected in the study. For instance, the authors demonstrated that there are numerous successful psychopaths globally. However, it is necessary to conduct additional research to understand the connection between their successes thoroughly (Lilienfeld, Watts & Smith, 2015). The article holds substantial significance in real-world application since it is not aligned with the societal stigma of psychopaths. Additionally, the number of psychopaths who are not in prison is less than those incarcerated. Therefore, it is necessary to perform an additional study to understand the family styles associated with the development of psychopathy since this might be a substantial contributing factor to successful psychopathy. The outcome of the additional study could assist families globally who might be experiencing challenges in bringing up their children with psychopathic traits.

To further gain more knowledge concerning successful psychopaths, the researchers must consider shifting their concentration to adults and other associated external aspects exclusive of the psychological disorders or traits. Even though the authors indicated in the article that there are three decisive aspects for successful psychopathy, it must be demonstrated comprehensively concerning when this probable behavior is likely to begin (Lilienfeld, Watts & Smith, 2015). Teenagers tend to demonstrate psychopathic or sociopathic training early in their life. However, it is necessary to understand the odds of indicating successful or ineffective psychopathy during growth and aging. Additional research would make the topic much more comprehensive and fascinating.

References

Lilienfeld, S. O., Watts, A. L., & Smith, S. F. (2015). Successful psychopathy: A scientific status
report. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(4), 298-303.