Nava 1

Hector Nava
Zack De Piero
Writing 2
Psychopaths 101: Ways to Identify Them
When you hear the word psychopath you probably think about an adult, someone who
you would classify as a dangerous, emotionless, secluded person who is likely to do harm onto
others. But would you also think about childrenyoung children like ages 8, maybe even
younger? Probably not, but psychopathy is a very controversial topic, especially when it comes
to claiming that children can be classified as psychopaths. There are many known links between
psychopathic tendencies and brain receptors, abuse or maltreatment, and even genetics that can
be considered as early indicators of psychopathy. Because of such links, there are many different
ways to approach the study of what could be early indicators of psychopathy. A few such
approaches could be form the view of a chemist, psychologist, or even an everyday person; each
view having their own take on presenting the information and style of writing, allowing different
audiences to be informed more effectively.
The three different article used here to identify the differences were from a psychological
point by Kolla, chemistry/neuroscientist view by Dadds, and a journalist look by Kahn. Kolla
focus on how maltreatment/abuse of children could be linked to psychopathy; Dadds looks into
how oxytocin levels could be a key identifier in psychopathic tendencies, and Kahn writes about
her interactions with a child who be called a psychopath and how it could be due to his genes.
The first article, Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?, written by Kahn, recounts the
time Kahn spent with Michaelthe 9-year-old psychopath. To begin, Kahn is writer for The

Nava 2

New York Times Magazine. Kahns article is not a scholarly one and this is clear as she uses the
researcher Dan Waschbusch whenever she is trying to analyze Michaels behavior. This is move
called the Whats up Doc?, because Kahn cant make her own analysis of Michael because she
does not have the right credentials to be assessing people. Being written on a popular news
magazine and having the title it does, this article is clearly meant be addressed to parents who
have very troubling children that might show signs of conduct problems and callous-unemotional
(lack of empathy). Here is another move used by Kahn called the I know what Im talking about.
This move is characterized by the usage of some jargon from the psychological department,
which makes the article sound more scholarly than what it really is, allowing for the audience to
perceive that Kahn can be trusted when it comes to writing about this topic.
Since Kahns article is not a scholarly one, it is part of a completely different genre giving
it a different structure. Kahn present her article more like a story recounting her time spent with
Michael. This style of writing is important because it allows us non-researchers to able to get
insight into the topic of psychopathic tendencies while keeping what is presented in a fashion
that is easy to digest and understand. The story aspect of the article also allows parents, the
intended audience, to relate more easily to what is being studied. The article is meant to
address the question presented in the articles name, but Kahn does not give a clear answer to her
question. This is a big flaw in her part because it leaves the reader wondering the answer, only
being able to assume that the answer is yes because of all the information she gave regarding
how Michael never changed an only got worse as time went on. Kahn also includes quotes from
other neighbors, teachers, and others who know Michael, which are just meant to prove that
Michael is a troublesome child. Overall Kahns article is just a story about the young Michael
and Waschbusch views of children being psychopaths. Kahns might be considered decent with

Nava 3

normal people, but when being read by a researcher it would be seen as inadequate because of
the information given.
The second article, Childhood Maltreatment and Aggressive Behaviour in Violent
Offenders With Psychopathy, by Kolla, a psychologist, is a straight forward article regarding
connection between childhood maltreatment and psychopathy. The straightforwardness of this
article is useful because it presents the information directly to the audience allowing them to find
what they are looking. To answer this question, Kolla uses a, sample included 10 violent
offenders with ASPD+P, 15 violent offenders with ASPD-P, and 15 non-offenders, (487). The
subjects with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) were classified as either psychopathic (+P)
or not psychopathic (-P). From the analysis of these people, Kolla attained the necessary first
hand experiences, stories of personal childhood maltreatment, needed to prove her point that
experiencing maltreatment as a child can increase the chances of one having psychopathic
tendencies. Based on this it is clear that Kollas targeted audience would be other researchers
who are trying to identify if there is a much stronger correlation between childhood maltreatment
and future psychopathic tendencies.
Kollas article really has many of the typical conventions found in research articles, but
upon taking a closer inspection, one can notice the main differences between how Kolla presents
the information and how most other research articles present their information, allowing for
Kollas article to stand out from other article of the same topic, but different fieldor even same
field. The first distinction between Kollas article is by her usage of the move called boxes. The
boxes are used throughout the article to present little pieces of information that are important to
understand the articlealmost like side-notes, giving the reader some space to breath and not be
engulfed by all the information being presented to them in the main article. Another noticeable

Nava 4

move done by Kolla is the 1, 2, 3, etc. In this move Kolla present her main points in four short
paragraphsgiving the researchs objective, her methods, the datas results, and her conclusion.
Having these moves such as these are what would help distinguish Kollas article from other
similar articles.
Continuing, the third article, Methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene and oxytocin
blood levels in the development of psychopathy (MORGDP), Dadd's questions how low levels of
oxytocin could be an important determinant in how children could become psychopathic. In this
article, Dadd leaves nothing unaddressed; he includes a lot of information and psychological,
neuroscience, and chemical jargon is used to facilitate clear and precise communication...
(Boyd, 89), between her and other chemist/researchers. Dadd based his article on his study on the
methylation levels of OXTR in 4- to 16-year-old males who met DSM criteria for a diagnosis of
oppositionaldefiant or conduct disorder and were stratified by CU traits and age, (33). Unlike
Kolla who only based her research on behavioral test and stories, Dadd also included blood test
which would give his results more support when it came to analyzing his results. Based on these
two facts Dadd is clearly presenting this article to other researchers.
Dadds article also contains all the general conventions that research articles tend to have,
but like Kolla, Dadd too includes his own takehe adds his own moveson research articles.
To begin his article, Dadd has an abstract in which he presents a couple of sentences giving the
reader some background knowledge on the topic. This move is called the brief and its effective in
giving the intended audience a fast read about what point of the research and the results,
something that Kolla was missing in his article. Following this Dadd goes to give the
introduction, followed by the customary methods, results, discussions. In his article Dadd
includes the 2-in-1. This move represents how Dadd chose to put his datathat of the how low

Nava 5

levels of oxytocin can lead to CU traits which can lead to a higher chance of psychopathic
tendenciesalong-side his text, as shown on pages 36 and 37. This is meant to demonstrate how
the data is not too important when compared to the actual analysis/interpretation of it. By going
into so much depth, Dadd article would stands out demonstrating what a research article should
be like.
When put side to side, the two scholarly articles by Kolla and Dadd have the same exact
structure. Their articles are both organized into four different sections: the introduction, methods,
results, and discussion. Their articles also include jargon, but the difference is that one only uses
psychological terms (Kolla), while the other uses chemistry, neuroscience, and psychological
terms (Dadd). They also present them in different ways. Kolla present her jargon in text-boxes,
while Dadd present them in-text. The jargon and the way it is present affects how reading is
done, and how attitude of the articles tooDadds article seems like its from higher caliber of
writer, while Kolla seems to have just wanted to present the information and make it as concise
as possible. One similar connection between the two of them was how they identified if a subject
could be considered psychopathic. They both did this by giving them a behavioral test and then,
with the DSM V criteria, put them into categories with or without psychopathic tendencies,
meaning that they demonstrated behavior that could be classified as psychopathic. Dadds also
conducted a blood test on participants who met the criteria for CU to identify their levels of
oxytocin. The use of this operational definition is very effective because it gives little space for
the audience to disagree with their methods since the test have been analyzed by many
researchers around the world.
Even though Kahns article is not a scholarly one it still shares some similar aspects to the
scholarly ones. One such similarity could be the referencing to someone who knows more than

Nava 6

she does. Dadd and Kolla frequently include information from other sources, such as the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), or other studies. The inclusion of
such sources provides each piece of writing with ethos because the reader knows that the sources
of information are reliable and have been analyze by many other experts in their respective areas.
Ethos is an important tool used by all of these writers to distinct themselves from others, because
certain sources will influence what they want to present in a more effective way. Another
obvious similarity between the three article would be the use of both ethos and logos, which
function as, artistic appeals, according to Aristotle (Carroll, 58). These artistic appeals
contribute to the attraction of their respective audiences possibly due to the inclusion of certain
people or information. Even while coming from three different perspectives, they all manage to
address the same topic with valuable information.
Although all three articles address the topic of psychopathy in children, they do differ in
how they present the information. As said before the two scholarly articles do have a solid
structure divided into four sections, but Kahns article is very different. Kahns article goes with
an approach by introducing the main child at focus and then giving information about his
character. After this she goes on to give descriptions of the boy through the views of other people
and finally she ends with a quote, which never address the question at hand, can you call a 9year-old a psychopath. Unlike Kahn, the other two articles to answer their respective questions,
and even go onto analyze their methods used and how they could possibly be improved by others
who plan on doing research in a similar topic. An even bigger difference between the two
scholarly articles and Kahns article is the way the data for each was gathered. Dadd and Kolla
both had to set-up a projects and analyze their data for patterns. Kahn on the other hand only

Nava 7

obtained her data by asking questions to other peoplenot people who are able to give
adequate analysis of a personregarding Michael and referring to only expert.
The one benefit Kahn has over the two scholarly articles is that she can use the element
of pathos in here writing. She incorporates pathos in her article my including text such as, She
recalled one argument, over a homework assignment, when Michael shrieked and wept as she
tried to reason with him. I said: Michael, remember the brainstorming we did yesterday? All
you have to do is take your thoughts from that and turn them into sentences, and youre done!
Hes still screaming bloody murder, so I say, Michael, I thought we brainstormed so we could
avoid all this drama today. He stopped dead, in the middle of the screaming, turned to me and
said in this flat, adult voice, Well, you didnt think that through very clearly then, did you?
(Kahn). Having such writing makes the reader feel sad for the parents and be more interested in
her article, while the Dadd and Kolla have to rely solely on the importance of what their research
could possible do to their respective fields.
Even though the three articles may be presenting something on the same topic, they will
all have their own little differences. In this case the topic was: how to possibly identify
psychopathy in children, and the three different articles had three different point of viewsa
psychology view, chemistry, neurology, and psychology view, and a journalist view. They each
presented their information in different ways with little changes that made them standout out and
made their presentation either more or less effective.

Nava 8

Works Cited
Boyd, Janet. Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking). Parlor Press, 2011, Print.
Carroll, Laura. Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis. Parlor
Press, 2010. Print
DADDS, MARK R., et al. "Methylation Of The Oxytocin Receptor Gene And Oxytocin
Blood Levels In The Development Of Psychopathy." Development & Psychopathology 26.1
(2014): 33-40. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 May 2016.
Kolla, Nathan J., et al. "Childhood Maltreatment And Aggressive Behaviour In Violent
Offenders With Psychopathy." Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry58.8 (2013): 487-494. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 9 May 2016.
Kahn, Jennifer. "Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?" The New York Times. The
New York Times, 12 May 2012. Web. 09 May 2016.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/magazine/can-you-call-a-9-year-old-a-psychopath.html?
pagewanted=1&_r=1>.

Nava 9

Writing 2 Feedback Matrix for WP2

Table of Textual Features and Qualities
Did Not
Meet
Expectatio
ns
Thesis Statement
Use of Textual Evidence
from Genres
Use of Course Readings
Analysis
Organization/Structure
Attention to
Genre/Conventions and
Rhetorical Factors
Attention to Moves
Exploration of
Disciplinarity
Sentence-level Clarity,
Mechanics, Flow
Comments and Grade

Met
Expectati
ons
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X

Exceeded
Expectati
ons