Page 488 - Understanding Psychology

Personality Disorders and Drug Addiction
s Main Idea
Personality disorders and drug addiction prohibit normal relationships and nor- mal functioning.
s Vocabulary
• personality disorders
• antisocial personality
• psychological dependence
• addiction
• tolerance
• withdrawal
s Objectives
• Describe how personality disorders
differ from other psychological
disorders.
• Explain how drug abuse is a psycho-
logical problem.
Reader’s Guide
Exploring Psychology
Aimless Crime
On October 7, 1976, Gary Gilmore was sentenced to death by a Utah court after a seemingly purposeless crime spree, and on January 16, 1977, he became the first person to be executed in the United States since 1966. . . . Gilmore had been released from prison only six months earlier, after serving time for armed rob- bery. . . . Gilmore himself described the next events: “I pulled up near a gas station. I told the service station guy to give me all of his money. I then took him to the bath- room and told him to kneel down and then I shot him in the head twice. The guy didn’t give me any trouble but I just felt like I had to do it.”
The very next morning, Gilmore left his car at another service station. . . . “I went in and told the guy to give me the money. . . . [T]hen I shot him. . . .”
—from Abnormal Psychology, 4th edition, by Martin E.P. Seligman, Elaine F. Walker, and David L. Rosenhan, 2000
474 Chapter 16 / Psychological Disorders
Gary Gilmore’s crimes are an example of crime without under- standable motives. During a psychiatric interview, Gilmore observed, “I don’t remember any real emotional event in all my life. . . . When you’re in the joint, you stay pretty even all the time. . . . I’m not really excitable you know. I don’t get emotional” (Rosenhan & Seligman, 1984). For Gilmore, emotions and social rules did not constrain his behavior. This lack of constraint is a sign of a personality disorder, specifically an antisocial personality disorder.