Whats the difference between psychopathy and sociopathy?

Answer 1

Some classifications these are the same or similar, however popular use of these terms in a specialised setting tends to dictate:

• Psychopaths: Are born with psychopathic traits, and are innately unable to feel as a normal person would.
• Sociopaths: Are made - their sociopathy develops as a result of contributory factors during their childhood and early teenage years.

Of course in reality it is unlikely this is as cut-and-dry as that. A mix between predisposition and contributory factors is likely to occur, however, it is also possible that a very emotional person could become sociopathic as their tolerance for emotional damage would be low. It is also possible a person who is innately psychopathic to an extent could also be sociopathic to the extent their limited but existing emotions had been damaged eg. by childhood abuse.

Answer 2

I was told in my master's counseling class - its basically sociopathy is what sociologists call it and psychopathy is what psychologists call it. Either one you pick, the overall idea is highly debated. They are pretty interchangeable but it is also possible to view it from the names themselves. Sociopathy is a pathological hatred and wish to go against society (killing people, maybe to create chaos or to play games with the police, etc.) whereas psychopathy is a pathological hatred against...thing..including people. Which again may involve killing people and messing with them in a cruel manner, both are devoid of empathy or a conscious...see how they're similar!

Sociopaths act less on emotion and more on their form of logic, whereas a psychopaths act more on emotion and impulse.