Flannery Kuhn Ashlyn Williams English 1102 26 February 2014 Annotated Bibliography Burkley, M. (2009, September 13).

Is dexter a successful psychopath?. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-social-thinker/201009/is-dextersuccessful-psychopath Burkley explains to her readers that the reason people are so fascinated with the show Dexter is because it gives normal people an opportunity to look into the rarely explored minds of psychopaths, including Dexter himself. We hear the term psychopath and automatically associate that idea with an image of a psychopath from a famous movie or television series. In movies they are usually easier to distinguish from ordinary people, however, in real life they are harder to spot. In the article she reads the definition of a psychopath and odds are you know someone or have been acquainted with someone that comes close to the description of a psychopath. So what makes a successful psychopath? Prototypic psychopaths have a hard time showing self-discipline and they often commit major crimes. Due to the severity of the crimes, researchers know very little about successful psychopaths. This is relevant to the show Dexter because he, unlike the other psychopaths out there, comes up with well thought-out plans to perform his work. This article just goes to show that you never know who someone really is or can be. Joy D. Osofsky The Future of Children , Vol. 9, No. 3, Domestic Violence and Children (Winter, 2000) , pp. 33-49 Over the past decade, children have been exposed to violence in their communities, families and quite often the media. According to the National Summary of Inquiry Mortality Data, the homicide rate among young people ages 15 to 24 has more than doubled since the 50s to a rate of 37 homicides per 100,000 people in 91. This violent behavior includes physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, and frequently occurs within U.S. families. Some children are exposed to violence on a daily basis and this included exposure to guns, knives, drugs, and random violence going on in their own neighborhood. Exposure through media has also had a rapid increase. The statistics from American Psychiatric Association bear repeating: The typical American child watches 28 hours of television a week, and by the age of 18 will have seen 16,000 simulated murders and 200,000 acts of violence. Exposure to such things has a significant effect on children during their development and as they form intimate relationships in childhood and throughout the rest of their lives. Like some families, in Dexter, Rita is in an abusive relationship with her husband and she is part of the 25% and 30% of American women that are beaten at least once in the course of intimate relationships. Not only do these actions affect Rita herself, but also her two young children have to witness such a thing. The author adds that the most important protective resource to enable a child to cope

with exposure to violence is a strong relationship with a competent, caring, positive adult, most often a parent (38). Richard D. Allen and William Rosse Children, Youth and Environments , Vol. 14, No. 1, Collected Papers (2004) , pp. 234242 This article explains that children are becoming more vulnerable to the effects of trauma and may need to have specialized interventions during their recovery. Children who are experiencing traumatic events throughout their lives are developing a higher risk for both short-term and long-term negative emotional reactions (Swanson et al. 1996; Nader et al. 1990). Methodology was conducted one week after Hurricane Marilyn in the Virgin Islands on September 15, 1995 and after the data was collected, FEMA center, and DMAT center asked participants to fill out a questionnaire. Each participant was provided a referral for mental health services included specific programs for children that had been traumatized. Through the results, researchers were able to find out that parental stress levels are related to their childrens stress level and this variable may be the more salient variable when studying child stress levels. This adds to my inquiry because traumatic events such as the one shown in Dexter, potentially have a lifetime affect on a child. A child may need to go through months or years of therapy to help cope with the even that has disturbed them. Essentially, it is the parents reaction to trauma that also has a major affect on a child; children pick up on stressful energy of the parent. Esterman, J., & Genius, S. (2012). Nature vs. Nurture. This article talks about the most hotly debated topic in psychology; the influence of character is shown by how a person is raised or by their genetics. In Dexter Morgans case, his adoptive father chose to raise him in a loving home after that traumatic event the created the psychopath we have come to love. Plato, a Greek philosopher alive between 428 and 348 B.C.E., believed that our morality and capability of intelligence was inherited. Shortly after Plato, another philosopher, Aristotle argued that all a human has is not innate, but comes through external experience. We all know the phrase like father like son, or the apple doesnt fall far from the tree and both of these phrases bring up some relation to genetics. So this argument isnt just a matter of how we are raised growing up, our DNA plays a role in the way we are raised as well. The modern-day psychological theory tends to include a rounded amount of nature vs nurture and nonetheless there are distinct differences between the influences of that argument. However, in Dexter, we do not know much about the history of his parents. From the flashbacks throughout the show we are shown clips of his mother as sweet as can be, it was the traumatic event that created his psychosis. *Isabel Santaularia Atlantis, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Diciembre 2010) , pp. 57-71 This paper analyzes how Dexter generates involvement in his serial killer lifestyle and also his heroic demeanor. The genre is indicative of a male-controlled character, which

favors the creation of social contexts that positively evaluate aggression and competitiveness (58). Even though in the series the serial killers so called monstrosity is constructed, his selfsame violence is presented as acceptable to some degree. In some psycho-horror and other serial killer fictions, the serial killers masculinity is related to the preservation of moral values, justice and/or the law. We see that Dexter does indeed have moral values, however they are different than our own he still follows a code, (the code of Harry) to finish what he starts and rid the city of criminal intent. However, is Dexter a villain or hero? He follows both the characteristics of a villain and also a hero. In the pilot to the show Dexter introduces himself as Dexter Morgan. I dont know what made me the way I am but whatever it was left a hollow place inside. People fake a lot of human reactions. And I feel like I fake them all. As the show goes on we feel sympathetic for the way Dexter is and being rooting for him as he chooses his victims. *Grant T. Harris, Tracey A. Skilling and Marnie E. Rice Crime and Justice , Vol. 28, (2001) , pp. 197-264 This article was pretty straightforward about the construct of psychopathy. It talked about the psychological construct and the change that it has gone through over the past few decades. Psychopathy exists in women, men, children, and in all racial and ethnic groups. Since it is a real occurrence, psychopaths comprise a natural class of individuals. It is believed that psychopathys prevalence in the human population is a result of being an evolutionary stable reproductive strategy maintained at relatively low frequencies. This article is important to my topic of inquiry because it relates to the concept of psychopathy and Dexter has an issue with his psychological state of mind. *Lisa Ells Columbia Law Review , Vol. 105, No. 1 (Jan., 2005) , pp. 158-208 This article talks about how psychopaths are hardwired and violate others, even people they are closest with. Those few adults that fit the psychopathic personality profile make up a large population of those in prison. This disorder is supposedly incurable and permanent. Psychiatric intervention can save deviant children. This article argues that psychopathy holds only promise and that the introduction of psychopathy assessments in juvenile waiver decisions is premature and dangerously unreliable. This article is important to my topic of inquiry because it speaks about deviant children and growing up Dexter had difficulties dealing with his mental state and could have been more dangerous that he was. *Gregory W. Stevens, Jacqueline K. Deuling and Achilles A. Armenakis Journal of Business Ethics , Vol. 105, No. 2 (January 2012) , pp. 139-149 Nowadays, successful psychopaths are receiving more attention than in the past. Recently, more attention has been brought to this specific study of psychopathy because these so called psychopaths have somehow struck the attention of the world and how they can go out into the world and live like normal people in everyday life. Although still today, not much is known about these individuals especially their response with ethical

dilemmas in business contexts. I believe that Dexter is a successful psychopath because he manages to maintain a job, which he excelled in, and he also is able to have a relationship with a woman and seemed pretty normal. *Bruce Bower Science News , Vol. 160, No. 8 (Aug. 25, 2001) , p. 117 There are two varieties of psychopaths. Through manipulation and charm they take what they want and do as they please. People with this personality may be put in jail for their actions. In the Journal of Abnormal Psychology researchers report finding that the psychopaths who evade the law may constitute a separate breed of psychopaths. In other studies, psychopaths that have been imprisoned express little emotion when in front of a camera. They either express little emotion verbally or their heart rate increases. They also had trouble planning ahead, thinking flexibly, and controlling their impulses. A study was performed at the University of Southern California and men ages 21 to 45 took an IQ test and a total of 29 volunteers were identified as psychopaths on a self-report questionnaire. The test probed for characteristics such as charm, frequent lying, shallow emotions, impulsiveness, and a tendency toward violent outbursts. This relates to my topic of inquiry because these characteristics are common in a large amount of people in the world. Dexter has many of these qualities. *Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne. (2013, January 15). Childhood trauma leaves its mark on the brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 17, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130115090215.htm It is said that violent adults often have a history of childhood psychological trauma. Some individuals exhibit very serious, physical altercations in a part of the brain. These physical altercations are a direct link between early childhood trauma and neurological changes have been difficult to find, until now. Throughout research, scientists have found that people exposed to trauma in childhood dont suffer only psychologically, but their brain becomes altered and this adds an additional dimension to the consequences of abuse, and obviously has scientific, therapeutic and social implications. Researchers ran tests on rats that had been exposed to psychological stressful situations when they were young. The results led researchers to believe that there was much aggressive behavior when the rats reached adulthood. The scientists also measured changes in the expression of certain genes in the brain.