Dr. Jameca Cooper explains why "antisocial" means two completely different things: in everyday speech, just not wanting to socialize, but in psychology, Antisocial Personality Disorder, a clinical condition marked by violating others' rights and disregarding rules. Using the term loosely creates stigma and confusion.
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Hi, I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper Cooper. Make sure you subscribe to this channel. Today we are talking about antisocial, not antisocial personality disorder only, but the term antisocial. Now, I was talking to my son the other day and he says that many people that he knows, his peers, other students, use the term antisocial in this context. So I don't want to go out with you guys tonight, I'm feeling a bit antisocial. So in layman's terms, people use this, this term antisocial to mean that I don't feel like dealing with people. But in psychology, we use the term antisocial to describe or define a personality disorder. So antisocial personality disorder is its own personality disorder that tends to be linked to some sketchy behaviors and traits, I'll say. So one of the things or criteria that is known to be attached to antisocial personality disorder are things like violating the rights and intentions of others. So being a person that constantly violates other people's rights, being a person that disrespects other people, um, being a person that constantly like just blazes over boundaries. As if they're not there. A person that typically doesn't have much respect for rules. So me as a psychologist, when I think of the term antisocial, I honestly automatically think about antisocial personality disorder. However, when most people use it on a day-to-day basis, when they say antisocial, they mean I don't want to deal with people. These are two very different terms that you need to understand what they mean, and they mean different things in different contexts. So I want to make sure that people understand the difference of the terms. So from now on, when you say, "Oh, that this person is acting antisocial," be clear on what that is. Are you saying that this person is not very social, doesn't want to interact with other people, or are you saying this person is socially deviant? Because those are two different things, and you have to be clear about what you mean and what you say, because it all depends on who the audience is. If you're talking to someone in a professional situation, then they could easily take your words to mean that this person is deviant and maybe psychotic in some other ways, because people also use that term interchangeably. So I want to make sure you understand the difference. The word antisocial means two different things depending on who you talk to. But if you talk to me as a psychologist and you say antisocial, I'm gonna think the person has problems and could need to be in jail. That's my opinion. Um, I want to make sure you understand the difference. I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper Cooper. Make sure you tune in to other videos about personality disorders and lots of other things.
