Conscience Operation in a Normal Population

Abstract

This paper started with a survey of some of the theories on the etiology of psychopathy, and our purpose in this project was not to test out various hypotheses on psychopathy, but rather to look at the other side of the problem. If the psychopath has a weak or inadequate conscience, then how does conscience operate in non-psychopathic individuals? The result showed that about 20% of the deterrent of conscience operation is reflexive, about 20% is because of identification with others, 15% due to fear of punishment, and the rest (45%) is comprised of such categories as ‘validity of achievement’, etc. In the findings reported in this article, we have supported to some extent Diamond's claims that identification plays a large part in conscience operation, but we found that there are many other dynamically integrated factors making for the successful socialization of non-psychopathic individuals. The cost to the individual in terms of early punishment in learning to be social, and the anxiety caused by the conscience factor could not be measured by our survey, but there is evidence of moral pride in behaviour which is consistent with early training, and satisfaction in doing what is ‘right’, e.g. validity of achievement. There is no way of knowing how a psychopathic population would have answered the questions on the survey, but from a study of the literature on psychopathy we could speculate with some assurance that the picture of the results would have been very different from those we obtained. In conclusion we can say that, in contradiction to many criticisms of the untestability of psychoanalytic theories, hypotheses and suggestions for research can be derived from these theories and put to the empirical test to further knowledge in the area of personality dynamics. Very little empirical research has been devoted to the study of the normal, and this study has been an attempt to remedy this deficiency in a small way.