Psychosocial development and the gradations of evil scale in relation to male and female serial killers
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Authors
Valle, Berenice F.
Issue Date
2016
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Erik Erikson , Eight stages of psychosocial development , Dr. Michael Stone , Gradations of evil scale , Psychopathic serial killers
Alternative Title
Abstract
There is an age-old debate over whether killers are born evil or whether their environment makes them that way. Many theories attempt to explain the cause of criminal behavior. One prince theorists, Erik Erikson introduced the notion that who a person is, changes and evolves over time. Erikson was better known for his eight stages of psychosocial development. According to Erikson, resolving each dilemma creates a new balance between a person and the social world (Coon, 1995, p. 414). On the other hand, there are also those that categorizing and profile killers. Such is the case of the renowned psychiatrist Dr. Michael Stone. He created a scale which can be used to measure and categorized killers on levels of evilness. The gradations of evil scale is made up of 22 levels. Together these two models will try to support or reject the notion that the most evil psychopathic serial killers are stuck at a certain level of their psychosocial development.