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Using the DSM-IV-TR. Of course, we don't call them psychopaths or sociopaths anymore. We call them individuals with 'antisocial personality disorder' which may be a tad misleading as people we'd call sociopaths/psychopaths do not neccesarily appear to be antisocial. There are more folks out there who suffer from this disorder than one might think; it doesn't always manifest as violence. There are plenty of ways to be a manipulative mastermind without breaking any laws or killing someone. Most characteristic is that these folks have an odd way of designating responsibility. Namely, it's never their fault. It's always the other person's fault. Or if it is their fault, they are completely and utterly guiltless. They literally don't have a conscience like most of us do.

So watch out for folks who don't take responsibility for their own actions (which INCLUDES how your actions effect others around you). Also watch out for people who play the 'poor me' routine. It's an easy method they use to manipulate people into doing things for them.

I'm really interested in how people develop antisocial personality disorder in the first place...

-raises her hand- I do, through the university here. I find PSYCHarticles to be somewhat more useful, then again, I also use Google Scholar, so yeah.

Anything I can help with?