Running head: FACTORS PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORS OF TERRORISM 1

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FACTORS PSYCHOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORS OF TERRORISM 8

FACTORS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIORS OF TERRORISM Freddie White

American Military University

Abstract

The very being of terrorism and the configuration of terrorists themselves are a forever changing evolving subject of inquisition throughout the globe. Also, during this assignment, the behavioral and psychological factors of terrorism are one of the things that will be described. I will mainly be focusing on the suicide bomber by the name of Asmar Latin Sani, the culprit behind the 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing. Finally, a brief discussion of the psychological and behavioral factors of terrorist organizations will be discussed.

FACTORS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIORS OF TERRORISM

It is a common mistake to believe that all supporters and members of terror acts start out portraying an active role as the ones who are generally mentioned by the media. Most start as just supporters of the Muslim/Islamic movement for the fight against the Christian superpower, also known as the western world.

The convergence of terrorists can range from individuals such as doctors to university professors to the local mailman. A lot of things can be aforementioned for the psychological and behavioral factors of terrorism. Definitely, one thing that cannot be argued is that terrorism brings thoughts of trepidation to many individuals. As acknowledged before, “The West,” with the hope of strengthening Muslim’s influence and power around the globe, It is said that to understand such member falls into two categories, that is the “committed actor” and the “sympathizer.”

You may find yourself asking why individuals suffer from fear at the sounds and sights of terrorism; this process is called psychological behavior. A few of the ways how terrorist and terrorism enroot the psychological behavior of dread in the psyche of individuals is in fostering a sense of being exposed and unredeemable, in showing the sheer incompetence of the authorities or law, destroying a sense of safety and defense, and in inciting abnormal reactions from people and authorities. Terrorists and individuals claiming to be terrorists are also affected by psychological behavior, and Osama Bin Laden made a point to voice his words in saying that in the terrorist group itself, the constituents suffered from a psychological mindset of defeat.

The study of psychological behavior is commonly brought on or brings on another component called behavioral psychology. “It is rather difficult to study the prevalence of psychopathology and

maladaptive personality traits in terrorist populations.”( Borum) Behavioral psychology is stated as to how people retort to a psychological element. In the paragraph above, some examples were discussed in how terrorists and terrorism inculcate the psychological behavior of fearfulness. After a terrorist attack, other than fear, a few behavioral, psychological factors are that the people take themselves from some of their usual vocations while becoming angered, or becoming indisposed. The fear that terrorism instills, as well as these other behavioral, psychological factors, helps with how terrorists communicate and recruit, especially in how a terrorist organization spreads its ideology and gets its message across to society.

Impatient adolescent recruits who do not retain an in-depth understanding of Islam and Islamic views and see their aged leaders as idle men who are not interested in Jihad any more are easily manipulated; this is especially true for individuals such as Asmar Latin Sani. The base causes of systematic terror attacks and extremist movements are backwardness, unfairness, illiteracy, poverty, inequality in politics and tutilage, and the perversion of religious instructions.

In most cases, individuals are motivated to enlist into a terrorist organization by an appetency to use their distinct skills, such as bomb-making and ordnance handling. Indifference, articulate individuals, join terrorist groups in an attempt to express their religious or political views to call for change. Also, people released from being incarcerated may resort to joining a terrorist organization. This was hearsay about some of the prisoners released at Guantanamo Bay.

Even though there are different reasons for joining a terrorist organization, the result of this continuous methodology is that the individual eventually joins a terrorist group. Too often, when terrorism is talked about, it is often thought of as been carried out only by men, but too often, women are left out. Countless women play an essential role in terrorism. The ultimate recognized course of approach to terrorism for female terrorists is through political extremism. An abundance of juvenile Iraqi women was radicalized by Al Queda and later end up joining various terrorist groups and carrying out terror attacks.

In terms of the psychology of defeat, it is a choice utilized by top terrorist organizers who chose to utilize psychology as a way of conquering our nation due to an absence of conventional artillery. They believe that if they could ruin our nation from the inside, that we would leave the Islamic nations. They calculated that we, as a nation, would psychologically flee from the dreadfulness they were inflicting on us. Al Queada’s attempt to destroy the United States of America is an example of how they wanted to overmatch our nation psychologically. They figured by doing so would expose our vulnerabilities by conquering our infrastructure and murdering unjustly. As a result, we would be involuntarily forced to retaliate against them in their nation, and he would then look to annihilate us. They figured they would then cause us to leave his nation as the Russians did, broke and defeated. Once we as a nation had experienced the atrociousness of battle in Afghanistan, they believed that we, too, would depart in defeat—again, just as they had seen in Somalia, and just as they believed it happened in that Asian country, we dare not speak of. In their psyche, they felt that their side was based on brawny moral principles and Islamic beliefs. Their objective was not to dominate our armed forces but rather to decimate our nations psychologically.

There is no absolute answer as to why people commit terror attacks. There are many reasons for their decisions; nonetheless, psychologists and scientists have started to recognize specific customs for them committing terror attacks based on religious or political beliefs, lack of character, or a feeling of belonging. Understanding the psychological behavior of terrorism and the behaviors associated with it may help prevent future terror attacks like the one that occurred on September 11th. Furthermore, in order for extremists to proceed with their cause and increase recruitment, they may turn to various electronic media social systems to promote their cause. We need to use social media to our advantage against the terrorist. Forthcoming psychological analysis of terrorism may shed light on psychological paradigms on individual desires to commit terrorist attacks based on several political and religious convictions.

References Boram, R. M. (2004). Psychology of terrorism. Pages 29 – 30. Horgan, J. (2008). Pathways and Roots to Routes. Victoroff, J (2005). The Mind of the Terrorist

Akhtar, S. 1999. The psychodynamic dimension of terrorism. Psychiatric Annals 29:350-355.