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Lecture notes: PS1810: The Psychology of Terrorism
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Semester 1 PS1810 notes. Written in 2020/21
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PS1810 – Week 4 – The Psychology of TerrorismDefinitions
Terrorism = Comes from the Latin ‘terrere’ deliberate & systematic violence performed by a
small number of people (e.g. IRA, ETA, FLN, ISIS)
Mass communal violence = spontaneous & sporadic violence, requires mass participation
Guerrilla warfare = military activity
Genocide = elimination of entire communities (e.g. Rwanda, Bosnia)
Purpose of Terrorism
Intimidate a watching popular audience by harming only a few
Violence against innocent people to intimidate or coerce a government or civilian people to
accept the demands of an ideology or a cause
But evidence shows it rarely achieves its goals (English, 2016)
Types of Terrorism
Social-Revolutionary Terrorism
National-Separatist Terrorism
More recently narcoterrorism, cyberterrorism & ecoterrorism (Crenshaw, 2000)
Social-Revolutionary Terrorism:
Rebellion against their parents’ generation: responsible of their failures & problems
Aim: to overthrow capitalism & social order
Examples: Red army Faction (Germany), Red Brigades (Italy)
Nationalist-Separatist Terrorism:
Aim: establish a new nation based on homogeneity
They carry on the mission of their parents
Loyal to their parents & disloyal to the regime
Examples: ETA (Spain), PIRA (Northern Ireland)
Religious Fundamentalism:
Aim: to expel the secular west with its corrupt values
Crucial role of the leader
Examples: Al-Quaeda, ISIS, Sikh radical groups, Jewish groups
Psychology & Terrorism
Research started 1970s
Challenges:
- Defining the concept
- Collecting empirical data
- Building an integrative theory
- Avoiding attribution of terrorism to personality disorders or irrationality
Problems of Researching Terrorism
Lack of extensive primary data
Hypotheses: based on speculation or very small number of cases
Interviews with terrorists
Psychology & Terrorism
Terrorism: a behavioural phenomenon (Kruglanski & Fishman, 2007)
A diverse and complex phenomena: no overarching psychological explanation
Each terrorism must be understood on its own (Post, 2005)
Social psychology (Post, 2005)
Terrorism must be examined from a social psychology perspective
Group & organizational psychology perspective
Emphasis on collective identity
Of special relevance is the study of the leader
How to fight terrorism from a psychological perspective?
, Once in very difficult
But need to make leaving easy
Stop potential recruitments
Education programmes
Role of the media & social media (Post, 2005)
Prevention:
Identify individuals at risk of terrorist behaviour before they join
Need to understand contributing factors of terrorism to be able to prevent it
Agencies: police, education, health, youth services
Risk assessment:
Prevention of violent radicalization
Identify individuals who are at risk of radicalization before it happens
Risk factors? Readiness to use violence, capability to cause harm, distancing from family &
friends, change in persona, isolated peer groups, hate speech, political & religious activism
Intervention:
Once identified individuals are subject of interventions
Lack of empirical evidence that interventions work
Growing evidence that community-based interventions can change pro-violence beliefs &
attitudes
Deradicalization:
Need to make leaving terrorist organisations possible
How does terrorism work?
Assumptions:
- World is a good place
- Life has a meaning & purpose
- Everyone is valuable & worthy
Terrorism alters all 3 assumptions
Psychological weapon that depends upon communication a threat to society
“Theater-of-Terror Metaphor” (Weimann & Winn, 1994)
Message aimed at the people watching (Jenkins, 1975)
Terrorists need the media
All activate terrorist groups are present in the internet
Relation between terrorism and the internet:
- A forum for terrorist to spread their message
- Cyberterrorism
Consequences of terrorism
Terrorism can have a major impact on people’s mental health
PTSD:
- First recognized in soldiers & later in victims of traumatic events
- Affects direct and indirect victims
- Fear: change behaviours and strengthen resilience
- PTSD prevalence: 7.5-50%
Less evidence about intermediate and long terms effects
PTSD:
Start within 3 months of traumatic event, but may not appear until years after the event
The symptoms cause significant problems in social or work situations and relationships
PTSD symptoms:
- Intrusive memories
- Avoidance
- Negative changes in thinking and mood
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