Terrorism is the use of force by various groups with intentions of changing different aspects. By doing so, most terrorists target the civilians, who emerge to be the immediate victim of a terror attack. Importantly, most people result in terror activities when they are in desperate urge for something that cannot be granted through conventional means (Ferguson, Burgess, & Hollywood, 2015). Besides that, most terrorists appear not to suffer from mental illness. Most terrorists are not psychopaths but instead their childhood experiences and histories have played a significant role in bringing trauma in the mind of a terrorist. In addition to that, most terrorists have themes of perceived humiliation and injustice conducted towards them. However, the factors mentioned above do not give the actual reasons behind terrorist activities. The belief of most terror groups is based on various ideologies that justify certain violent acts. Such beliefs could be absolute since most of the behaviors are seen to serve an exact cause. However, there must be something wrong with the terrorists that would require psychological assistance. Terrorists could be either suicidal or psychopaths, who have no moral feelings or emotions for others. Thus, this paper seeks to determine the psychology of terror. It is important to consider that terrorism would have been a minor problem if the terrorists would be psychopaths. However, it is critical to face the fact that even ordinary people could result to terror under different circumstances.
Methodology
In this research, government archives, as well as research studies, have been used to generate the hypothesis and support them with facts from the sources listed. Several types of research have been conducted to show the psychology of most terrorists. In the study books, various approaches to determining the behavior of terrorist groups include the multi-causal approach, political and psychological approach. However, limited research has been conducted on the mental approach since most of the scholars focus on the social, political, as well as, the multi-causal approaches. In this study, government archives have also been used to show the characteristics of many terrorists and their causes into engaging in the extreme acts.
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Literature review
Different approaches can be used to identify and determine the behavior of terrorists. First, the multi-causal approach is a significant factor in the study of terrorist behavior. Terrorism can result from various multi-causal factors that may not be necessarily psychological but could also be economic, sociological, religious and political factors as well. Thus, this shows that terrorism of a multi-causal ordeal hence could be difficult to analyze it from one point of view. According to Gavrilov, & Tolmach, (2016), the factors that lead to political violence and revolutions are practical factors bringing about terrorism in a state. The political approach is another alternative to the hypothesis that a terrorist is born with various personal traits that play a significant role in changing their behavior. However, the political approach suggests that terrorism can emanate from different factors of the environment. Both the international and the national phenomena offer a favorable ground for terrorist activities whereby most individuals get to know the various revolutionary ideas leading to their incorporation into other radical groups.
The political approach tends to divide the preconditions into various permissive factors and situational factors. The permissive factors stimulate the strategies of a terrorist making it alluring to political nonconformists while the direct situational factors play a significant role in the motivation of terrorist behavior. Some of the permissive causes include factors such as urbanization, the transportation system, availability of weapons, as well as, the lack of security measures. On the contrary, a situational factor could be the loss of the native homeland of the fundamentalist groups hence resulting in the increase of terror groups. Importantly, various examples of the international and national theories that explain terrorism include the hypothesis of the global environment that stipulates that the failure of the rural guerilla movements played a significant role in pushing rebels into the cities.
The organizational approach is the third methodology that can be used in the study of the psychology of the terror groups. According to Gavrilov, & Tolmach, (2016), a terrorist is a rational strategic that takes a various course of action that has been decided by a group. In most cases, one individual does not carry out terrorist acts but instead groups holding similar beliefs conduct them. However, a commitment level is required for one to join the terror groups. Before any terrorist attack is committed or planned for, there has to be a former decision maker in the group, who often acts as a source of motivation for the terrorists. A single leader often dominates some terror groups such as cults. However, it is improbable to determine if the terror groups of the dominating leaders tend to make their decisions in a collective manner. However, in most cases, a head of a terror group tends to give instructions to their subjects. In some cases, they seek advice from the junior people but are responsible for the final decision.
In the physiological terror approach, the role of the media in promoting the spread of terrorism is used as a primary factor leading to terrorism. The media coverage has played a significant role in making known the goals, method, and demands of a terror groups to the potential terrorists. As such, they may be inspired to imitate the terrorist acts leading to the formation of terror groups. One can take a physiological approach to explaining terrorism. For instance, three substances are produced in the body when a person suffers from stress. One norepinephrine is a compound formed in the body of a person that is generated by the adrenal glands leading to fighting or flight. The second substance produced in the body is the acetylcholine, which is produced in the nerve endings and plays the role of dampening the high responses of the norepinephrine. Lastly, endorphin is generated in the brain and often leads an individual to respond to stressful activities and narcotize the brain as well. In most cases, the substances and hormones mentioned above occur in terrorists showing that the behavior of terror groups is rooted in physiological factors rather than psychological factors due to the agitated response of body tissues.
However, this paper focuses on the mental approach towards terror, a subject that has been ignored and overthrown by most scientists and sociologists that have their interests based on both the social and political contexts. The psychological approach used in this paper will focus on the personalities, motivations, attitudes, beliefs, as well as, the recruitment process and induction into terror groups. According to Gavrilov, & Tolmach, (2016), a psychology of the terror can best be analyzed through focusing on the various sources of motivation for a terrorist. The study draws in the psychology discipline to make multiple attempts explaining the motivation of terror and answer questions such as what kind of individuals are prone to induction into terrorist activities. Despite the numerous attempts describing terrorism from a psychiatric point of view, Abrahms, (2015) indicates that the disciplines have not been explored fully.
Under the psychology of terrorist study, Abrahms, (2015) stipulates that most of the terrorist suffer from a personality disorder by focusing on the causes of motivation to join a terror group and commit violent acts. In most cases, individuals participating in a terror groups are unemployed and are alienated from the society since a substantial number of them are school dropouts. According to Abrahms, (2015), a terrorist with a lower education tend to join terror groups due to boredom. Besides that, other people may be motivated to adhere to the terror groups due to some unique skills that they have such as the art of making bombs. The more educated people also accede to the terror groups due to the religious, as well as, political convictions. In the western countries, terrorists are idealistic and intellectual as well.
Abrahms, (2015) found out that the psychology of a terrorist group depends on the typology of the group. For instance, a person joining a terror group would lack social support while that person joining religious groups would have respect and social support as well. According to Liu, & Woodward, (2013), most terrorist adhere to the terror groups through what he refers to as the “personal pathway model.” Some of the components of this model include escalatory events, police confrontation, connections to other fundamentalist groups, and narcissistic injuries. The model suggests that the terror groups come from a population that is at risk. Moreover, the people joining the terrorist groups have persevered early damage in their lives leading to a loss of self-esteem. The political activities and beliefs of the terror groups tend to be consistent with the social philosophies of their respective families. Besides that, the political beliefs in families play a significant role in sensitizing individuals to respond to the economic and political tensions facing them by joining the extremist groups. The need to belong to a particular terror group is psychosocial and may result in frustrations. Notably, in the developing world, most terror groups are recruiting young members who have no option but look to them as role models.
According to Liu, & Woodward, (2013), a person committing abhorrent terror acts is abnormal and has a metal problem. A terrorist committing crimes such as planting a bomb in an airliner or mortal terror has a personality disorder. In most cases, a terrorist is considered to be mentally ill or as a fanatic. Liu, & Woodward, (2013) stipulate that terror results in cruelty that tend to emanate from fanaticism. The mentally unstable persons have been involved in terror acts such as hijacking a plane and suicidal bombing. A study conducted by Post, McGinnis, & Moody, (2014) revealed that most airplane hijackers have similar traits such as they have had a violent parent, are shy sexually, are alcoholic or have a holy mother. Therefore, this shows that personality disorder is a psychological disorder that most terrorists portray.
Several cases of mentally ill terrorists have been certified. For instance, Halus Junschke was a mentally ill patient who was a member of a terrorist group in Germany. Some political terrorists have also displayed mental psychopathy (Post, McGinnis, & Moody, 2014). For example, Nezar Hindawi, a member of terrorist groups in Syria sent his pregnant girlfriend to an airliner in Israel with luggage that had a bomb hidden at the bottom. The aim of Hindawi was to bomb the airliner, but it was not successful since the security personnel of the airport detected the bomb. A case of mental psychopathy is shown whereby the terrorists wanted to kill his fiancé together with their unborn baby. Further, Post, McGinnis, & Moody, (2014) indicate that the reasoning of a terrorist emanates from their psycho-logic. He suggests that terrorists do not engage in the terror act intentionally but rather they are coerced by certain circumstances. In addition to that, he argues that political terror groups commit the violent acts due to the drive by psychological forces. However, the argument may not be convincing enough since it ignores the motives of an individual to join a terror group. In addition to that, according to Moskalenko, & McCauley, (2011), terrorists emerge from a breed of persons that are bred to hate from one generation to another. Among such terrorists, ethnic hatred is in their blood hence rehabilitating them would not be a solution.
Contrary to that, Moskalenko, & McCauley, (2011) indicates that most fundamentalist groups act in retaliation to the real, as well as, the possible imagined hurts directed towards their society. Thus, this suggests more conflict and psychopathy that is oriented towards the destruction of a community. In the German scenario, for example, most of the terrorists belonging to the Baader-Meinhof Gang constitutes of children raised without a father whereby their parents were killed during the Nazi regime (Moskalenko, & McCauley, 2011). Most of the individuals in that terror groups loathed their parents with claims that they were defeated in the Nazi regime leading to defeat in Germany. Therefore, this shows the fact that most terrorists do not act because they are not political but instead they are driven by various psychological disturbances that have caused a personal disorder among the individuals.
Discussion
No individual has the guts of waking up in the morning and decide that they would join the jihadists that particular day. The factors that lead the ordinary people to indulge in abhorrent acts are gradual, and at times, they may be imperceptible to an individual. In most cases, terrorists kill for the same reasons with other fundamentalist groups. Most extremist groups die due to various reasons that result in promoting of comradeship among them. Importantly, cause that is worth dying or killing for is entirely personal, a worldview linking the sense of life and death to various form of immortality. It not only a terrorist who believes in life after death but also an average person believes in something that is more significant that life. Humans know that at some point, they would perish and die. As a result, a person requires something that would make their death different from that of other animals. The closer the death of a person is the need for groups that are significant in giving meaning to both life and death.
Most psychologists have recognized two forms of aggression that includes the emotional, as well as, the instrumental. Anger is the primary factor that results in emotional aggression, and it often does not consider the long-term consequences. Emotional aggression, an attitude portrayed by most terrorists, is a personality disorder whose rewards are hurting an individual who has caused harm. On the contrary, instrumental assault involves a series of calculation. For those making the killing, instrumental aggression often includes some instances of emotional aggressiveness while those who plan for the war focus on their goals. The aim of the instrumental aggression is to increase the costs incurred by an enemy to reconstruct themselves, as well as, their community.
Terrorism inflicts damage to the immediate society through the destruction of material and lives. In all the terror acts, most individuals perpetuating the violence hope for long-term costs in a particular victim country. Moreover, the aim of most terror groups is to inflict fear on the victims and their surroundings. Moreover, the target of the extremist groups is to ensure that the victim country spends time and money in maximizing their security detail. Thus, this shows that the terror groups work towards laying massive taxes on every aspect of a society thus transferring a country’s resources from being productive to unproductive security measures. The costs incurred in improving the security are likely to be high in developed countries such as the USA that is prone to high losses and economic recessions in the case of a terror attack.
Further, terrorists aim at the soliciting violence that would help in creating the mobility of their people. In most cases, terror groups are voices of their sympathizers and supports that are underrepresented in various states. The pyramid’s base consists of the sympathizers that have a terrorist cause despite the fact that they may not agree with the violent means used by terrorists (Abrahms, 2015). For instance, the violent extremist attacking the United States of America are backed up by supporters agreeing with the fact that the USA government has been humiliating and hurting Muslims for the last half a century. The pyramid that consists of both the supporters and the sympathizers are critical in allowing the recruits of the ordinary people into the extremist groups.
Stereotyping and prejudice directed towards the Arabs and the Muslims in the USA will shift from being sources of help to sources leading to increased terrorism. Importantly, the terrorist groups take the rudeness and hostility subjected to most Muslims in the USA as good news. In most cases, victimization is encouraged by acts of profiling and the infringement of rights among the Arabs and the Muslims. For instance, the Muslims that were put to jail after the 9/11 attacks that occurred in the USA are likely to avenge once their incarceration period is over. Thus, terror groups are easily angered, and most of them are out to destroy peace and unity in a state whereby the Muslims and Arabs are treated unfairly. Notably, most terror groups emerged due to globalization that has been viewed as a threat towards the Arabs. Most extremist groups feel that their culture is headed for extinction due to factors such as globalization and westernization as well. Thus, this has led to increased actions by most terror groups hindering a successful globalization in a region.
As seen, this paper has focused on various psychological factors that contribute to terrorism. Most terror groups work towards disrupting the peace in a country leading to increased war. The paper focuses on two types of aggression that leads to greater terror acts that include both the emotional, as well as, the instrumental form of assault. Besides that, narcissistic rage has been focused on whereby most terrorist’s actions emanate from the suffering of most of the Muslims and Arabs in the western countries. The attitude of terrorists while carrying out their terror acts are aimed at revenge and creating massive destruction that would cause a victim state to incur enormous costs in the process of reconstruction. The paper has also shown that the people joining the terrorist groups have persevered early damage in their lives leading to a loss of self-esteem. The political activities and beliefs of the terror groups tend to be consistent with the social philosophies of their respective families. Besides that, the political beliefs in families play a significant role in sensitizing individuals to respond to the economic and political tensions facing them by joining the extremist groups. The need to belong to a particular terror group is psychosocial and may result in frustrations. Notably, in the developing world, most terror groups are recruiting young members who have no option but look to them as role models. Besides that, the sympathizers and the supporters of the terror groups form the basis of recruitment of the ordinary people into the fundamentalist groups. Thus, this shows that most terrorists’ actions are influenced by various factors of their personalities.
References
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